Hitler Is Mad About Uaw - VidoEmo - Emotional Video Unity

Hitler Is Mad About Uaw - VidoEmo - Emotional Video Unity

click link

old one, but ok

 

The Mike Wallace Interview

The Mike Wallace Interview

click link and scroll down page for vid

will be discussed next meeting if time permits. soar 11-3 does believe in teaching history and labor history has been seriously neglected.
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flic description

Walter Reuther
1/25/58
Walter Reuther, president of the United Auto Workers, talks to Wallace about his plan for profit sharing for auto workers, which was being attacked as a "giant step toward socialism."

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"Brotherhood of Man" 1946 - A UAW-CIO video against racism

from 1946 and far advanced for its time. advocates brotherhood and tolerence from cio/uaw

GM bondholders, made in China and more

GM is having woes. Another woe, made in China autos. Really believe management will keep its word? This is from today's Ed Show and does mention the Bus tour.

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American taxpayer's money to save auto industry that will export jobs (perhaps) after American workers give up many a benefit. See anything wrong with that picture?

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bus tour additional vid

This is a good vid on bus tour of Steelworkers and UAW. Highlights

GM gets concessions from Canadian Auto Workers

Some of the folks might find interest in the following article. The article is copyrighted and I shall withdraw if objections made:

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=anpKKbR8jamE&refer=news




GM Gets Concessions From Canadian Union Before Probable Filing

By Katie Merx

May 26 (Bloomberg) -- The Canadian Auto Workers union, almost one month after amending its contract with Chrysler LLC, ratified a cost-saving labor agreement with General Motors Corp. yesterday to protect jobs in a probable June 1 bankruptcy.

The CAW, representing about 9,000 GM hourly workers, approved with 86 percent of the vote yesterday a deal that freezes pension payments until 2015 and pays new hires less. The United Auto Workers, GM’s U.S. union, will present a tentative labor package to plant-level leaders tomorrow in Detroit. Some locals have already scheduled votes this week.

GM Chief Executive Officer Fritz Henderson, who said a bankruptcy is “probable,” needs to get labor contracts amended so that a court-managed restructuring can proceed quickly. Many bondholders have said they will reject a proposal tomorrow to exchange $27 billion in debt for equity. GM will seek protection if fewer than 90 percent agree, Henderson has said.
“The conventional wisdom is that bankruptcy is imminent,” said Harley Shaiken, a professor at the University of California at Berkeley. He predicted the UAW would ratify its agreement, too. “The union wants to secure what it can before the bankruptcy, put pressure on the bondholders, and engage the larger political momentum out there.”

Lower Starting Pay
The CAW agreement would pay newly hired employees 70 percent of the full wage, increasing to 100 percent over six years, cut one week of paid time off and set the groundwork for negotiating a health-care trust to cover retiree medical costs, the union said in the highlights it shared with GM workers.

“This has been a grueling restructuring process, and no one has felt that more than our members and retirees,” CAW President Ken Lewenza said Sunday in a statement.

Approval of the deal positions the automaker to receive unspecified Canadian government aid the CAW said was necessary to keep GM Canada from being liquidated.

The UAW, representing about 54,000 GM hourly workers, hasn’t released the details of its tentative agreement.

People briefed at UAW meetings in Cleveland earlier this month said union retirees would give up dental and vision coverage as well as some prescription-drug coverage.
Those changes would match reductions that start as soon as July 1 for Chrysler retirees. Cuts in unemployment benefits and work-rule changes at GM also would be similar, the people said.
Ratification Predicted

Another round of buyout and retirement incentives are expected, the people said. About 67,500 union jobs have been eliminated through similar programs since 2005. The initial 2009 buyout consisted of a $25,000 voucher toward a new auto and $20,000 in cash.

GM has proposed that the UAW swap $20 billion of the automaker’s obligations to a retiree health-care trust for $10 billion in cash paid out over an unspecified period, and as much as 39 percent of the equity in a restructured company.

