[ad_1]
DETROIT: The four-year contract between General Motors and United Auto Workers has expired as negotiations on a new agreement continue.
Union officials told GM that they would let the contract expire just before midnight on Saturday, increasing the risk of a strike as early as Sunday night. Union members working on Sunday were expected to report as planned.
But there was a ride. About 850 janitors represented at the UAW and working for Aramark, a separate company, went on strike Sunday after working under extended contract since March 2018, the union said.
The strike affected eight GM facilities in Ohio and Michigan. Although GM workers at UAW are supposed to work, it was unclear on Sunday morning whether the base would cross the picket lines of their own union. GM said in a statement that it had contingency plans to deal with the disruption caused by the strike in Aramark.
The Vice President of the UAW, Terry Dittes, said in a letter to the members that after months of negotiations, the union and GM were very far apart from each other on issues such as wages, health care, temporary employees, job security and profit sharing.
Union leaders and a larger group of factory-level officials will meet on Sunday morning to decide on the next steps for the union.
The letter to members and another to GM aimed to put pressure on GM's negotiators.
"As we struggle to get better wages, affordable, quality health care, and job security, GM is refusing to let hard-working Americans before their record profits," Dittes said. , the main union negotiator with GM, in a statement Saturday night.
Kristin Dziczek, vice president of the Center for Automotive Research, an industry think tank, said the union could strike at GM after the contract expires.
"If they do not extend the agreement, it would leave them open to strike," she said.
But GM, in a statement Saturday night, was still hoping for an agreement, saying it was still working on solutions.
"We are ready to negotiate around the clock because thousands of GM families and their communities – and thousands of others at our dealerships and suppliers – rely on us for their livelihood. Our goal remains to build a strong future for our employees and our company, "said GM's press release.
A strike by 49,200 unionized workers would halt GM's US production and likely prevent the company from manufacturing vehicles in Canada and Mexico. This would mean fewer vehicles for consumers among the concessions, and it would be impossible to build specially commissioned cars and trucks.
The union's executive council was scheduled to meet early Sunday to discuss the next steps of the union, followed by a meeting in Detroit of union leaders from all the factories in the country. An announcement was scheduled after the end of the meetings.
In the event of a strike, it would be the first union since GM's two-day work stoppage in 2007.
The union movement is also intervening as it faces an internal struggle for a federal corruption inquiry that has affected its president, Gary Jones. Some union members are asking Jones to withdraw while the investigation continues. But on Friday night, union leaders did not fire Jones.
Union officials will certainly be confronted with questions about the extension of the investigation that surprised a senior official on Thursday. Vance Pearson, head of a regional office based near St. Louis, has been charged with bribery as part of a scheme to divert union money and spend money. money in quality beverages, golf clubs, cigars and luxury California vacations. This is the same area that Jones headed before becoming the union leader last year. Jones has not been charged.
On Friday, union leaders extended their contracts with Ford and Fiat Chrysler for an indefinite period, but the deal with General Motors was expected to expire Saturday night.
The union has chosen GM as its target company, which is more profitable than Ford and Fiat Chrysler, which means that it is being negotiated and that it would be the first company to deal with an interruption. The picket lines' schedules have already been posted near the entrance of a local UAW office in Detroit.
Discussions between the union and GM were tense from the start, largely due to GM's plans to close four US plants. The union promised to fight against closures.
[ad_2]
Source link