2y ago

Confused Automakers Braced for Strike at the Wrong Plants

2y ago

Striking auto workers pulled off a major coup before their strike, baiting America’s largest auto manufacturers into self-sabotage.

theintercept.com /2023/09/19/uaw-strike-auto-plants/

37 comments

Could easily avoid this by paying workers properly.
- but that could hurt the poor shareholders
- Combining pay with benefits as a single dollar amount is gibberish.
  Why don't you list the actual hourly wage they're asking for?
  
  "benefits" is doing so much heavy lifting and contains so much bullshit there.
  
  And?
  You should celebrate average people getting paid more, not complaining about it
  We don't need CEOs who do basically nothing getting paid tens/hundreds of millions a year
  
  Either you added a zero or forgot a decimal
  
  Less than the ceos make by far and they aren’t doing near the actual work
  
  These auto makers made $32 billion in profit last year! Just stop. UAW isn't asking for anything outrageous
  
  People disagreeing with you is not toxic.
Just because your opponent is big doesn't mean they're going to win. This is an example of taking advantage of their size. They can't move quickly, so they tried to guess.
This union is run by some smart people. They didn't strike all at once so they can rachet up the pain in the future.
“Strike preparation and contingency planning is part of our normal process in a contract negotiation year — as a responsible business we have to do that,” a spokesperson told In These Times. “They made it very clear that a strike was possible and we did everything we needed to do to protect the business.”
Hmm. If only there was another way to protect the business.
- A strike means the business has already failed shareholders. The business is inevitably going to make a new agreement with the union anyway, they should have done that before the strike stops the work, tanking profitability to near zero.
  I wish the shareholders would hold them accountable since that's all these companies seem to care about. Strikes are 100% avoidable by the company. It is lost profit with no gain for them. They are failing their fiduciary duty and shareholders should make that clear.
I don't know shit, but I would think the workers know exactly what factories are making preparations (by watching them happen). Further, they know exactly what the build process is, due to doing it.
I wonder if the union can rotate the workers on strike.
- Unions can rotate strikes, it would be a form of workshare. Although that word is loosely defined so it could mean two people doing one job halftime like we saw during the pandemic. Anyway, rotation depends on how the previous collective bargaining agreement was written and if the owners are willing to allow it. Most often business owners will just shutter the doors rather than deal with that bullshit but it's possible.

37 comments