“I would be surprised if the UAW deal passed with less than 75 percent approval,” said Art Wheaton, an industrial- relations specialist at Cornell University. “If it doesn’t get ratified, they get whatever the bankruptcy judge thinks they should get. In terms of who has the most to lose in this, it’s the workers.”

GM has about 522,000 union retirees and dependents. Only current workers vote on new contracts.

GM is also trimming salaried positions, eliminating 14 percent already this year. The automaker plans for a new set of cuts this month that may be similar in scope, and focused on North America, people familiar with the matter said this month.

The largest U.S. automaker is rushing to complete as many pieces of its restructuring plan as possible in advance of the Obama administration’s June 1 bankruptcy deadline.

Bondholders’ Opposition
Bondholders have so far been unwilling to accept the company’s offer that they take 225 shares in a newly created entity for each $1,000 in principal before the automaker executes a 1-for-100 reverse split of the stock.

GM’s offer to exchange about $27 billion of bonds for a 10 percent equity stake expires at 11:59 p.m. in New York today. The ad hoc committee of GM bondholders called the offer “neither reasonable nor adequate” and proposed they get a 58 percent stake. Their offer hasn’t been adopted.

Individual GM bondholders have also opposed the automaker’s offer. A group that calls itself Main Street Bondholders has held rallies across the U.S. asking for inclusion in restructuring talks and better exchange terms.

A second group, GM Bondholders Unite, is trying to gather investors and hire legal representation to get “fair and equitable treatment” if GM files for bankruptcy, according to the group’s Web site.

Can’t Blame Unions
GM, propped up with $19.4 billion in emergency U.S. loans, said it expects to need $7.6 billion from the U.S. after June 1, President Barack Obama’s deadline to restructure outside of court.
The U.S. and Canadian union agreements are intended to help GM reduce hourly labor costs so it can return to profit after a restructuring with or without court protection.

Government officials in Canada had said the CAW needed to make its local labor costs comparable to those for Toyota Motor Corp. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said May 22 the government was “committed” to helping GM restructure.

The Canadian and Ontario governments haven’t said how much money might be available for GM and Chrysler LLC, which is already in bankruptcy in the U.S.

With new labor agreements, the unions can’t be made a scapegoat, said Gary Chaison, professor of industrial relations at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts.

“They can say, now, that they did all that they could,” Chaison said. “If GM goes into bankruptcy, they’ll be able to say it wasn’t their fault.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Katie Merx in Southfield, Michigan, at kmerx@bloomberg.net Last Updated: May 26, 2009 00:01 EDT
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facts from Reuter's article: http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN2236757120090526

UAW is meeting in Detroit for a vote today on benefit cuts. UAW hopes to have all votes counted by this Thursday. My note: retirees cannot vote and they are likely to take some big hits.

Canadian cuts are estimated around 30% in pay and benefits with 86% of workers voting in favor of cuts. Lord knows what is expected of American workers to cede on top of the outragous benefit cuts already in progress (my note again).

more vids on Made in America bus tour

The AAM bus tour (UAW/USW) is over. I believe they did bring their message to the public, but as always; media did not cover as well as some would have liked. The first day in St. Louis seems to had the best media coverage.

All union organizations and locals need a group of folks to follow the media. If necessary, they must stand ready to ask the media why they did or did not cover labor events. Fortunately, Soar 11-3 has an "unofficial" media committee that follows the press and media for labor stories.
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http://www.youtube.com/user/AmericanMfg has many more vids. This is from their stuff and other sources below. There are more than 40 short interviews of the American MFG site where folks talk about the economy in their local communities.

My opinion is they did a good job.

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Darin Gilley is a labor activist for UAW (local 1760). This is another vid from election time and prior to the bus tour. Darin was a speaker in rally (s) on the eastside earlier this year.:

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Additional vids of Rally downtown St. Louis May--bus tour

Here is a couple more vids from the steelworkers on the Rally dowtown St. Louis earlier this week. I am certain the folks will recognize Jesse J and Leo G.

There was excellent first day press coverage of the bus tour. Do not expect the press in all the stops to be as good, in fact look for black-out of coverage.

vids taken from usw site.

