The UAW's national strike against General Motors came to a quick end at 4 a.m. today, with the announcement that a tentative agreement had been reached. Though most details of the agreement are not yet available, it does include a provision for the creation of a VEBA health care trust. UAW President Ron Gettelfinger has assured his membership and the New York Times that the deal "will absolutely protect their jobs and keep jobs from being reduced." But he has not provided specific information on the job security guarantees the union was seeking when it walked out Monday morning.

According to a report in the Detroit Free Press, the deal also includes an attrition program to clear out current workers whose positions will be re-classified as "non-core" and their wages reduced, while implementing a two-tier wage scale and benefits packages for new hires.

If this is the case, and pending any further details that emerge on the agreement, the UAW leadership would appear to have acquiesced on GM's two most significant demands--the VEBA trust and the two-tier wage plan--and will now have to see if it can sell its membership on a disappointing contract that is sure to enflame dissidents within the union who have already been critical of the way Gettelfinger has handled negotiations.

Assuming the contract is ratified, expect Ford and Chrysler to quickly follow suit with their own health care liabilities; and the UAW's already diminished position in the domestic auto industry to be rendered even more irrelevant after effectively selling out future auto workers for the sake of the current membership.

Comments (16)

1. My guess is the "new hires" will be paid roughly what Toyota, Nissan, BMW, Mercedes pay their new hires......hardly worth crying about! What about that Jobs Bank???? I will not buy another NEW Big 3 vehicle until it gets ELIMINATED!

   Posted by Happy at 09/26/2007 @ 12:43pm

2. You can't collectively bargain for more bennies for the workers...

   with companies that are failing.

   Posted by Mask at 09/26/2007 @ 12:45pm

3. who needs a stupid manufacturing sector? we got service jobs.

   once we outsource our entire mnufacturing sector as well as any service sector jobs to india and the third world, once we have eliminated all decent paying jobs for the non ruling class, we can all get mcjobs. with the immense purchasing power of these pissant positions, the average schmuk will fuel a consumer buying spree and continue to buy crap at an ever increasing volume.

   how will this happen if median income goes down?

   credit! and when you go bankrupt? car title loans!

   and when you cant pay that off? big deal. exports are up...billions of foriegners out there.

   why the housing slump? people cant afford it. why can people not afford housing?

   because we got a kick ass economy. because the executives of gm, ge, home depot, etc, are paying themselves a buzillion dollars a year!

   but you, schmuk, quit coplaining, flip that beef patty before it burns and somehow keep spending more money!

   Posted by ibbleblibble at 09/26/2007 @ 1:13pm

4. NEWS FLASH.

   UAW NEGOTIATES PAY RAISE TO $17.53*

   *for full-time employees.

   Posted by frosty zoom at 09/26/2007 @ 1:35pm

5. new job classifications*

   a) temporary, sub-occasional part-timish $8.01/hr

   b) temporary, sub-occasional part-timely $8.02/hr

   c) temporary, occasional part-timish $8.03/hr

   d) temporary, occasional part-timely $8.04/hr

   e) part-time, occasional part-timish $8.05/hr

   f) part-time, occasional part-timely $8.06/hr

   g) full-time, occasional part-timishly $8.07/hr

   h) part-timishly, occasional full-time $8.08/hr

   i) full-occasional-part time $8.09/hr

   j) full time $17.53/hr

   *in order to move from one classification to the next, the worker must show proof of having worked a minimum of 50hrs/week for a period of 22 years.

   Posted by frosty zoom at 09/26/2007 @ 1:43pm

6. Posted by FROSTY ZOOM 09/26/2007 @ 1:43pm

   Can I get a part-timishly, occasional full-time, half-caf, decaf latte with a twist of lemon?

   Posted by Mask at 09/26/2007 @ 1:47pm

7. Can I get a part-timishly, occasional full-time, half-caf, decaf latte with a twist of lemon?

   Posted by MASK 09/26/2007 @ 1:47pm

   sure, fill out this application and wait in line.

   Posted by frosty zoom at 09/26/2007 @ 1:55pm

8. who needs a stupid manufacturing sector?....

   once we outsource our entire mnufacturing sector.....

   Posted by IBBLEBLIBBLE 09/26/2007 @ 1:13pm

   So many of you lefties bought into the MSM's crap about the demise of US manufacturing....

   Today's WSJ has a full page (A9) color ad by the Nat'l Asso. of Manufacturers. A third of the page is devoted to its advocacies for energy security/diversity, free trade, curbing abusive lawsuits, etc. The bulk of the page is its commentary: "Still In the Driver's Seat", in it, it acknowledges the smaller % of GDP manufacturing represents today (but explains it very well), it also states:

   - Doubling of output in the past 25 years

   - Make more goods than at any time in our history

   - With 5% of the world's population, we produce 25% of all manufactured goods, a share that hasn't changed in decades

   - US manufacturing account for over 60% of our exports and such exports are rising faster than manufactured imports.

   You Libs that are educated need to know the facts! The low wages that dominate the MSM headlines, are due primarily, IMHO, to illegal immigration!

   Posted by Happy at 09/26/2007 @ 3:14pm

9. Posted by HAPPY 09/26/2007 @ 3:14pm

   i can testify that's the truth. i smell those factories every morning!

   Posted by frosty zoom at 09/26/2007 @ 3:19pm

10. Happy , if the US is so productive why do we have a $700 billion trade deficit ?

    The UAW is running into Union busting at every level ...

