State of the Union August 17, 2011

August 17, 2011 online at www.uawlocal2250.com

Union Meeting is today at 1pm, 3pm, and 15 minutes after the longest first shift line time.

From the Detroihttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gift News: General Motors Co. has leaped ahead of the other Detroit automakers and begun discussing the key issue of flexible compensation with the United Auto Workers, according to multiple sources close to the contract negotiations. With less than a month left before its contract with the UAW expires, they said Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler Group LLC are still working to clear the decks of lesser issues before tackling the big ones of profit sharing and entry-level wages. So is GM, but it reportedly is eager to negotiate its own terms without reference to what the other two companies want. GM North America President Mark Reuss hinted at as much at an industry conference in Traverse City two weeks ago. "We're pursuing common hourly and salary quality rewards for excellence in our negotiations," he said, making it clear that GM wants to tie variable compensation to more than just profits. Reaching an agreement on those metrics will take time. GM would not comment on the specifics of the negotiations. "We're working with our partners and in discussion on issues that are important to our employees and the business," GM spokeswoman Kimberly Carpenter said Tuesday. "Talks are progressing." The UAW had no comment. "GM always wanted to be the lead," said Art Schwartz, former GM negotiator and president of Labor and Economics Associates in Ann Arbor. "Companies want to control their own fate." One person close to the talks said the UAW has yet to make its own wage proposal. Talks on new national agreements officially began three weeks ago. Sources say they are proceeding amicably at all three companies. There have been no late-night sessions. "In the early stages, they work on the very tedious work of carry-over language from the previous agreement," said labor expert Kristin Dziczek of the Center for Automotive Research. That includes everything from the definition of an employee, to payroll schedules and compensation for jury duty. The entire text runs hundreds of pages. "They go down every one of them and say, 'Do we still agree on this?'" she said.

From the Detroit Free Press: The UAW’s top Fordnegotiator Jimmy Settles said today that talks with the Dearborn automaker are ahead of schedule and the union has asked all its Ford UAW locals to hold routine strike authorization votes by Sept. 2. “This is something we do every four years,” Settles told the Free Press. “We do this because we have the right to strike. We always do this before the expiration of the agreement. It is nothing unusual.” Settles and UAW President Bob King announced the decision to hold a strike authorization vote Tuesday at a gathering of UAW officials in Chicago. The UAW began negotiations with Ford in late July to replace a four-year contract that expires Sept. 14. For the most part, Settles said negotiations with Ford have been productive but remain in the early stages. “We are ahead of the pace that we have had historically,” Settles said. However, he noted that the two sides have not started talking about major issues, such as expected changes to the profit-sharing formula.

From the Toronto Globe and Mail: Hourly labor costs for General Motors of Canada Ltd. will rise by $14 to more than $70 an hour if a plan for a health care trust is rejected and the auto maker is forced to finance health care costs for its retirees, the Canadian Auto Workers union says. “That will make it very hard to win new investments in GM’s Canadian plants,” warns a leaflet distributed by CAW local 222, which represents workers at the company’s two assembly plants in Oshawa, Ont., and is in favor of the trust. GM Canada would contribute about $2.5-billion to the trust, but would be relieved of any future costs of financing retiree health care. The high Canadian dollar means the costs of producing vehicles in Canada are already the highest General Motors Co. faces around the world, the leaflet from local 222 says. The debate about the creation of the health care trust, which was one of the requirements demanded by the federal and Ontario governments when they contributed $10.8-billion to the GM bailout in 2009, comes as the CAW tries to persuade GM to reverse a decision to close one of the two Oshawa plants in 2013. The union is also waiting for GM to confirm publicly that it will continue to build the Chevrolet Impala in Oshawa when the car is redesigned in 2013. The discussion about the health care plan and whether it will relieve GM Canada of the continuing costs of financing health care for about 30,000 retirees also comes as the U.S. market appears to be slowing. American consumers buy about 80 per cent of the vehicles assembled in Oshawa. “We’re not out of the woods yet,” Chris Buckley, president of local 222, said Tuesday. Current hourly labor costs for active employees – which include wages of about $32 an hour, plus vacations, pension contributions and other benefits – are about $60 at GM’s Canadian operations, Mr. Buckley said. That compares with about $57 (U.S.) at GM’s U.S. operations, according to a presentation CAW economist Jim Stanford made at an industry conference earlier this month.