Auto Union Boss Wants 46% Raise, 32-Hour Work Week in ‘War’ Against Detroit Carmakers

[COdogman]

I would not necessarily blame the teamsters for the collapse but certainly foreshadows a potential outcome if you try to bleed a company that is not currently in a strong financial position.

That is true. But at what point does the company itself have to pay for decades of bad management and poor business decisions? The union had agreed to $5 billion in concessions since the company was on the ropes in the mid 2000s after several idiotic acquisitions they made of other trucking companies.

So their stupid decisions kept forcing them to renegotiate with the union who they ultimately blamed for their stupid decisions. I'm not surprised that's what they want everyone to think, because otherwise they have to answer for their own behavior. Yes, the timing of the union recently refusing to give even more probably was the final nail in their coffin, but this company was run terribly for a long time.

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[Zoidz]

Beyond big raises and a shorter work week, the UAW’s demands include restoring cost-of-living increases, an end to a tiered system that pays new workers less, restoring retiree health care and boosting pension payments.

 

[SANZC02]

That is true. But at what point does the company itself have to pay for decades of bad management and poor business decisions? The union had agreed to $5 billion in concessions since the company was on the ropes in the mid 2000s after several idiotic acquisitions they made of other trucking companies.

So their stupid decisions kept forcing them to renegotiate with the union who they ultimately blamed for their stupid decisions. I'm not surprised that's what they want everyone to think, because otherwise they have to answer for their own behavior. Yes, the timing of the union recently refusing to give even more probably was the final nail in their coffin, but this company was run terribly for a long time.

It was the blocking of the restructuring and then the strike authorization vote that was the final nail for them. That caused the businesses to reroute their deliveries to other carriers dropping orders 80% in a couple of weeks.

That put 22k union workers on the street. The company was on life support for years, so what happened would have happened but probably could have struggled for another year or two keeping those employees working. They then could have worked on a transition plan to wind the company down gracefully, gradually moving the union members to other places. Maybe even finding a sweet spot where the company had a place to survive as a smaller regional carrier.

Throwing 700 million tax dollars out with the dirty bath water hurts as well.

 

[COdogman]

It was the blocking of the restructuring and then the strike authorization vote that was the final nail for them. That caused the businesses to reroute their deliveries to other carriers dropping orders 80% in a couple of weeks.

That put 22k union workers on the street. The company was on life support for years, so what happened would have happened but probably could have struggled for another year or two keeping those employees working. They then could have worked on a transition plan to wind the company down gracefully, gradually moving the union members to other places. Maybe even finding a sweet spot where the company had a place to survive as a smaller regional carrier.

Throwing 700 million tax dollars out with the dirty bath water hurts as well.

It's true - the result didn't help anyone. Lots of lessons to be learned. How they got that loan is beyond me. Somehow it was tied to "national security". Without that they probably would have gone under before now.

 

[NC-Rivian]

It's true - the result didn't help anyone. Lots of lessons to be learned. How they got that loan is beyond me. Somehow it was tied to "national security". Without that they probably would have gone under before now.

Yellow trucking wasn’t the first company to get federal loan guarantees and then go bankrupt. They’re just another name in a long list of favorite companies that were not economically viable.

 

[mkhuffman]

The GNI in China is approximately $12,000 per year. A race to the bottom is also not the answer.

If the unions got out of the way, there would NOT be a race to the bottom. There would be competitive pressures and innovation. Instead, the union it threatening the very existence of our automakers in order to prove they add value, when in reality, the only value they add is to union bosses pocketbooks.

 

[COdogman]

If the unions got out of the way, there would NOT be a race to the bottom. There would be competitive pressures and innovation. Instead, the union it threatening the very existence of our automakers in order to prove they add value, when in reality, the only value they add is to union bosses pocketbooks.

So “union boss pay” is killing the automakers but not executive pay at those companies. Got it

 

[Donald Stanfield]

Yup companies like GM have gotten massive government bailouts already. I hope legacy auto doesn't get bailouts this time. If your company is shit you don't deserve to continue. Yes the union demands are insane and absolutely not justified by the jobs.

Not every job is worth the same sort of money and screwing a car part together on an assembly line is not cutting edge nor is it that high of a skill level required. Robots do most of the complicated manufacturing these days leaving the tasks humans do really easy. Someone compared auto from today vs the "golden age" of American auto manufacturing and that is comparing apples and onions.

Assembly workers of the 50's and 60's were highly skilled machinists who needed to learn tasks that required skill. Today robots running a program a CAD designer made do these sorts of tasks. The job isn't the same anymore. Sure its still work, but paying these people as if they were designing and hand machining space shuttle parts is asinine. With all the mechanical assistance these days the job isn't even extreme in its physicality.

