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Because even General Motors bows to the unions

6 months ago babelfish

Because even General Motors bows to the unions

General Motors, despite the 800 million dollar hole caused by the stoppage at the factories, accepts the requests of the American unions who have achieved an unexpected victory. And they are already looking at the possibility of penetrating Tesla, Elon Musk's fiefdom

It was just a matter of time. Following the capitulation of Ford and Stellantis , both of which came to terms with workers' representatives, it was clear to everyone that General Motors would also give in to the union demands. And in fact the unions' proposal was accepted by the US company after the Uaw had also managed to block the Spring Hill plant over the weekend, whose 4,000 workers build Cadillac SUVs and the engines of all four of the group's brands ( Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac).

FAIN'S VICTORY

Therefore, the intransigent strategy of Shawn Fain , leader of the US union Uaw (United Automobile Workers) is a winner across the board who, since he took command, immediately wanted to restore strength to the workers' union, often clashing with the rest of the management , against an escalation of the struggle.

And instead, as demonstrated by the capitulation of the "three sisters of the car" or "Big Three", Fain had understood that the winning strategy was the simultaneous strike, in a historical period in which, moreover, the US car industry was not it can afford to stop, given that it has the Chinese brands in its wake.

WHAT GENERAL MOTORS PROMISES TO THE UNIONS

General Motors, like Ford and Stellantis, has also committed to signing a contract that provides for a 25% increase in salaries within the next four years, with an immediate increase of 11% and automatic increases linked to the cost of living, removed from negotiations since 2007.

Generally speaking, conditions similar to those obtained with Ford and Stellantis are expected and it could not be otherwise given that the Uaw was able to achieve a similar, unexpected result by uniting the workers of the three brands. Obtaining a de facto identical contract will help the union maintain this unprecedented unity.

In the meantime, the workers will return to the assembly line waiting for the pact signed between Fain and GM to be subjected to a referendum of all members and therefore ratified by the respective works councils.

HOW MUCH DID THE STRIKE COST GM?

Management is paying attention to the brand's losses caused by the strike, which currently amount to over 800 million dollars and the new preliminary agreement will certainly not contribute to improving the accounts, therefore requiring changes to the industrial plan. This is also why the Group has withdrawn its forecast for the year.

THE LATEST QUARTERLY

As for the latest quarterly, General Motors exceeded analysts' expectations in the third quarter. Net profit attributable to shareholders fell by 7.3% to 3.06 billion dollars (2.88 billion euros), while adjusted operating profit fell by 16.9% to 3.56 billion dollars ( 3 .35 billion euros), revenues increased by 5.4% to 44.13 billion dollars (41.51 billion euros) compared to 41.89 billion dollars in the previous year.

TESLA IN THE SIGHTS?

While the plants of Ford, Stellantis and General Motors return to full production, American unions, reinvigorated by success, are now looking to new companies. In the last few hours, Fain spoke to the 20,000 workers at the Tesla plant in Fremont, California (it is perhaps appropriate to point out that, according to US legislation relating to industrial relations, the union in the USA is formed and exercises its contractual action essentially at of a single factory), explaining to them the advantages of joining a corporation. Advantages which, after the UAW's victory over the Big Three, are there for all to see.

A non-random step. As Uil recalls, in fact, the company in the past tried to ban employees of the Californian plant from wearing t-shirts with the United Automobile Workers symbol during a unionization campaign. Elon Musk himself, owner of Tesla, some time ago via X had threatened the workers in his gigafactories of losing their stock options if they formed a union. The National Labor Relations Board then ruled that the South African tycoon had violated federal labor law, ordering him to delete the tweet.

This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/smartcity/perche-anche-general-motors-si-piega-ai-sindacati/ on Tue, 31 Oct 2023 13:14:37 +0000.