Current Employment

GM and Chrysler are set to issue their multi-hundred-page “restructuring reports” to Congress tonight, but already insiders are pointing to the United Auto Workers’ hard line on concessions as a reason the Plans will fail.

After major concessions less than 2 years ago, and a misrepresentation of what the fight’s about in the media, Tim Eavenson walks a mile in the union’s shoes and proposes that the Auto Bailout may have been doomed from the start.

A few weeks ago, the CEOs of Chrysler, GM and Ford were hopping back and forth to Washington to try and negotiate a deal with Congress that would keep their companies out of bankruptcy. The talks broke down when Congressional Republicans couldn’t get the UAW to agree to wage and work rule adjustments that would bring it in line with non-union plants in the south.

The Bush Bailout has the same requirements, though. How did he get the UAW to concede? Easy – he didn’t. That burden now belongs to the Big 3.

UAW ends strike at International Truck, drops ULP charges. No, we’re not taking the heat for this one – the UAW strikes at bright lights & loud noises these days. No one with a life could keep up. [AP]

Scandal over illegal workers and clashes with unions over Social Security overhaul ousts government’s head of labor. [...]

We’re sure you’ve heard by now that Chrysler is showing its hand after avoiding the GM security promise during its latest contract talks. The now-private company let out that it may cut up to 10,000 jobs.
Not having the capacity or interest (or meager financial support) of official news outlets, we’ve waited for the [...]

One of the big-picture things that has been overlooked for the most part during this round of negotiations in Detroit is the fractured results. After the GM deal came in, pundits began debating the balance of interests in the contract, assuming it would be the boilerplate for the other two members of the little-big 3. [...]