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Additional vids of Rally downtown St. Louis May 11, 09

These are vids from varied sources on the Rally yesterday. Rally had good press coverage with all St. Louis television stations covering, some radio, St. Louis Post and some independant news sources.

Note: some of the materials are copyrighted. I will withdraw if objections made, but the purpose of reproduction is for discussion within and without the labor community.

These will form some discussion on the breaksfasts in southcounty breakfast and Farmington group breakfasts and will be discussed more in detail next meeting in June.
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ksdk original on truevideo--USA today. This is also repeated other sites. KSDK listing:
http://www.ksdk.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=175044&catid=3&provider=email
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http://usat.gannett.a.mms.mavenapps.net/mms/rt/1/site/gannett-usatoday-206-pub01-live/current/launch.html?maven_playerId=immersiveproduction&maven_referralObject=1120379687

vid long 26 minutes or so
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steelworker site vid with comment from Leo Gerard (whom was at the rally yesterday)

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Ktvi vid with Jaco making observations and comments. Jaco has a good eye for events and although I might not agree with him on some issues, the man hits home more often than not.

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Save Our Jobs Rally in St. Louis May 11th, 09

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Both Ralph and I attended today's rally downtown. Good (but small) group at the rally. Steelworkers and UAW were out in limited numbers (a couple busses lost and some snafu on getting out word to some of the folks).

Some very good folks attended.

This is from http://www.stlbeacon.org/ posted on you tube and I think you might recognize a person or two.

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Times article on GM retirees

A lot of GM retirees are quite frankly worried. Many autoworkers in the metro St. Louis area and some are kinfolks and friends.

This is recent New york Times article on the retiree aspect. Again, this is copyrighted story and I shall withdraw if copyright holders object. Article fair and one to keep in mind over the woes faced by retirees.

As a retired can worker whom got shafted by company after retirement, I have some empathy with these folks. Note: my ex-masters making money hand over fist and not in any cash trouble at all (Silgan containers). So are the other can masters whom closed operations in St. Louis like Rexam and Crown-Cork-Seal.

Note: when I started work at can makers in the 70s, American Can was a class act in comparision to the folks now.


