happy autoworkers- Not so at Saturn

Richard Gibson rgibson at pipeline.com
Fri Jul 10 15:28:41 PDT 1998


They are collecting dues, protecting capitalism, living fairly well, exercising some authority and feeling powerful, investing, building a body of literature to immortalize themselves and controlling labor schools to protect themselves---same old stuff...best r

ps...the union movement wins only a tiny percentage of grievances. In this arena, unorganized folks are sometimes better off--having direct access to courts.

At 03:29 PM 7/10/98 -0500, you wrote:
>On Fri, 10 Jul 1998 SsarahT at aol.com wrote:
>
>>
>> He cited many things wrong at Saturn, including:
>> -mandatory rotating shifts (!!!),
>> -high injury rates of people working the line,
>> -bigtime intimidation if you express opposition to the union/mgmt
company line
>> ("you're not being a good team member'),
>> - union representatives/ stewards who represent 1,000 people (instead of
the
>> standard 250 UAW ratio),
>> - a lot of favoritism,
>> - Saturday work at straight pay,
>> - forced work on MLK holiday,
>> - no full transfer rights to other GM plants (unlike the standard UAW
>> contract),
>> - substandard pension ($250/month if you're at Saturn for less than 25
years;
>> far different than the standard UAW contract),
>> - no grievance procedure, and
>> - employee rights not spelled out in the Saturn contract.
>
>What, exactly, is the UAW doing there? This sounds like a standard
>nonunion shop! There's not even a grievance procedure?!? Why have
>the union at all?
>
>>
>> --- Sarah Luthens (Seattle, WA) ssaraht at aol.com
>
>
>--
>
>Joseph Noonan
>jfn1 at msc.com
>
>
> When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why
> the poor have no food, they call me a communist.
>
> Archbishop Helder Camara
>
>
>
>
Rich Gibson Director of International Social Studies Wayne State University College of Education Detroit MI 48202

http://www.pipeline.com/~rgibson/index.html http://www.pipeline.com/~rgibson/meap.html

Life travels upward in spirals.

Those who take pains to search the shadows

of the past below us, then, can better judge the

tiny arc up which they climb,

more surely guess the dim

curves of the future above them.



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