GM's Lake Orion plant set to use lower wage - Facility to make another vehicle (Aveo)

[Bozita]

Source: Detroit Free Press

Posted: 8:19 p.m. Oct. 4, 2010
GM's Lake Orion plant set to use lower wage
Facility to make another vehicle
By Chrissie Thompson
FREE PRESS AUTO WRITER


General Motors’ plant in Lake Orion will employ an outsized percentage of workers at about half the standard wage in a bid to make a profit on the subcompact Chevrolet Aveo, said Mike Dunn, chairman of UAW Local 5960.

Under contract details the UAW explained Sunday to members, 60% of Lake Orion’s hourly workers will make $28 an hour with full benefits, Dunn said. The other 40% will work for the UAW’s second-tier wage for newly hired workers, starting at about half the other workers’ wages but with full benefits, Dunn said.

That’s higher than the 25% allowed companywide, and it’s the first UAW contract to apply the new wage to current members. If some of the 1,500 Lake Orion workers on layoff don’t want to work for the lower wage, they can join the pool of workers seeking transfers within GM, Dunn said.

The Aveo launches next year as the smallest car built in the U.S. Last year, GM agreed to build the Aveo in Michigan instead of importing it from a lower-wage country in exchange for UAW concessions ahead of its bankruptcy. UAW President Bob King told the Free Press last month he doubted GM’s and the UAW’s chances of building it profitably because of labor costs.

Read more: http://www.freep.com/article/20101004/BUSINESS01/101004060/1319/GMs-Lake-Orion-plant-set-to-use-lower-wage#ixzz11Rlk3I51

[jmowreader]

1. There are two ways to look at this...

The negative way is that they're asking UAW members to take a SIGNIFICANT pay cut here, and that's never good.

The positive way is, this car used to be built in Korea and now it will be built in the US. I think they've got a decent chance of building it profitably if they use enough automation to do it with--there's no way they'll build at a profit if they screw it together by hand.

[Cal Carpenter]

2. Yes, let's bring back factory jobs at basically slave wages

So the executives can continue to rake in huge salaries and bonuses and the people (most of whom will never work in a factory) who buy the cars can feel superficially better about it.

I'm sorry for the sarcasm - it's not directed at you personally, but this shit pisses me off so bad. I can't see the good in it. I'm sick of seeing people exploited for corporate profit and I'm sad that we are so desperate that we have to be grateful for crumbs like this.

Power to the people. Not the executives or shareholders, not the sell-out UAW, but to the RANK AND FILE who, like every other working class person on this planet, deserves a livable wage, health care, and the knowledge that they won't starve in a gutter in old age.

[Indydem]

8. Since when is $14 an hour STARTING pay slave labor?

That's 28k before taxes + benefits. 2 people working that job is 56k and in MI that's good money.

[Cal Carpenter]

11. Because the people who desperately hope to get those jobs

are people who are NOT starting out, but have decades of experience, and families, and mortgages, kids in college, and have been unemployed for a year (if they're lucky, likely more) and are now having to do the same work for half or at best 70% of the pay. IF they're lucky enough to get work.

And the freaking union is selling them out. And the executives and shareholders are gonna make bank, just like they always do, at the expense of the people doing the real work.

Sure, 'slave wages' is hyperbole, but honestly when I write these points of view about labor here I get ignored unless I add something that riles somebody up. But there are a hell of a lot people workin their asses off and barely making minimum wage, with no benefits. Where do we draw the line?

These people aren't greedy. They're being pulled down to the lowest-common-denominator and the longer people accept it the more it will keep getting lower. It's been happening since for the last 50 yrs or more, shit. How low can we go, while the rich keep getting richer?

People around here are struggling (I'm born and raised in SE Michigan, sitting here less than 60 mi from the Orion plant). It sucks man.

[boppers]

12. "Where do we draw the line?"

"But there are a hell of a lot people workin their asses off and barely making minimum wage, with no benefits."