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November 10, 2008
Some G.M. Retirees Are in a Health Care Squeeze
By NICK BUNKLEY
DETROIT — General Motors is living on borrowed time, spending more than $2 billion in cash a month and lobbying for a government bailout to keep it out of bankruptcy.
And for about 100,000 of its white-collar retirees, time is about to run out on G.M.’s gold-plated medical benefits.
To conserve its dwindling cash reserves, G.M. is eliminating lifetime health care coverage for its legions of retirees at the end of this year, leaving people like Ken Hewitt to fend for themselves in deciding how to cover their doctor’s bills and prescription drug costs.
“Everybody felt like they were set for life,” said Mr. Hewitt, 81, who retired from the former Chevrolet Engineering Center in 1982 and lives north of Detroit. “It’s been difficult, but the information they’ve given us has been beneficial. Still, when you get to be our age, it’s tough to make any big changes like that.”
G.M. has had little choice this year but to make deep cuts wherever it can, including benefits that were long considered sacred.
The move was announced in July as part of a package of broad cutbacks to increase the company’s liquidity, including a 20 percent reduction in payroll for salaried workers and suspension of G.M.’s annual stock dividend of $1 a share.
But even these and other measures have not been enough to stabilize the company’s finances, as the auto industry suffers from a weakening economy and tight credit that makes it hard for shoppers to get loans.
On Friday, G.M. warned that it might run short of cash by mid-2009, and it is asking for federal help with greater urgency.
G.M. has estimated that eliminating the white-collar retiree medical benefits, in addition to pay and staffing cuts in its current white-collar work force, will save the company about $1.5 billion annually. Union contracts prevent the company from revoking coverage for former factory workers. Ford and Chrysler already have cut health coverage for salaried retirees.
In fact, paying the cost of hospital stays, surgeries and expensive drugs for retirees, a group now larger than G.M.’s active work force, is a major reason the company’s financial woes are so great. G.M. says it spent $4.6 billion in 2007 on health care for its one million employees and retirees and their dependents.
Many retirees say they are aware of the burden these costs represent to the company, so they do not blame G.M. for cutting them off. Even so, they lament the demise of such a valuable perk.
“If the company goes out of business, we’ll lose everything anyway,” said Richard J. Moore, 70, who held management positions at G.M. plants in New York and Illinois before retiring in 1991 to suburban Phoenix. “You can’t survive by giving away everything.”
G.M.’s decision to halt health care benefits for salaried retirees at age 65 means that nationwide, former engineers, plant managers and executives are anxiously trying to decipher various combinations of Medicare and other insurance plans.
For months they have been poring over stacks of brochures and sitting through sometimes-baffling sales pitches ahead of an enrollment window that opens this month and ends Dec. 31. Because G.M. told them it would cover their health care for life, few studied up on Medicare and other coverage options as they approached retirement.
“Some of these people have been on G.M.’s plan for 40 or 50 years, and now all of this is thrown at them,” said Jack Dickinson, a G.M. retiree who runs the Web site OverTheHillCarPeople.com. “People are highly upset, confused and totally lost. The Medicare system is very hard for older people to tackle.”
Eliminating that confusion has been a major undertaking. G.M. scheduled 150 informational meetings in cities where its retirees are concentrated and hired a company called Extend Health to answer questions and help with Medicare enrollment. A company in Tennessee, My Part D USA, which provides personalized comparisons of different plans, has met with groups of G.M. retirees and is working with OverTheHillCarPeople.com to ease the transition.
“These people have never had to deal with Medicare at all,” said Karyn Blake of My Part D USA, a Detroit-area native whose uncles owned Cadillac and Oldsmobile dealerships. “They’re hearing different things from different salespeople, and they’re totally overwhelmed. I think they kind of feel abandoned.”
Many G.M. retirees have simply turned to one another for help, by getting together with former co-workers who live down the street, sharing information on Internet message boards, or discussing the issue at meetings of the numerous G.M. retiree clubs in Michigan, Florida and other states.
“It’s nothing that we ever had to think about before,” Barbara Spencer, 77, who worked in payroll for Buick and retired in 1988. On Thursday, she attended a meeting of the Buick retirees club to discuss health care options. “You don’t want to make a mistake,” she added.
To help retirees pay for their new coverage, G.M. is raising monthly pension payments by $300, which typically means $240 or $255 after taxes.
The cost of replacement coverage varies, depending on a person’s needs. Some find that they can get adequate benefits for about the same amount as their pension increase, but others must now find several hundred dollars more in their monthly budget.
“Anyone that thinks they can go out and replace insurance that you had with General Motors for $255 and get the same kind of coverage, I’d like to sell them a bridge in Wisconsin somewhere,” said Mr. Dickinson, 65, whose irritation with G.M.’s move is apparent in the headline “G.M. Robs Their Elderly Retirees” on his Web site atop information about the changeover.
In recent months, he said, the number of visitors to the site has doubled and its membership — for a one-time $25 fee — has grown rapidly, keeping him and a small team of volunteers busy for many hours each day.
Mr. Dickinson said G.M., regardless of its financial woes, was ignoring the steadfast loyalty that its retirees showed to the company by exclusively buying its vehicles and toiling there for decades.
“Many of these people had other jobs offered to them,” he said. “In 34 years with General Motors, I had many opportunities to go in other directions that were much more lucrative, but the promise of health care and pension for life was something that I had to consider.”
None, though, can look at the uncertainty confronting those who work for G.M., Ford and Chrysler today — along with the thousands whose jobs were eliminated — and feel they are the only ones being squeezed.
“I just hope they can recover and come back,” said Kenneth Shear Jr., 70, a former plant supervisor who retired in 1992 and now lives in Summerfield, Fla., in a community with a handful of other G.M. retirees. Mr. Shear was billed $52 to get a pacemaker several years ago, a $148,000 procedure, and never had to pay a health care bill in 31 years at G.M.
“I used to tell some of the guys that worked for me that this job is not going to be available to your kids,” he said. “I’m glad I had my career when I did.”