A deal to end the 9-week old American Axle employee strike is being produced, but the end of the strike is not yet in sight, Friday reports find. The UAW is fighting proposed wage and benefit cuts proposed by American Axle, as the company aims to make operations competitive with similar businesses. The latest deal would see two of five North American Axle factories shut down, while workers’ pay would be reduced from nearly $28 per hour to $17.
GM recently announced it will cut nearly 140,000 vehicles due in part to slowing SUV and truck sales, which would affect American Axle production as well. The cuts will give American Axle further arguments as to the plant closures, which include Detroit and Tonawanda parts forging plants in New York State and would affect about 300 jobs, according to The Detroit News.
The UAW is not in a bargaining position, and UAW Local 235 President Adrian King said the union is evaluating the company’s latest proposal.
Officer elections took place on Thursday at UAW Local 235, during which Vice President Bill Alford Jr. took the President title from King.
GM announced the ongoing strike cost the automaker $800 in the first quarter of 2008.
05/02, 1:31 PM
posted by:
RaineMan
The strike cost them $800?
You mean $800 thousand or $800 million?
05/02, 1:49 PM
posted by:
mayer_ray_nagin
So if the strike cost GM 800 bucks and they raised the price of a new Malibu 300 bucks, they only need to sell 2.67 Malibus to cover the cost of the strike.
SUCH A DEAL!
05/02, 2:13 PM
posted by:
HemiRoadRunner
Im kinda tired of hearing about these strikes. The unions aren’t needed anymore in this country, not the union workers just the unions, we have laws to protect workers now. But, I can see both sides of why they’re striking. I researched this and this company was founded and built from the gound up by these workers, making them enough money to set up several plants across the world. The head honcho Dausch or whatever his name was recieved $258 MILLION in EXTRAS, not salary, since 1997-2007. So, I can see why these guys don’t want to take a paycutt from $58K a year to $35K a year. That’s a pretty substantial drop. If employee benefits are too high, then go blame the crooked @$$ doctors and lawyers that have inflated those rates to what they are nowadays.
05/02, 2:19 PM
posted by:
mayer_ray_nagin
Hemi, if those employees “founded and built” that company then either they sold it for a profit to a someone who paid this guy $258M, or they still own it and voted him those extras. Either way most people don’t strike a company they own.
05/02, 2:44 PM
posted by:
HemiRoadRunner
Your thinking about what I said too literally, these guy’s work, no matter how hard it was, made the company profitable enough to expand a great amount. You know what that comment means. That guy got his $258M over 10 years, which is fine, if HE earned it. That’s the point, these guys, both the CEO’s and the workers, don’t want to stop taking. If one side has to give up something, so should the other. If the head dude didn’t get his 10-20 MILLION in EXTRAS for ONE year, that would offset the workers losing their wages, so that’s where to start. I think you know my stand on the unions by now so you know what I’m saying. You as well as I know unions are BS for the most part, but that still doesn’t mean that fairness has to be non-existent.
05/03, 3:56 PM
posted by:
jayjc08
LLN- Cost $800 in the first quarter of 2008? I’m a little confused as to if you forgot a zero, or two, or three… or four.
05/03, 5:56 PM
posted by:
DeansterTJ
Probably 80 million. 800 million sounds steep, although maybe…
05/04, 8:58 AM
posted by:
olds307
HemiRoadRunner “The unions aren’t needed anymore in this country, not the union workers just the unions, we have laws to protect workers now.”
Bull****. I’ve had union jobs (grocery stores) and I’ve had non union jobs (moving company), and let me tell you, the laws mean NOTHING.
While a disadvantage of the union at the grocery store, for me, was that I had to fight for full time status, just so that I could work more than 28 or so hours a week (if you worked more than those hours for a certain number of weeks they were obligated to make you full time).
Other than that, the union ensured that we were all treated fairly, including basic rights such as a lunch break if you worked more than a certain number of hours.
Meanwhile at the moving company, where there was no union, many times we’d work 12 hour days with no break whatsoever, there was no clock so if we were lucky enough to get any extra money for the hours put in (they called this overtime—an extra $5 or $10 for several hours put in past the standard 8 hour workday), was given out completely arbitrarily.
And when I was on the road, it was often necessary to do work–get smaller jobs out of the way on a Sunday, and there was no time and a half on Sunday—- there was no time—PERIOD for sunday, it was VOLUNTEER WORK!!! And when we complained about it their answer was that the extra $300 they paid us for driving 1000+ miles cross country included the sunday pay!