Shouldn't the title say "Fighting UAW Puts the Financial Squeeze on Striking Union Workers"?
I think so....
I think so....
Fighting GM Puts Financial Squeeze on Striking Union Workers
03 October 2019
While striking workers at General Motors Co.'s U.S. auto plants continue walking picket lines for a third week to demand better pay and benefits, the financial pressure has mounted for union members like Frank Lee.
Analysts estimate that GM could lose $1 billion from the labor dispute that began on Sept. 16 and is now the longest nationwide strike at the automaker since 1970. For GM, which had $24 billion in cash and marketable securities as of June 30, that cost is likely manageable.
But it's a different story for some strikers.
Frank Lee, a United Auto Workers union member at GM's Corvette assembly plant in Bowling Green, Kentucky, is fending off bill collectors.
“Until yesterday, I was negative in my bank account," said Lee. "I called the bank to try and stop an insurance payment from coming out. I failed to do that; it was too late.”
Adding to the difficulty of his situation, union regulations prohibit Lee from seeking outside employment while on strike. If he finds another job, or supplements the weekly $250 strike pay, he will lose the benefits with the union.
Negotiators for the United Auto Workers and General Motors Co continued talking on Wednesday, with no word on when a deal would be agreed that would get the automaker's U.S. assembly lines rolling again.
GM and the UAW said they traded what were described as comprehensive proposals on Tuesday. The union rejected GM's plan, saying it fell short on wages, healthcare, job security and the treatment of temporary workers, which has become a central issue for the UAW.
Lee is a temporary worker who was hired at the Bowling Green plant three years ago. The 47-year-old has trained to work at more than 30 positions within the assembly plant.
But even after three years on the job, Lee does not qualify for the same pay and benefits as full-time UAW workers, who earn $7 to $14 an hour more than temporary workers in the same factories.
Lee lives with his son, Isiah, in a trailer home thirty miles south of the Bowling Green plant.
“Before the strike even happened, the money I make as a temporary is week to week; paycheck comes in, paychecks go out, and we barely survive,” said Lee, making his comments in between phone calls with bill collectors.
On Friday, union members at GM will mark their second payday without a check.
“I’ve got bills that are behind already. I’ve got bill collectors; they’re already calling me,” Lee said. “There’s a stack of bills that seemed to have doubled. Rent is due. I don’t know where that money is coming from.”
Lee has called his credit card providers, explaining that paying rent and buying groceries would need to take priority.
The UAW is working with charities in communities affected by the strike to get additional help for strikers, a union spokesman said.
Lee said financial pressure had increased for him not because of the strike but due to the way General Motors treats temporary employees. He had believed his temporary position would lead to a job with full pay and benefits.
Despite the stress and financial hardship, Lee finds inspiration in his son, Isiah.
“I’m in this for my son, and we are survivors,” he said. “We will get through this.”
At the bargaining tables in Detroit, the issue of how temporary employees are treated is based on the union's principle that workers at the same plant should get similar wages for similar work.
High absenteeism poses a problem for GM management as the company tends to rely on temporary workers to fill in for missing full time workers.
The union has urged GM to give temporary workers a pay rise and an easier path to jobs at full UAW pay and benefits. GM pays temporary workers between $15.78 and $22 an hour depending on when they were hired, according to a summary of the now expired contract. Full time assembly workers can earn a base pay of nearly $30 an hour or more.
GM management has talked up the $63 hourly average labor costs at its U.S. operations, which is higher than the average $50 an hour paid by Asian and European automakers at their non-union auto factories in the United States.
Non-union plants tend to employ a much higher number of temporary workers, who can be laid off or hired back more quickly as demand ebbs and flows.
https://www.newsmax.com/finance/streettalk/gm-striking-union-workers/2019/10/03/id/935554/
While striking workers at General Motors Co.'s U.S. auto plants continue walking picket lines for a third week to demand better pay and benefits, the financial pressure has mounted for union members like Frank Lee.
Analysts estimate that GM could lose $1 billion from the labor dispute that began on Sept. 16 and is now the longest nationwide strike at the automaker since 1970. For GM, which had $24 billion in cash and marketable securities as of June 30, that cost is likely manageable.
But it's a different story for some strikers.
Frank Lee, a United Auto Workers union member at GM's Corvette assembly plant in Bowling Green, Kentucky, is fending off bill collectors.
“Until yesterday, I was negative in my bank account," said Lee. "I called the bank to try and stop an insurance payment from coming out. I failed to do that; it was too late.”
Adding to the difficulty of his situation, union regulations prohibit Lee from seeking outside employment while on strike. If he finds another job, or supplements the weekly $250 strike pay, he will lose the benefits with the union.
Negotiators for the United Auto Workers and General Motors Co continued talking on Wednesday, with no word on when a deal would be agreed that would get the automaker's U.S. assembly lines rolling again.