That's where the line's been drawn.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._minimum_wages

The "lower paid" auto workers are making roughly twice that amount, *with* benefits, which is pretty much around where I would set the federal minimum wage.

[Trajan]

3. GREAT ....

If only MORE American workers can be paid LESS wages, so that they can stop buying other stuff, so that other American workers can lose their jobs TOO !

What a grand idea ! ...

Hell ... If we keep this up, even the slaves can get laid off ! ....

:sarcasm:


I think this is known as a degenerate system .... destined to crumble

[Cal Carpenter]

4. It's class war

and I know it's not a popular concept on this site because this war can't be fought in the voting booth. But it's the truth. And it's the root of most of our problems, at least in the sense that, until it is addressed, all the rest of our 'issues' are lost causes..

[Trajan]

7. Some call it that ...

I think it is the natural (apparently natural) consequence of those who profit from the work of others to pay as little as possible to those who perform the work ....

My point is: Those who do profit from our work are now in fact destroying their own profit sources by reducing cash flow within the system, and actually killing the other businesses that depend on American workers spending money on their goods ...

It is short sighted in the extreme ... It has been going on for decades, and that bird has come home to roost ....

The millionaires who are not billionaires are gonna lose their short in this too ... They are gonna rue cutting pay so deeply ....


Let me make this clear to Agent Mike: Mike ? ... I do not advocate the use of force or violence .... Have a nice day, Agent Mike. :hi:

[inna]

10. Who's "Agent Mike" here?

what are you talking about?

[Trajan]

17. Ask Skinner .... or EarlG, or Elad ...

You don't think that law enforcement authorities avoid coming here, do you ?

[alfredo]

13. We are old news, Asia and South America is where the money

is. We aren't growing fast enough for the corporatist. They don't want or need us anymore.



"Merchants have no country. The mere spot they stand on does not constitute so strong an attachment as that from which they draw their gains." Thomas Jefferson



" The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to the point where it becomes stronger than the democratic state itself. That in its essence is fascism — ownership of government by an individual, by a group or any controlling private power." --President Franklin D. Roosevelt

[zogofzorkon]

5. It is always labors fault if the product is unprofitable.

Never ever question the cost of management, mismanagement, or CEO salary of 9 mil.

[Cal Carpenter]

9. Who, btw, are the decision-makers...

The people who make the decisions (executives and, these days especially, many major shareholders) do so with short-term profit in mind. The workers only fit in their equation in terms of an annoying expense. It isn't about the product, it isn't about a stable, lasting company. It is about cashing in when the getting's good.

All these big companies did a lot of growing in the last couple decades. Big box stores, car dealerships, electronics...companies went from 10 stores to 1,000 in 10 years. Now all that's caving in. And yet the rich are still getting richer...?! And the poor....??

The workers, eg the people who actually *work*, who actually make something tangible, who actually know how the machines and the paperwork and the files and phone system and the high/low work, have virtually no power in that world. And if they try to assert any they get punished by the bosses, or by the police if they dare get too feisty. Or by the military or CIA if they're too feisty and outside our borders.

Union busting. That's what it is. It's back in fashion. And if you dare talk about it in these terms, red-baiting will start to come back in fashion too..

[FarCenter]

6. Why bother making it in the US -- it will still be a Daewoo

The 2011 Chevrolet Aveo trails behind other cars in its class in most, if not all, aspects. However, it’s one of the cheapest ways to start enjoying that new-car smell. It also offers decent gas-mileage and interior space.

http://usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/cars-trucks/Chevrolet_Aveo/

[Disillusioned59]

14. Ask an insider.

Interesting comments. A refreshing change from the usual " damn autoworkers make too much". So, Would anyone like to aska question of a thirty plus year GM auto worker. I need the posts.

[Cal Carpenter]

15. Welcome to DU

No need to worry about the post count.

