UAW/Unions auto news

Report: Union takes hard stance against German automakers

Anyone considering a German-built car might want to buy it now. It could be a long summer.

Europe's largest industrial union, IG Metall, is taking a tough stance against some job rules German carmakers want to enforce, potentially creating the possibility of a strike, according to TheDetroitBureau.com.

"Talks are resuming, but so far five rounds of negotiations have produced little movement and a round of warning strikes earlier this month at several companies, including Porsche, BMW and Daimler, suggest that the powerful union is gearing up for a confrontation," the Bureau reported earlier this week.

The union wants a 6.5-percent pay raise for its workers and a limit in how many temporary workers the carmakers can use. Around the world, carmakers use temporary workers as way to increase production without increasing union membership and save money.

The union was offered a 3-percent pay raise, but that offer was rejected. Currently, German auto workers are some of the highest paid in the automotive world. And while parts of Europe remain in economic turmoil, Germany has shown signs of slow growth, which might be one reason some government officials are backing IG Metall.

All of this doesn't bode well for General Motors' German-based Opel. GM was hoping to get some concessions from the unions representing its workers as part of its restructuring. But if other carmakers are paying more for its workers, it's unlikely the troubled Opel would be able to squeeze much of its people.

Report: Saab union asks Obama to pressure GM for licensing deal

The door has not yet closed on Saab. Hoping for yet another 11th hour stay of execution, the defunct carmaker's chief union, IF Metall, has written directly to President Obama, asking him to intervene, according to Just-Auto. While on the surface, this may seem silly, it's actually rather clever, even if it has little likelihood of working.

With the United States government still owning 26 percent of General Motors, the Swedish union is hoping it can appeal to Obama to pressure General Motors into granting licenses to continue manufacturing Saab vehicles, according to the report. It's this sticking point that has torpedoed every attempt to forestall Saab's dissolution, as GM fears that were it to allow continued production of Saabs developed under GM's ownership, it would open up the possibility of intellectual property conflicts, particularly if a Chinese manufacturer that competes with GM's own Chinese partner, SAIC, acquires Saab.

You have to admire Saab loyalists, as they clearly have not given up hope. But in this case, they just don't have any other options: Unemployment in the Saab hometown of Trollhättan has hit 40 percent, according to the report.

Official: 2013 Dodge Dart production kicks off in Belvidere [w/video]

The 2013 Dodge Dart's trajectory towards dealer lots has officially begun. The first Dart rolled of the line at Chrysler's Belvidere Assembly yesterday, en route to a late June appearance at your local Dodge showroom.

Belvidere's future was uncertain after the poor reception given its previous product line, the Dodge Caliber and its Jeep platform mates, the Compass and Patriot. The Dart launches with more promise than any product since the original Neon, which began production at the Illinois plant in 1995.

While Belvidere has been open since 1965, it has had a long history of building inexpensive Mopar models since the Dodge Monaco and Plymouth Fury went out of production in the late 1970s. Belvidere built Dodge Omnis and Plymouth Horizons through the 1980s, and the K-car-based Chrysler New Yorker and Dodge Dynasty before retooling for the Neon.

Belvidere was also home to several of Chrysler's awesome budget performance models, the Shelby GLHS, Neon ACR and Dodge SRT4. Here's to hoping that it can soon add a hot-rodded Dart to that resume.

Scroll down to see video of the event and read the full press release.

Continue reading 2013 Dodge Dart production kicks off in Belvidere [w/video]

Report: Improving Chevy Volt sales leads GM to shorten summer shutdown

Just the other day, we heard that General Motors might extend its traditional two-week summer shutdown to three weeks for the Chevrolet Volt. But, after record Volt sales last month, we wonder how the calendar looks in Hamtramck now. We wonder because we are hearing reports that the current shutdown - originally scheduled to run for five weeks, from March 19 to April 23 - will be shortened by a week. GM originally decided on the hold to reduce supply that had grown too large because of soft demand.

Don LaForest, the chairman of the United Auto Workers bargaining committee at the Hamtramck plant where the Volt is made, told Talking Points Memo that GM is "adding a week of production back in." The Detroit News reports that GM President of North America Mark Reuss said the same thing Wednesday during the New York Auto Show. Reuss said, "We're doing it because we sold a lot."

Increasing sales numbers (GM sold 2,289 Volts in March - well over double February's 1,023-unit total) come at a time when some of the right-wing attacks on the plug-in hybrid appear to have calmed down. LaForest told TPM that his union workers have been confused about these criticisms. "I don't think Newt or Mitt have said a single negative thing about the Nissan Leaf," he said. "They're attacking our car to get at the President. But our car is going to change the way America does business. It's a breath of fresh air."

Report: UAW membership climbs 1.1% thanks to automakers adding jobs

The United Auto Workers has seen an increase in membership for the second straight year, according to Bloomberg. Last year, the union saw its ranks grow by 1.1 percent to 380,719 members, thanks in part to increased hiring by domestic automakers. In 2010, the UAW grew by six percent, but today's total is still a fraction of the 1.5 million members the union boasted in 1979. General Motors, Ford and Chrysler are expected to hire around 14,750 union workers by 2015, according to the report. That number is likely far below what the UAW will need to be able to secure significant bargaining leverage.

