UAW In Top Secret Talks With "Vast Majority" Of Transplants
Despite the fact that no transplant automaker has admitted to being in direct talks with the UAW, union boss Bob King told the Center for Automotive Research’s Management Briefing Seminar [via Reuters]
The vast majority of the assemblers here in the United States have at least agreed to confidential discussions. We’ve had productive discussions. The last thing we want is confrontation.
So, the issue isn’t that the transplants are all responding to the UAW’s overtures like Honda, which has said
Honda has had no dialogue with the UAW and has no interest in a discussion with them.
No, talks are happening with the “vast majority” of transplants… they just happen to be secret talks (which, at least in the case of VW, appear to be going nowhere). That in itself is strange, considering the UAW’s previous, highly-public approach to naming and shaming non-union transplant manufacturers. More likely: secret talks keep the union from losing face and the transplants from looking like “human rights abusers.” My how things change fast…
More by Edward Niedermeyer
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Note to Mr. King: There is a small but significant difference between "top secret" and "imaginary".
What does a starting UAW member get paid these days? That would be a hell of a deal for the manufacturers, and probably a really bad deal for the "new" members... You think they'll vote this in?
"Can’t give away a factory in Detroit or Cleveland." There must be 100s of empty but ready to go facilities above the Mason-Dixon that no car company will even look at. They rather build new facilities at huge costs in the USA South. That has to make you say "Hmmmm". Right, Mr. King?
Say what you will about the UAW and its compensation but keep in mind other Unions abroad make even more money, southern plants in the US are only part of the picture.