GM and the UAW said they traded what were described as comprehensive proposals on Tuesday. The union rejected GM's plan, saying it fell short on wages, healthcare, job security and the treatment of temporary workers, which has become a central issue for the UAW.
Lee is a temporary worker who was hired at the Bowling Green plant three years ago. The 47-year-old has trained to work at more than 30 positions within the assembly plant.
But even after three years on the job, Lee does not qualify for the same pay and benefits as full-time UAW workers, who earn $7 to $14 an hour more than temporary workers in the same factories.
Lee lives with his son, Isiah, in a trailer home thirty miles south of the Bowling Green plant.
“Before the strike even happened, the money I make as a temporary is week to week; paycheck comes in, paychecks go out, and we barely survive,” said Lee, making his comments in between phone calls with bill collectors.
On Friday, union members at GM will mark their second payday without a check.
“I’ve got bills that are behind already. I’ve got bill collectors; they’re already calling me,” Lee said. “There’s a stack of bills that seemed to have doubled. Rent is due. I don’t know where that money is coming from.”
Lee has called his credit card providers, explaining that paying rent and buying groceries would need to take priority.
The UAW is working with charities in communities affected by the strike to get additional help for strikers, a union spokesman said.
Lee said financial pressure had increased for him not because of the strike but due to the way General Motors treats temporary employees. He had believed his temporary position would lead to a job with full pay and benefits.
Despite the stress and financial hardship, Lee finds inspiration in his son, Isiah.
“I’m in this for my son, and we are survivors,” he said. “We will get through this.”
At the bargaining tables in Detroit, the issue of how temporary employees are treated is based on the union's principle that workers at the same plant should get similar wages for similar work.
High absenteeism poses a problem for GM management as the company tends to rely on temporary workers to fill in for missing full time workers.
The union has urged GM to give temporary workers a pay rise and an easier path to jobs at full UAW pay and benefits. GM pays temporary workers between $15.78 and $22 an hour depending on when they were hired, according to a summary of the now expired contract. Full time assembly workers can earn a base pay of nearly $30 an hour or more.
GM management has talked up the $63 hourly average labor costs at its U.S. operations, which is higher than the average $50 an hour paid by Asian and European automakers at their non-union auto factories in the United States.
Non-union plants tend to employ a much higher number of temporary workers, who can be laid off or hired back more quickly as demand ebbs and flows.
https://www.newsmax.com/finance/streettalk/gm-striking-union-workers/2019/10/03/id/935554/
1 - 12 of 12 Posts
An employee who has been on a job for three years can hardly be considered as a temporary worker, at least to most reasonable people, yet this is happening in business and industry all around the country. Pretty unusual to see temporary workers in a union workplace and very odd to hear of temps receiving any union benefits or belonging to a union. I'm not a fan of unions but I do find something very wrong with two tiered wage scales for workers performing the same job based on one of the workers being a permanent employee while the other is a temp worker.
Everything that affiliated with Unions is so crappy, so it generally doesn't fly.
Lee is an idiot. He could find another job or two and bring home more than $250 a week.Adding to the difficulty of his situation, union regulations prohibit Lee from seeking outside employment while on strike. If he finds another job, or supplements the weekly $250 strike pay, he will lose the benefits with the union.
Gotta love those Nazi-Socialist unions..........no matter what, they still get paid
Some people prefer to be "temps".An employee who has been on a job for three years can hardly be considered as a temporary worker, at least to most reasonable people, yet this is happening in business and industry all around the country. Pretty unusual to see temporary workers in a union workplace and very odd to hear of temps receiving any union benefits or belonging to a union. I'm not a fan of unions but I do find something very wrong with two tiered wage scales for workers performing the same job based on one of the workers being a permanent employee while the other is a temp worker.
We never had unions in the healthcare systems I worked at, but I can tell you that temps and those who worked "as needed" received more money to make up for the lack of benefits.
In the UAW situation, it sounds like to me, the unions are using (unionizing) the temps just for revenue income. They really can care less, it's all about membership and control. Think about it from GM's perspective. The base pay for full time is $30/hr but add in benefits and it averages about $63/hour. They get $33 /hr in benefits? (maybe i am interpreting that wrong?) Now tell me why a temp should get the same?
Unions, at one time, were beneficial to the workingman. Today unions are scum that milk the members for money for union gains, power. They do the economy harm because they are an added expense to the product. In some areas they do harm, such as the education system (look at chicago). Their time is nearing the end. The liberal "professors" that are indoctrinating our children are "safe" because the unions protect them....tenure is just one avenue. Remember Obamacare and the cadillac policy? Politician use the unions as a power base.
There is so much wrong with unions.......golden handcuffs.
Only in a union 1 time when I was 16. Part time job at a supermarket, they made me join so that they could take money out of my $1.65 hr paycheck.
I would say those people are in the extreme minority.Some people prefer to be "temps".