Yet the unions here aren't the only problem. Bloated corporate management has been kicking the can for years of legacy auto. These companies have not innovated or improved or addressed bloat for decades. Their offices are filled with overpaid VPs and other superfluous positions.

In lots of companies positions just continue to be added over the years and no one really looks at workflow. This leads to groups of white collar workers who do little to nothing all day long or in many cases who's jobs actually cause inefficiencies. This is what corporate restructuring actually is. An outside company figures out the work that needs to actually get done and compares that work with the current workflow to see if jobs can be combined or eliminated.

Legacy auto hasn't done anything like this. Their C suite are lazy and uninspired. They don't run their companies with efficiency in mind. So greedy corporate executives taking shortcuts to show growth on a balance sheet today while undermining the long term health of the company were paired with greedy Union bosses doing the same thing just for their workers.

No matter how great a company is you can only bleed it so much. That is where we are at with legacy auto today. They should fail.

 

[Dark-Fx]

It was the blocking of the restructuring and then the strike authorization vote that was the final nail for them. That caused the businesses to reroute their deliveries to other carriers dropping orders 80% in a couple of weeks.

My company only does shipping far smaller than LTL, but UPS is our primary carrier. We were in the process of switching away from UPS because of the contract renegotiation stuff that was happening last month. Ended up not needing to do it, but we were a day away from contacting our customers about changing their shipments to an alternative carrier.

i know someone that worked for Yellow and they are struggling to find employment now.

 

[Trandall]

The problem is as much that the CEO's of the big three auto manufactures make way to much considering how they've positioned their companies as it is the hourly workers making to little.

 

[mkhuffman]

So “union boss pay” is killing the automakers but not executive pay at those companies. Got it

See Donald's post. I agree with all except the "they should fail" part.

I would change it to "they should be free to fail", and government bail outs make it less likely they will do what is necessary to be competitive. GM should have gone into bankruptcy the right way, instead of the government saving them. There still would have been a GM, but it would have been restructured and much more efficient. Instead it got more bloated, and the unions got more powerful.

 

[mkhuffman]

The problem is as much that the CEO's of the big three auto manufactures make way to much considering how they've positioned their companies as it is the hourly workers making to little.

If their pay is based on performance, and they perform, then they are paid what they are worth. And if you want the best person running your company, you have to pay them what other businesses are willing to pay for the same experience, or you won't have anyone at the helm.

 

[COdogman]

See Donald's post. I agree with all except the "they should fail" part.

I would change it to "they should be free to fail", and government bail outs make it less likely they will do what is necessary to be competitive. GM should have gone into bankruptcy the right way, instead of the government saving them. There still would have been a GM, but it would have been restructured and much more efficient. Instead it got more bloated, and the unions got more powerful.

I’m not sure what you are basing that on, but only this year have unions made any gains in their efforts, and most of that is trying to get back concessions they have made in the previous decades. They still have very little power.

If these companies could be trusted to do the right thing there would be no need for unions in the first place. But given the history of labor in the US, it isn’t much of a surprise. When times are good, they spend profits on stock buybacks, executive “bonuses”. When times are bad they blame the unions and claw back anything they can from their workers.

At the time of the 2008 recession and the bailouts, 1 in 8 jobs in the US was directly connected to the auto industry, meaning those people either worked for an automaker or a supplier/ contractor. Allowing them to go under would have likely turned a recession into a Great Depression level event. I wasn’t happy about it either, but action was required.

https://jacobin.com/2021/09/labor-day-chart-union-membership-share-top-10-percent-income-inequality

 

[Trandall]

If their pay is based on performance, and they perform, then they are paid what they are worth. And if you want the best person running your company, you have to pay them what other businesses are willing to pay for the same experience, or you won't have anyone at the helm.

How much has Mary Barra made in the past 5 years including bonus? GM stock is down over 8% in that timeframe. Not sure what metric to use but I'm pretty sure the big three have all lost market share over the past 5 years. Ford stock admittedly increased 25% in the past 5 years but they are not exactly killing it from a quality standpoint as they are routinely the most recalled brand and the EV division is loosing money at a rate nearly as alarming as Rivian. Difference being Rivian IMO has a clearer path to profitability.
I guess if Mary, Jim and Carlos can make the companies perform well while paying their hourly workers 1/450th or .0022% of their salary then I would agree with your stance but if they cannot then their salary should be commenserate.

 

[emoore]

The point of automation should be to make peoples lives easier with more pay. It shouldn't be to line he pockets of the CEO and execs even more. The average CEO pay compared to the average worked used to be around 20 times in the 50s and 60s, 50 times in the 80s. Now it's almost 400 times! It's not sustainable.

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