    Imported parts , new nonunion car plants and even many States subsidizing Import Car Companies with lavish packages for their business ...

    Even our Tax Laws discourage manufacturing at home . Companies are taxed at a much lower rate when their profits come from overseas ... or across the border ...

    Try to buy a pair of pants , microwave or TV manufactured in the United States

    At every turn the middle class is being betrayed ...

    And now instead of training Americans to do jobs , people are imported under H1B ...

    Posted by mmckinl at 09/26/2007 @ 5:11pm

11. who needs a stupid manufacturing sector? we got service jobs.

    Congrats to GM and their workers. May they all stay employed and prosper.

    But...it wasn't the big guy who screwed the little guy today...it was the little guy who screwed the little guy today. - Now those people making $8, 10, 12/hour (double the minimum wage) can struggle to try to buy transportation from the guy who installs their bumper for $32/ hour.

    Frosty...I know you were trying to be cute about the $8.01 thing, but do you have an exact figure on what UAW members make??

    Posted by Sliver at 09/26/2007 @ 5:58pm

12. Posted by MMCKINL 09/26/2007 @ 5:11pm

    Happy is a free-market guy, MM. Notice the culprit in all your examples....begins with a G.

    Posted by Sliver at 09/26/2007 @ 6:02pm

13. ...why do we have a $700 billion trade deficit ?

    many States subsidizing Import Car Companies with lavish packages for their business ...

    And now instead of training Americans to do jobs , people are imported under H1B ...

    Posted by MMCKINL 09/26/2007 @ 5:11pm

    Lets' see....10 million bbl of oil per day at $80 per bbl x 365 days = approx. $300 billion right there! Now, which political party won't let OUR oil companies drill in `sensitive' areas? Won't let us develop more nuclear energy?

    Now, add in consumer electronics, a huge category today whereas in the days of yore, a phonograph w/AM/FM by RCA and a TV, maybe an 8-track for the main car are just about it! Who do you suppose first began buying cheaper imports, knockoffs mostly by no-names like Sony, JVC, Sharp.......it wasn't your top 10% in income types......depending on your age, probably your parents, siblings or yourself!

    Look on the bright side, because they are cheap, we now have, w/my family as example: 4 TVs, at least half-dozen CD players (some don't work), 6 to 7 cameras including a couple of SLRs (you know what those are?) and a polaroid, 2 camcorders, 2 VCRs, 3 DVD players, 2 (old-fashioned) AM/FM receivers w/2 pairs of large (not BOSE acoustimas style) floor speakers, 3 iPods, 6~7 cell phones (a couple old ones not activated anymore), shall I go on?

    Clothes....same deal....because they are cheap, people buy more and change tastes more....NOT because they are wearing out!

    On our need for H1-B visas for foreign tech workers, it's just a simple fact American kids aren't flocking to electrical engineering and computer sciences. These aren't McJobs....all pay in the ~$100k range by mid-careers! The company my wife (she is in IT) works for has to interview a large number of people to get the skills they need and her section is over half foreign born! Thank God for H1-B, otherwise, her entire group's function just might be moved overseas entirely...as it is, company-wide, there are dozens of Indians w/H1-Bs running around! These highly educated H1-B holders aren't the ones causing the lack of health care among the poor and keeping wages low at the lowest sector of the service! economy!

    Posted by Happy at 09/26/2007 @ 6:07pm

14. Frosty...I know you were trying to be cute about the $8.01 thing, but do you have an exact figure on what UAW members make??

    Posted by SLIVER 09/26/2007 @ 5:58pm

    not trying to be cute at all. i've seen it happy in numerous businesses. create new job classifications, hire temps etc.,

    anything to get around past contract agreements and save some money for the ceo and the shareholders.

    Posted by frosty zoom at 09/26/2007 @ 9:58pm

15. Posted by HAPPY 09/26/2007 @ 6:07pm

    all that junk.

    we are drowning in junk.

    well, off to the mall...............................

    Posted by frosty zoom at 09/26/2007 @ 9:59pm

16. not trying to be cute at all. i've seen it happy in numerous businesses. create new job classifications, hire temps etc.,

    anything to get around past contract agreements and save some money for the ceo and the shareholders.

    Posted by FROSTY ZOOM 09/26/2007 @ 9:58pm

    Numerous businesses? But the Automakers specifically...yes, no?

    I think you're talking out your ass here. I know plenty of GM, Ford UAW members. One specifically who will talk openly about it has 18 years @ GM Lordstown. That one makes $32/hour + $30/hour in benefits, and all the OT he can handle.

    Close by in Lordstown is a Delphi plant (UAW supplier)where the reduction in demand and reduction in staffing has made it so that Delphi is overstaffed. People there are under contract and having to punch in to sit in a building all day and do nothing while pulling full pay and benefits. Those people are more than fortunate for being taken care of, and God bless them all.

    But you know what? It costs the shmuck on the street as much to buy a UAW made vehicle as it does the CEO and shareholders...actually more when you consider the employee discount. So who's kidding who about who's sticking it to the working man? Your hyperbole regarding the myth of UAW members as jilted robots is about 30 years obsolete.

    When Hooper said to Chief Brody and Quint: "Hey...I don't have to put up with this working class hero bullshit" -1975, '76 maybe?

    Posted by Sliver at 09/26/2007 @ 11:10pm