To that end, the UAW has made it clear that organizing a foreign-owned manufacturing facility is crucial to its survival. UAW president Bob King vowed to unionize one such plant last year but failed to do so. Now the UAW is reportedly handing out authorization cards at the new Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Workers there have reportedly had mixed-reactions to the prospect of unionization.

Video: This is why drag racers should stay on dragstrips

We've seen some dumb ideas before, but this one may take the cake. The post-jump video shows what happens when a dragster that should stick to the strip goes on a track that requires a mild left turn. Actually, this "track" looks more like the cart path at the local golf course, except most owners wouldn't put the path this close to a ditch.

Of course the dragster ends up in said ditch, and we're thinking the driver is mighty lucky that his car rolled back into the upright position, or he could have been in a heap of trouble. Hit the jump to watch the video for yourself, if only to enjoy the second vantage point of the crash, which shows just how useless a steering wheel can be in a drag car.

Continue reading This is why drag racers should stay on dragstrips

Report: UAW ramping up efforts to organize VW's Chattanooga plant

The United Auto Workers group isn't backing down on its efforts to unionize the new Volkswagen manufacturing facility in Chattanooga, Tennessee, according to Automotive News. The union is currently asking workers at the facility to sign a petition of support for organization.

The UAW has been meeting informally with workers at the plant for several months, but began handing out authorization cards early this month. Labor laws require a union to submit signature cards from at least 30 percent of the workforce before an election can be held for representation.

Unionizing plants owned by foreign automakers is a necessity for the group's survival moving forward, the UAW reiterates. The union has seen membership decline for the past 30 years, resulting in a financial crisis that's been underscored by the United States recession.

Automotive News reports the UAW has not told Volkswagen of its efforts to unionize the Chattanooga plant. An announcement may come about the program in early April. The plant currently employs more than 2,700 workers.

Report: Civil rights and labor groups urge Hyundai to fight Alabama immigration law

Hyundai, one of the largest employers in the state of Alabama, has been urged by a group of 15 civil rights organizations and labor unions, including the United Auto Workers and NAACP, to help overturn Alabama's immigration law.

The law was put into effect in September of 2011, and it requires police, among other things, to check the identification and immigration status of anyone detained and suspected of being an illegal immigrant. At least two employees of foreign automakers in Alabama have had run-ins with the police over the law. Wade Henderson, CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, said this in a statement:

"We came today as shareholders working within the company to press our case. By [Hyundai's] silence in Alabama, it is acquiescing to a human rights disaster. We hope we will engage leaders in thoughtful conversation about taking steps to repeal this law."

Report: New polls indicate Americans warming to auto bailouts

Even as Republican presidential candidates soldier on in their opposition to the auto industry bailout, new polling indicates that the American public has changed its attitude about the $80 billion spent to help both Chrysler and General Motors restructure. According to The New York Times, a poll conducted in February shows the gap between those who approve of the measures and those who remain opposed has shrunk, while a different, more recent poll shows a slim majority of Americans now support the bailout. In the midst of the 2008-2009 crisis, polls suggested that three out of four people were against government intervention.

The New York Times suggests the post-bailout success of the automakers is the most likely driver of the change in attitude, citing the return to profitability of both Chrysler and GM. That success has resulted in real job creation, with some 126,500 positions in the motor vehicle manufacturing industry added, according to the report. GM has promised to spend $2 billion on factory investments this year and next, including $385 million at its Romulus, MI, engine plant pictured above.

That the actual cost of the bailout has been revised downward by more than 80 percent, to $14 billion, has likely played a part in public perception as well.

Report: Fiat pondering closure of two Italian plants if American initiative fails

Fiat spent much of 2011 jousting with Italian labor unions over contracts and plant security. The matter was finally resolved in December when Fiat signed new labor agreements, but a sign of Fiat's take on the matter was its departure from Confindustria, an Italian business group, over concerns that group labor agreements were crippling international competitiveness. Some recent comments by Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne, though, seem to point the company back to loggerheads with labor.

According to a Reuters report, Marchionne said that Fiat might close two of its five Italian plants "if plans to export to the growing U.S. market don't materialize." The plans in question appear to be based on getting Alfa Romeo back to the U.S. market, but the only public news we've had about that is delays and upset dealers. The report didn't say when Marchionne was considering shutting down the plants, but with Alfa's U.S. return timed for next year at the earliest, it seems a bit early for Marchionne to turn into a crapehanger.

Indeed, the report has riled the head of Italy's largest metalworker's union, who called the comments "worrying," cited the failed attempts to get Alfa here and called plans for the brand "weak, overambitious and adventurous."

What's not in question, however, is that Marchionne has to figure out how to get more from Fiat's Italian operations. While Chrysler plants are at capacity, a Bloomberg report put Fiat's Italian factory utilization at 38 percent in the first three quarters of 2011, and said Italian workers produced 30 cars per year on average while Polish workers produced 100, before accounting for model and work disparities. Pinning hopes on Alfa's export possibilities to turn those numbers around strikes us as odd.