Posts tagged defined benefit pensions
Boeing Strike Is a Hot Mess. The Union Has Risk, Too.
October 29, 2024 // “The biggest change I’ve seen [recently] is it’s become cool among younger people to be part of a union,” says Jacobs. “It’s been decades since that’s been true…it’s a form of activism, it’s a form of progressive political behavior and that’s something I’ve never seen before.”
Why the Obama era ‘car czar’ thinks striking autoworkers risk overplaying their hand
October 3, 2023 // Because you have to put the whole thing in context. GM and Ford and Chrysler are doing quite well at the moment. They have cash, they have profits, they have the ability to pay them more, but they also have to compete against other companies. And in the South, you have companies like Toyota and Honda that don't have unions at all. In Mexico, you have workers making literally $9 or $10 a day and are very productive, according to what auto executives tell me. And so, if the Detroit companies have an excessively high burden of wage costs, or fringe benefit costs, then they can't compete. They lose car sales. Ultimately, the workers lose jobs and the jobs move to these other places.
Opinion: UAW veers off the road in demanding more money for less work
September 26, 2023 // Last week, the UAW called for a work stoppage for about 12,700 employees at three U.S. plants. And until the union listed its demands, I had no idea that working five days a week was so undignified. Any union is only as strong as it is reasonable. The UAW – which represents about 150,000 autoworkers – has four major demands. They range from fair to fantastical. It's fair that the union is seeking the restoration of defined-benefit pensions and a rollback of concessions that workers made in 2007 when U.S. automakers were struggling. That is, as long as the union and the workers it represents understand that these things are cyclical and that they may have to make concessions again .
UAW locals get marching orders for strike against Big Three
September 14, 2023 // At 10 p.m. on Thursday, UAW President Shawn Fain announced three locals were selected to start the strike at midnight. Those locals represent Ford Michigan Assembly Plant in Wayne, Stellantis Toledo Assembly Complex in Ohio and General Motors Wentzville Assembly Center in Missouri. For the first time in union history all three companies came to the UAW’s Solidarity House downtown Detroit, Fain said. All three automakers have made multiple counteroffers but none of been accepted. Fain says the companies were slow to come to the table at the beginning of negotiations.
How UAW’s Unrealistic Contract Demands Would Backfire on Union
September 13, 2023 // In the current talks, Fain demanded a 46% increase in base pay for hourly workers. With base wages currently ranging from a reported $17 per hour for temporary workers to $32.32 for top-scale assembly workers, the 46% jump would put the range between $24.82 and $47.18 per hour, or $51,600 to $98,100 a year in annual pay. But that’s just the start. The union is demanding a 32-hour work week, for which workers would receive 40 hours of pay. That’s like paying for five days’ worth of groceries, but receiving only four days of food. The UAW’s “pay more for less” demands would bring the true hourly range for workers to between $31.02 and $58.98 per hour. The median hourly wage for all manufacturing workers across the U.S. is $26.59 per hour. At nearly $59 per hour, UAW workers could earn 50% more per hour than registered nurses and 59% more per year than elementary teachers.
OP-ED | A Better Approach to the Silver Tsunami
March 18, 2022 // Too often, for unions, the customers are themselves rather than the public, which is why the state should be taking advantage of retirements by focusing on modernizing, reorganizing, retooling, and outsourcing as much as possible. The major advantage in choosing among hiring private employees/services is that change can be made quickly to accommodate the needs of customers. Not working well? Terminate the contract and find a better solution in the marketplace.