GM Strike

ShinerBock wrote:

JRscooby wrote:

ShinerBock wrote:
I can't believe they went on strike. I read what GM offered them and it was very generous.

It seems that GM offered them lump sum profit sharing bonus, but they wanted a set in stone regardless if it is a down year or not. I would have to side with GM on this especially since it was partly those set in stone increases and pensions that made them go bankrupt in 2008. I think it is fair for a bonus to be based on profits and can fluctuate depending on the economy. Yeah, you may not get as much on a down year, but at least the company will not go bankrupt and you have a chance to make more once the economy goes up instead of being out of a job.

Is the profit sharing the only issue you read about? What about the long term use of temp workers, paid much less, and with no benefits? And 2 tier wage system? More of the health care cost on workers? And then many companies have promised things like retirement, then folded before they paid the cost.
Then with any "profit sharing" plan, unless the rank and file workers can vote on the salary of the executives, they can loose out because there is no profit after the executives are paid.

Temp workers are paid $15 an hour starting out versus $17 to in-progress workers. That is really good starting pay for temps and I would not call that much less. Looking at the retirement and health care offered by GM, it is considerably better than most people receive including myself so I don't see what the gripe is there. I have to pay for most of that stuff myself and I don't get a pension.

Also, GM's gross profits were over $14 billion in 2018. Even if they give the executives $200 million combined(only 1.42% of $14 billion), it would still not make that much of a difference in the profit sharing if you received a percentage of gross profit. It would mean receiving maybe a few dollars less.

I understand that it is the UAW's agenda to make their workers feel like they aren't getting a fair shake because if the workers are happy, then there is not need for the UAW. The UAW is a employer with workers and executives just like any other company out there making a profit so I get that they have to make themselves relevant, but for people outside of the UAW propaganda, the deal GM proposed seems like a really good one and is better than what most get.