Print

Email story

Comment

Letter to the editor

Auto union demands, GM finances at odds

Analysts are hopeful the UAW strike will be short, but stakes for both sides are extreme.

DETROIT - The U.S. auto industry is gasping for air under the crushing weight of high labor costs, growing competition and a bloated, aging infrastructure. At the same time, the United Auto Workers union is struggling to stay relevant after years of membership declines.

Caught between these two giants in this year's contract talks are the auto workers who built middle-class lives on the promises of the industry. Marilyn Coulter, who has built cars in Lansing, Mich., for 29 years, said nobody likes to strike. But she was still holding a picket sign outside an entrance to her sprawling plant Monday.

"We do what we have to do. We've given and we need something back," said Coulter, 47. "We want to build cars, but we don't want to be taken advantage of, either."

Strikes have sometimes been jubilant affairs, with workers lustily singing and chanting on the picket lines. But Monday, UAW president Ron Gettelfinger and his bargaining team looked exhausted and grim. Gettelfinger said the union called a strike because it wants promises for future products at U.S. plants in addition to standard agreements on wages and benefits.

"Nobody wins in a strike, but there comes a point in time when someone can push you off a cliff," said Gettelfinger, who represents 73,000 GM workers at about 80 U.S. facilities.

Several analysts said they expect the strike will be short and that the UAW is simply trying to force GM's hand and bring the lengthy bargaining to a close. GM and the UAW had been negotiating for 21 straight days as of Monday.

Gary Chaison, a labor specialist at Clark University in Worcester, Mass., said it was a good sign that the two sides are still talking. But he added that the strike isn't all drama.

"There's always theatrics in bargaining, but the theatrics are very real," he said. "These are workers whose jobs are in jeopardy, and the company could lose millions and millions of dollars."

The striking workers will receive $200 a week plus medical benefits from the UAW's strike fund. The union had more than $800-million in that fund as of last November, according to the UAW's Web site.

Aaron Bragman, an auto industry analyst for the consulting firm Global Insight, said the two sides are at a historic crossroads. GM, which lost $2-billion in 2006, isn't in the financial position to make long-term promises for U.S. manufacturing, and the company could decide to move products overseas if the strike lasts longer than a few days, he said.

GM also is facing a changing landscape in which barely half the vehicles on U.S. roads are made by the traditional Big Three. GM controlled 35 percent of the U.S. market in 1990; that fell to 24 percent last year.

Chaison said the UAW is taking a big risk with the GM strike. Workers at nonunion plants are watching closely to see if the UAW's confrontational tone will get them a stronger contract. If it doesn't, that won't impress nonunion workers who are on the fence.

"I think the UAW doesn't really fully understand the impact of a strike beyond collective bargaining," Chaison said.

[Last modified September 25, 2007, 00:05:18]