B7
THE ASTORIAN • TuESdAy, SEpTEmbER 24, 2019
GM strike enters 2nd week with no clear end in sight
By TOM KRISHER
Associated press
NEW YORK — The
strike
against
General
Motors by 49,000 United
Auto Workers entered its
second week Monday with
progress reported in nego-
tiations but no clear end in
sight.
Bargainers met all week-
end and returned to talks
Monday morning as the
strike entered its eighth day.
A person briefed on the
negotiations says they’re
haggling about wages and
profit sharing, new product
for factories that GM wants
to close, a faster route to full
wages for new hires and use
of temporary workers. The
person didn’t want to be iden-
tified because details of the
bargaining are confidential.
Workers walked off their
jobs early on Sept. 16, para-
lyzing production at about 30
manufacturing sites in nine
states.
Already the strike forced
GM to shut down two Cana-
dian factories that make
engines, older-model pickup
trucks and two car models.
If the strike drags on much
longer, GM likely will have
to close more factories in
Mexico and Canada because
engines, transmissions and
other components are built
in the United States. Compa-
nies that supply parts to GM
also will have to start cutting
production.
Consumers this week
will start to see fewer trucks,
SUVs and cars on dealer lots.
Cox Automotive said that
GM had stocked up before
the strike with a 77-day sup-
ply of vehicles. But before
the strike, the supply of larger
Tony Dejak/AP Photo
Mara Paulic, a 42-year GM employee, pickets outside the
General Motors Fabrication Division in Parma, Ohio.
SUVs such as the Chevro-
let Tahoe already was below
the industry average 61 days’
worth of vehicles.
Workers also will feel
pressure. They got their last
GM paycheck last week and
will have to start living on
$250 per week in strike pay
starting this week.
The union wants a bigger
share of GM’s more than $30
billion in profits during the
past five years. But the com-
pany sees a global auto sales
decline ahead and wants to
bring its labor costs in line
with U.S. plants owned by
foreign automakers.
The
top
production
worker wage is about $30
per hour, and GM’s total
labor costs including ben-
efits are about $63 per hour
compared with an average
of $50 at factories run by
foreign-based automakers
mainly in the South.
Issues that are snagging
the talks include the formula
for profit sharing, which the
union wants to improve. Cur-
rently, workers get $1,000 for
every $1 billion the company
makes before taxes in North
America. This year, workers
got checks for $10,750 each,
less than last year’s $11,500.
Wages also are an issue
with the company seeking
to shift compensation more
to lump sums that depend on
earnings and workers want-
ing hourly increases that will
be there if the economy goes
south.
They’re also bargaining
over use of temporary work-
ers and a path to make them
full-time, as well as a faster
track for getting newly hired
workers to the top UAW
wage.
GM has offered prod-
ucts in two of four locations
where it wants to close fac-
tories. It’s proposed an elec-
tric pickup truck for the
Detroit-Hamtramck
plant
and a battery factory in the
Lordstown, Ohio, area,
where it is closing a small-
car assembly plant. The fac-
tory would be run by a joint
venture, and although it
would have UAW workers,
GM is proposing they work
for pay that’s lower than the
company pays at assembly
plants.
So you have the power
to spend time
here
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