German autoworkers want their share of the record profits announced by German carmakers last year. IG Metall labor union demanded 5.5 percent. Employers countered with 2.3 percent. Today, workers went on strike. (Read More…)

Chevrolet’s Celta, Prisma and Onix models  will be in short supply when workers General Motors’ Gravataí plant in southern Brazil go on strike for higher pay and shorter hours. Workers of the plant’s first and third shifts already approved the strike, Reuters says, the second shift is expected to follow suit today. (Read More…)

A 36 hour strike at a Dacia plant in Romania led to the loss of 1,500 cars, as workers agitated for wage improved and increased working conditions.

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A brief, two-day strike at a Lear seat plant near Toronto has ended, with production at GM’s Oshawa plant back on schedule.

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The drama over a possible strike at the Big Three was averted this summer, but it ain’t over yet; roughly 75 employees walked off the job at two key suppliers this weekend.

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A report by Reuters suggests that the Canadian Auto Worker’s union may take the unprecedented step of striking at the plants of all three domestic automakers.

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Members of the Canadian Auto Workers union have voted overwhelmingly in favor of a strike mandate as talks between the union and the Big Three resumed today.

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The Canadian Auto Workers union is expected to target Chrysler in the event of a strike, but will reportedly wait until Labor Day before taking action.

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With 25 percent of its manufacturing capabilities in Canada, Chrysler would be hardest hit in the event of a strike by the Canadian Auto Workers union.

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More than 70 percent of Hyundai’s 45,000 strong worker’s guild voted in favor of job actions, including a walkout planned for Friday. The guild is building up towards Hyundai’s first labor strike since 2008, as they seek better wages and reduced hours.

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At home, GM is at peace with the unions, benefits of having the UAW as a major shareholder. Abroad, GM Europe has been in a low intensity conflict with the European unions that oppose cuts at Opel. Now, a labor conflict flares up in an unexpected part of the world: Korea. (Read More…)

At the beginning of this year, the United Auto Workers pledged that it would launch a campaign to organize the foreign-owned, non-union “transplant” factories in the US, threatening to tar uncooperative automakers as “human right abusers.” The campaign initially lost steam, but the UAW stuck to its pledge, re-iterating on several occasions that it would organize “at least one” transplant factory by the end of 2011. With one month left to accomplish that goal and no signs of progress in sight, the UAW has officially called off that goal. In fact, the UAW now hopes to simply pick an automaker to target by the end of 2011. Spokeswoman Michelle Martin tells Bloomberg

At this point, our hope is to make a decision about who we’re going to target by the end of the year. But obviously, we won’t have the organizing campaign completed by the end of the year.

This is not too surprising, considering the UAW announced last week that it would be focusing on dealership pickets initially rather than factory organizing. And sure enough, the first dealership picket has begun, targeting Hyundai dealerships. And yet, says Martin

This has nothing to do with the domestic organizing campaign. Hyundai is not the target.

Huh? If the UAW is not committing to organizing Hyundai’s assembly workers, why picket Hyundai dealerships?

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The talks about a new labor deal between Ford and the UAW have barely begun, and both sides already utter the dreaded s-word: Strike. (Read More…)

Assembly lines at South Korea’s Hyundai Kia ground to a halt this weekend after the companies ran out of a needed engine parts. Production of Hyundai’s Tucson ix, Santa Fe and Veracruz and Kia’s Carnival has stopped. On Wednesday, production of most of  Hyundai’s and Kia’s cars will be affected unless the parts shortage is solved. The Korean units of GM and Renault will suffer, as well as Ssangyong. Do they all get their engines parts from Japan? (Read More…)

Honda is the Chinese version of Rodney Dangerfield. No respect. After a series of strikes, first at Honda’s parts suppliers, then at Honda itself, things looked liked they are calming down. Until yesterday. (Read More…)