I've never worked in the Healthcare system, I have worked in the Industrial sector as a Machinist, Tool & Die Maker and as a Millwright. I've also worked in the Business sector. I've been a business owner as well as an employee and I've worked through temp agencies on both sides of the counter, so I know what temp agencies pay their temp workers as well as what those agencies get paid for supplying companies with those workers. I've never seen a situation where temp workers were paid more than regular company employees. It is not uncommon in the industrial sector to see contract workers being paid less than 50% of what company employee's performing the same job are paid. Those worker contracts can range from day to day but, typically run from 30 day up to one year contracts. For those workers there is always the uncertainty of never knowing if they will have a job from month to month. In my view the temp agencies are responsible for nearly as much damage to the economy as exporting those jobs overseas.We never had unions in the healthcare systems I worked at, but I can tell you that temps and those who worked "as needed" received more money to make up for the lack of benefits.
More about funneling more money into the union coffers while providing little or no benefits for membership. As I mentioned earlier I've seen very few unions that included temp workers.In the UAW situation, it sounds like to me, the unions are using (unionizing) the temps just for revenue income. They really can care less, it's all about membership and control.
The fellow mentioned in the article had been working in the GM plant for 3 Years as a temp. Why should he even be classified as a temp? Again why shouldn't he be hired on as a regular employee and enjoying the same pay and benefits. Some states have tried to remedy this by setting a particular limit to length of employment beyond which an employee must be hired as a company employee. Temp agencies usually find loopholes and workarounds in these laws. I know of one state where temps are never allowed to work for the same employer for more than 30 days, and another state that works temps on a job for one year them places them on a six month layoff before they are allowed to return. It is very difficult for me to understand WHY someone would prefer to work as a temp?Think about it from GM's perspective. The base pay for full time is $30/hr but add in benefits and it averages about $63/hour. They get $33 /hr in benefits? (maybe i am interpreting that wrong?) Now tell me why a temp should get the same?
They were only beneficial to people employed by large companies with very large workforces, they could care less for workers at smaller companies other than collecting inniation fees and membership dues from them.Unions, at one time, were beneficial to the workingman. Today unions are scum that milk the members for money for union gains, power. They do the economy harm because they are an added expense to the product.
After seeing the results of a garbage collectors strike back in the early 70's I've been against all public employee unions.In some areas they do harm, such as the education system (look at chicago). Their time is nearing the end. The liberal "professors" that are indoctrinating our children are "safe" because the unions protect them....tenure is just one avenue. Remember Obamacare and the cadillac policy? Politician use the unions as a power base.
My innitial post in this thread was directed more toward temporary workers than labor unions.
^^^ Some of what you say may be factual, as is mine. Some of what you say may be opinion, as is mine.
I am also aware of what temp agencies charge and what they pay their employees, I can assure you there have been times when the temp agency pays more. I can only refer to my experience in healthcare. I also know that there are healthcare systems that will hire temps directly, with no end date and will also pay a premium amount. There are many variables that can influence the pay. Location, hours, experience, shift, weekends, job requirements and such. All these factors are considered when a temp is hired directly or through an agency. Again, I can only speak about the healthcare systems I have worked for.
As for the UAW, it is my opinion that they notably wish to increase membership base (for income) but also the temp who is in the union must abide by the union rules regarding a strike. IOW, the temp cannot break the strike and be hired directly by GM (in this case) making the strike useless. Another words, they are preventing GM from hiring temps full time permanent to replace striking members; IMO.
Unions stink....IMO.
I am also aware of what temp agencies charge and what they pay their employees, I can assure you there have been times when the temp agency pays more. I can only refer to my experience in healthcare. I also know that there are healthcare systems that will hire temps directly, with no end date and will also pay a premium amount. There are many variables that can influence the pay. Location, hours, experience, shift, weekends, job requirements and such. All these factors are considered when a temp is hired directly or through an agency. Again, I can only speak about the healthcare systems I have worked for.
As for the UAW, it is my opinion that they notably wish to increase membership base (for income) but also the temp who is in the union must abide by the union rules regarding a strike. IOW, the temp cannot break the strike and be hired directly by GM (in this case) making the strike useless. Another words, they are preventing GM from hiring temps full time permanent to replace striking members; IMO.
Unions stink....IMO.
I agree; the WORST thing ever was allowing ANY public, tax-payer funded employee to be part of the unionAfter seeing the results of a garbage collectors strike back in the early 70's I've been against all public employee unions.
I've worked in high tech since 1973. Have never been in a union, and probably would not have taken a job if I had to join one. In my experience temp workers, or "independent consultants", often do earn more per hour than a full time employee doing the same work. They have no benefits so it is still less expensive for the company to use the temp services. Many of them prefer to remain independent. They can pick and choose the work they do, the company for whom they do it, and in many cases when and how much they work. Most of these folks have a spouse who provides medical coverage through their employer, so the "temp" person can earn more and not have to worry about benefits. It's a win-win in those cases.
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