Labor Notes: What's Work Like Now for United Auto Workers in the Post-Bailout Big Three?

[amborin]

Auto Companies Recover, But Jobs Are Harder


by Jane Slaughter August 23,2011


.....What’s life on the shop floor like since the ’09 meltdown?


.... “There are no good jobs anymore,” says one Ford worker. .“The quality of your day is not good,” says Denise Perry, who attaches Chevy Cruze door handles at GM’s Lordstown, Ohio, plant. “You’re more exhausted, more frustrated, there’s more sick leave.”

Pam Powell, who works surrounded by robots in a Ford body shop, says, “You’re in a boiling hot factory,
can’t sit down, your arm hurts, your back doesn’t work. When you leave you are not the same person you were.”

As their union leaders negotiate new contracts with the Detroit Three, auto workers await the September 14 results
with trepidation. They know that UAW President Bob King is damping down expectations, saying publicly he’s not
going for a wage increase—just profit-sharing. (Ford and GM have had no wage increase since 2005, Chrysler since
2006, and all lost cost-of-living in 2009, resulting in a 99 cents per hour pay cut.)
Some hope for relief, then, on working conditions. Can they get back the six minutes’ break time they gave up
in 2009? Can they maintain job classifications, which give you some dignity and hope to bid out of back-breaking
work after putting in the years?

snip

In situations where every second counts, break time is treasured and never enough.
Working an eight-hour shift, Perry gets two 10-minute breaks per day, and 20 minutes for lunch.

snip

http://labornotes.org/2011/08/auto-companies-recover-jobs-are-harder

[Donnachaidh]

1. recced to zero. Must be something up with this. n/t

[amborin]

11. per usual...

[NNN0LHI]

2. I think every worker should get the opportunity to work in an auto plant for about a year

Bet it would open a lot of eyes.

Don

[Harmony Blue]

3. 20 minute lunch? How is that fair?

30 minutes should be the standard!

[Fantastic Anarchist]

4. Now Labor is begging for 30 min lunches?

It should be at least an hour. We waste our lives working. There's other things to do besides make profits for CEOs.

[blindpig]

5. Capitalists steal the hours of our lives from us...

the only thing we got.

[Fantastic Anarchist]

9. It's one continuous highway robbery. n/t

[amborin]

17. +1000

[amborin]

14. just like before GM recognized the UAW, in the '30s, that's where it's headed

[NNN0LHI]

6. LOL. This worker was describing working in an automotive assembly plant

I retired from an automotive stamping plant which is about hundred times worse than the assembly plant I worked at for a while. The assembly plant was truly hell but in comparison to a stamping plant it was child's play.

And the lunch period at any auto plant is unpaid. So whenever I got lucky enough to get on a job that I could work straight through without a lunch break and leave 20 minutes early I always did. I would rather eat at home.

Don

[amborin]

18. the stamping plants

are truly grueling...

[amborin]

13. it's not; it's back to the '20s and '30s for auto workers

[amborin]

12. grueling work

[Fumesucker]

7. “There are no good jobs anymore,”

Oh, I imagine CEO is still a fairly cushy job.

After all at least some of them took private jets when they had to beg for handouts from the serfs.

[amborin]

10. a measly $1.7 mill for GM's CEO (not counting stock options...) $17.9 mill for Ford's...

"Dan Akerson, the man who just recently replaced Ed Whitacre as General Motors' CEO, will be paid an annual salary of a cool $1.7 million. That's an awfully pretty penny, but Akerson indeed has his work cut out for him – The General is finally on its way to public ownership, with a stock IPO in the works for later this year.

In addition to his $1.7 million, Akerson will also receive $5.3 million worth of GM stock, delivered over the course of three years beginning on September 30, 2011. Furthermore, he will receive an additional $2 million in stock under GM's long-term incentive plan.

This may seem like quite a bit, but things are a lot richer (literally) just down the road in Dearborn. Ford's CEO, Alan Mulally, makes substantially more – he netted $17.9 million in cash and bonuses in 2009 ..."

http://www.autoblog.com/2010/09/10/new-gm-ceo-akerson-to-earn-1-7-million-annual-salary/

and that was over a year ago....

[OutNow]

8. I hope the UAW gets a good contract

The union members deserve a good contract after all the concessions they've made in the past 20 years. I admit I've purchased foreign cars in the past 20 years, but I made a conscious decision to buy a UAW=built car this year. The Chrysler 200 S I bought is a great looking car and looks even better with "Union YES" and "Obama Biden 2012" bumper stickers on the back.

[amborin]

16. that's great you did that!

[Starry Messenger]

15. recommend.

[Romulox]

19. Should I buy a Prius? Solidarity, in all other respects! nt