Majority of GM Employees Approve Contract, Still Does Not Pass

So ... you would have posted that comment for any article that has "GM" in it, regardless of whether it has absolutely nothing to do with the topic? Very insightful, thanks - really adds to the discussion. I hope the 2 sides can move past this soon. I like the direction that GM is going and would like to see the momentum continue. The next economic down-turn will likely happen during this contract term, so I hope GM doesn't give too much.

I was a skilled tradesman before moving to management. Not really the "elite 1%" but the skilled trades bring more to the job in specific skills. Electricians, Control and Instrumentation Techs, Millwright, etc. Usually work in a plant maintenance position. Typically at a higher pay-scale than the non-skilled folks. From what I understand the skilled trades people didn't get all the bennies that the non-skilled people received in the proposed contract. A sign of the times - where I worked the company started evaluating people who could put stickers on 55-gallon drums along with Control and Instrument techs troubleshooting/repairing screw ups by engineers. And the drum-kickers were getting better evaluations and bigger raises/bonuses. The skilled trades were seen as "overhead" that negatively affected production by needing to maintain equipment that the drum-kickers broke. It appears that pushing product out the door is now more important than keeping the infrastructure maintained and operating correctly.

bullnuke, pushing the product out the door is the only way that the company can make money. Keeping the infrastructure maintained and operating correctly doesn't do diddly to make money; in fact it costs money and dings the bottom line.

highdesertcat: I hope you're just being snarky. Skilled tradesmen are the difference between millions of dollars a day or millions of dollars of downtime. Having things maintained and working properly is what allows them to run machines (instead of relying on manual labor) and produce reliable cars (as opposed to the cars of the past). I toured a potato plant yesterday - they make french fries and other potato products. Those machines are put not only maintained by but also programmed by electricians and instrumentmentation technicians. Unless the engineers are going to learn to run conduit and program PLCs (and weld, and install instrumentation, etc.), and then be willing to do that work in the factory, every factory needs well paid skilled tradesmen. It's funny to me that IT is now such a big thing, the golden road to riches, but if you program a PLC instead of an app you are invisible. Even though nearly every modern factory, certainly every car factory, requires skilled PLC programmers. Often the PLC programmers are electricians. Not to mention someone to run the conduit, and someone to maintain the motors, and someone to set up the instrumentation systems, and someone to properly fabricate and weld up machinery to the engineer's specs... Every one of these positions requires skills that take time to learn and more time to master. These people are absolutely essential for the operation of a factory. There would be no "bottom line" without these people.

@Adamatari Not being snarky. I've never known Maint/Ops to sell any products. My dad was a shipboard Master-electrician with the IBEW in San Pedro Harbor, and he did Maint/Ops when he first got started. Never made any money for company he worked for, UNTIL he actually went out on contract jobs, aboard ships. Made tons of money for his employer then.

@highdesertcat Such short sightedness if employed by management to its logical conclusion would result in quantity before quality, high cost of non conformance and rework, declines in customer satisfaction, sales, profits and corporate failure. This was exactly the formula employed by the British and Detroit motor industries in the 60's and 70's.

@Robert.Walter What I see here is that the Maint/Ops people consider themselves more important that the other members of "The Team." Maint/Ops never built or sold anything. Assembly/Production people are the cash cows of the auto industry. They produce what the company sells. In many factories Maint/Ops has been outsourched to contracting firms. That should be advisable in this instance as well. As another has already posted, the whole discussion only matters to buyers of UAW-made products. For everyone else buying non UAW-assembled vehicles, it's just "mehhhh."

@highdesertcat You sound like you have never worked in a manufacturing plant. What is your manufacturing experience? I am happy to tell you that mine spans 30 years and includes 7 years in manufacturing engineering directly on the plant floor. Being in a non-union plant, I have done many of the tasks Adamatari describes. I believe the skilled trades people in unionized auto plants may well have abused their position over the years; but on the other hand they are critical to maintaining production. If you try to outsource this function, all it really means is that on Friday the company will fire all the experienced hands, and on Monday the outsourcing company will hire them back at a lower pay rate, doing the exact same jobs. Why? Because those people's experience and knowledge of the individual plant is required or the plant won't run.