UAW May Negotiate With Big Three At Once

[William Maley]

UAW May Negotiate With Big Three At Once

William Maley - Editor/Reporter - CheersandGears.com

April 28, 2011

UAW President Bob King said the union may hold contracts talk with Detroit Three at the same time. King was speaking at a luncheon hosted by the Automotive Press Association in Detroit talking about UAW and the future.

“We have very advanced and good relationships, and we should be able to work together. I would hope that we don’t have to get to the point of picking a target.” King said to reporters.

Usually, the UAW picks one automaker they think can give them the best contract and then uses that with the other automakers. This gives UAW members similar contracts with all automakers.

However, King faces some challenges with the upcoming negotiations. Some UAW members want the $7000 to $30000 in concessions they made in 2009 back. Also, Ford could be the hardest to negotiate with. King has said that Ford's President and CEO Alan Mulally’s $26.5 million pay package is “morally wrong." King talked about Mulally's pay at the luncheon, saying Mulally doesn't understand how his pay hurt the morale of Ford employees.

“Alan Mulally is a good CEO, and I think he has done a lot of good, but he has a blind spot here. He is making it more difficult for us for the upcoming negotiations by taking that kind of money.”

Source: Detroit Free Press

[Potluck]

I thought we banned unions in this country.

[loki]

this could go either way....another death kneel to the big 3 after finally getting some profits, or get the unions to accept lower beni's/paytill the economy really does come back to life... like prolly 10-20 years.

[Potluck]

Ideally, the UAW's pay and benefits should remain exactly as they are today, but with a healthy profit sharing bonus that goes out to workers in good years but can easily be cut in bad years.