Both GM and Ford are gearing up to go this route or so I have been told. Daimler Chrysler maybe taking a different route to capture the high end of the auto business; that's a hunch on my part.
Meanwhile, we Steelworkers are having some unpleasantness with Armco steel in Mansfield, Ohio. Armco decided to use scabs and locked-out 650 Steelworkers about 10 days ago. Now things are getting nasty.
Tom
Mark Rickling wrote:
> Lifetime Jobs a Key in Auto Union Talks
>
> By Frank Swoboda
> Washington Post Staff Writer
> Saturday, September 11, 1999; Page E1
>
> By all accounts, contract negotiations in the auto industry are going well.
> So well, in fact, that former United Auto Worker president Doug Fraser
> predicts the new contracts with his old union will be "the richest
> settlement you've ever seen."
>
> Current UAW President Stephen Yokich has done nothing to discourage such
> speculation. Earlier this week he called the first contract proposals from
> DaimlerChrysler AG and General Motors Corp. the most generous he'd ever seen
> in his career with the union.
>
> These are good times financially for the auto industry, and all signs
> indicate the Big Three automakers--DaimlerChrysler, GM and Ford Motor
> Co.--are more than willing to pay for labor peace to keep their plants
> operating.
>
> But, despite the union's potentially strong negotiating position, it may
> have to strike a devil's bargain. Any short-term gains in this year's
> contract negotiations may cost future employment for union members. In other
> words, will the gains of the current work force be paid for by the unborn as
> the auto industry seeks future cutbacks in its work force?
>
> GM has reportedly gone so far as to offer every UAW member with more than 10
> years seniority a lifetime employment guarantee. But that guarantee may not
> cost GM as much as it seems on the surface--and there also may be a catch.
> Under the current contract, GM is required to hire one person for every two
> workers who leave, a ratio that allows it to continue reducing its work
> force. But GM may insist on eliminating or reducing that ratio even further
> in exchange for the job guarantees.
>
> DaimlerChrysler has taken steps to help the union sign up the workers at its
> Mercedes-Benz assembly plant in Alabama, which could give the UAW its first
> major toehold in the South where non-union automakers such as BMW AG, Toyota
> Motor Corp. and Nissan Motor Co. have begun to cluster.
>
> The negotiations may be tougher at Ford. The company says it needs to spin
> off its Visteon parts manufacturing operations over the strong objections of
> the union.
>
> Few familiar with the negotiations believe the union can keep Ford from
> spinning off its parts unit. But the union may be able to convince Ford to
> separate Visteon under the same rules negotiated for union workers at Delphi
> Automotive Systems, the parts manufacturing operation sold by GM last year.
> Under that deal, the new GM contract terms will be essentially extended to
> the new company.
>
> If there is a consensus on the outcome of the negotiations when contracts
> expire at 12:01 a.m. on Wednesday, it would be something like this: a four
> year contract, with 4 percent-a-year base wage increases for at least the
> first three years, a large increase in pension benefits, and a $3,000
> signing bonus.
>
> Beyond the basic economic pattern, each contract will have its own variation
> tailored to the needs of the individual companies. And none is more
> intriguing than reports GM has offered lifetime employment guarantees.
> Although both GM and the union have refused to confirm the reports, sources
> familiar with negotiations said the offer is on the bargaining table.
>
> "It's there if the union wants it," said a source. But he predicted any
> lifetime guarantee would have to apply to all current UAW members, or else
> it would be too divisive. Some labor experts yesterday said that anything
> short of lifetime guarantees to all workers would amount to a two-tier
> employment system similar to the highly contentious two-tier wage systems
> that developed in the 1980s and have largely been abandoned since.
>
> But even if the lifetime guarantee were to be extended to all current
> employees, the impact of such a move would be eased considerably by the fact
> that the UAW work force at GM has an average age of 48 with 23 years of
> service. UAW members can retire with full pension benefits after 30 years of
> service.
>
> GM said there currently are 32,000 UAW workers with 30 or more years of
> service and that the average retirement age is 57. The work force attrition
> rate at GM last year was 6.8 percent.
>
> All of this adds up to a fairly rapid dilution of the lifetime guarantees
> over the next few years.
>
> In the past, the UAW has been highly successful in providing income security
> for its members, even when it couldn't provide job guarantees. Under the
> current contract, for example, even laid off workers were guaranteed 95
> percent of their pay for the life of the union contract. The lifetime job
> guarantees reportedly being offered by GM would not significantly alter that
> pattern. UAW members would be guaranteed employment, but there would be no
> guarantee of the number of jobs in the work force.
>
> At stake in these talks is how many of those with lifetime guarantees will
> be replaced when they decide to retire. That will be the key to the success
> of these negotiations.
>
> Unlike Ford and DaimlerChrysler, which were forced to trim their work forces
> by 50 percent in the face of financial troubles 20 years ago, GM has been
> slowly trimming its work force by attrition or the sale of various
> operations. At the start of the 1990s, GM had 228,065 hourly employees in
> the United States, compared with 148,025 today.
>
> 1999 The Washington Post Company
>
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