The first question that comes to mind is what do you think about the whole UAW vs Rank-and-file split goin on? I find it pretty interesting.

The UAW local guy quoted in the article says "If some of the 1,500 Lake Orion workers on layoff don’t want to work for the lower wage, they can join the pool of workers seeking transfers within GM, Dunn said."

Are there really any of those jobs around, especially in MI? Or are those a pipe dream, or 5 states away...?

Just curious. You don't have to answer these questions if you don't want.

[blindpig]

16. Where's the solidarity?

Those workers need a new union or need to get control of the one they got, they clearly have no control of it now.

[Cal Carpenter]

19. If you are looking for solidarity

you sure as shit ain't gonna fund much of it on this board. Jeeeeesus.

Ya know in Indianapolis there is a rank and file group forming in response to the UAW totally selling them out. I hope it spreads to some of these other plants...

[blindpig]

20. Yeah...

but I know where to come if I want libertarian talking points.

[maryf]

23. I hope the new group spreads to other industries too...and the public sector

we need a new worker's union, we need to remind the unions what labor is all about, solidarity.

[Romulox]

18. The Labor movement is officially over, and a Democratic administration killed it...

:wtf:

[Ichingcarpenter]

21. What's good for General Motors is Good for the Nation

A statement made by Charles E. Wilson while president of the General Motors Corporation, a leading United States automobile manufacturer. Wilson later became secretary of the federal Department of Defense.
United States Secretary of Defense from 1953 to 1957 under President Eisenhower


I also want to point out that GM and Standard Oil (Exxon) helped give the NAZIS the technology to run their blitzkrieg warfare through fuel additives and carburetor technology Opel (GM), both were illegal technologies transfers that were even thought as treasonous.

They were and are an country of their own

[Romulox]

24. This is perhaps the lamest excuse not to support American workers I've ever read.

"I also want to point out that GM and Standard Oil (Exxon) helped give the NAZIS the technology to run their blitzkrieg warfare through fuel additives and carburetor technology Opel (GM), both were illegal technologies transfers that were even thought as treasonous."

Yes, I'm sure you drive a Japanese car as a protest against involvement with the Axis powers in WWII. :eyes:

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

22. Sheesh, just build the Opel Corsa already!

Why is GM unable to bring a SMALL CAR to the US market that doesn't suck?



The Corsa is one of the most successful car families ever, sold almost everywhere on earth under various GM marquees - just not here.

[Romulox]

25. This thread is about WORKERS' WAGES.

What a surprise that you missed that point--you're usually so sensitive to such issues! :eyes:

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

26. It is also about GM shitting out another mediocre car

The Aveo is crap, no matter where it is made or how much their paid.

[Disillusioned59]

27. An insiders view.

Well the folks on the plant floor are pissed. We are wondering what the hell is going on. i was raised a hardcore bluecollar union democrat. This aint the union i remember from back in the day. we all feel sold out. At the national convention the powers at international voted themselves a raise while cutting our pay. Dont forget that they now hold 20% of GM stock so they are now our employer, not our union.They have every interest in cutting pay. It aint over yet. It started with Delphi as a test and is moving to GM proper with the unions help by people who have NEVER been on the plant floor. That would be the familys, immediate and extended, of Gettelfinger, Bieber and others.Management is loving this shit. What happens when the 14 dollar an hour people are the majority. They are in the local and international and a contract negotiation is underway. Management is not stupid and this is all a very carefully choreographed and executed plan. When the lower wage people are the majority and the retirees are making as much retired as these folks are working management will approach and offer a piddly raise and a lump sum to cut retirees pay and benefits.


What the chairman of the Lake orion Local meant was. " If ya dont like it, Leave."

[Chan790]

28. How do you want to fight back?

I mean it's your union, it's your call how you want to handle this? Just know that there are people who will support you on this, myself included.

I support organized labor. I like living in a prosperous middle class. Fuck the Robber Barons.