March 11, 2008 Who Deserves To Profit From Labor? by Gregg Shotwell/UAW Local 2151 Live Bait & Ammo #105: In their last contract members agreed to cost-saving measures worth millions of dollars in the hope of keeping the plant open. “I think ‘being competitive’ is an excuse to destroy the union,” said McIntosh. [“An Excuse to Destroy Unions?” [...]

March 10, 2008 Impact Of American Axle Strike Spreads by Shannon Jones/The World Socialist Website Talks continue through weekend. General Motors reported that it could be forced to wholly or partially shutdown a total of 29 factories in the US and Canada as the strike by 3,650 workers at Detroit-based American Axle nears the completion of its second full [...]

March 10, 2008 GM, American Axle: Ties That Bind by David Barkholz And Robert Sherefkin/The Automotive News Auto parts suppliers live by a simple credo: Don’t cause your customer grief. So a supplier that shuts most of an automaker’s pickup and SUV plants for more than a week will be in hot water and may lose the contract. But not [...]

March 10, 2008 General Motors Boss Gets Pay Rise by motortrader.com Wagoner to receive full salary after taking 200 cut. General Motors has restored chief executive Rick Wagoner’s base salary to the level it was before he took a 50 per cent pay cut in 2006. Two years ago, Wagoner agreed to the cut as in an attempt to improve [...]

March 10, 2008 Automakers May Be Ready To Hire by Barbara Wieland/The Lansing State Journal Automakers in Michigan may be gearing up to do something they haven’t done in well over a decade. They could end up hanging “Help Wanted” signs outside their factories. Even as the Detroit Three – General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC - [...]

March 10, 2008 Delphi Launches Financing, Questions Linger by Kevin Krolicki/The Reuters Bankrupt auto-parts maker Delphi Corporation said on Monday it was re-launching a revised $6.1 billion exit financing package including a larger role for former parent General Motors Corporation. The proposed exit financing package, which is being arranged by J.P. Morgan Securities Inc and Citigroup Global Markets Inc, [...]

March 10, 2008 Tenneco Buys Kettering Delphi, Expects To Hire 350 by Thomas Gnau/The Dayton Daily News Tenneco Inc. has agreed to purchase ride control assets and inventory from Delphi Automotive Systems’ Kettering facility, as part of Delphi Corp.’s bankruptcy court proceedings, Tenneco said Monday, March 10. The company expects “to hire” 300 to 350 employees, said Roni Moore, [...]

March 10, 2008 Ford Workers’ Contract Deflects Layoff Blow by Jere Downs/The Courier-Journal Contract can soften the pain of layoffs. As United Auto Workers in Louisville confront Ford Motor Co.’s first layoffs in almost three decades, their new contract deflects the blow. After losing their jobs and exhausting unemployment benefits, workers can still pocket 95 percent to 100 percent of [...]

March 10, 2008 Gunite Workers Approve New Contract by Gretchen Ross/WREX Channel 13 News Gunite workers trade the picket line for the assembly line. It’s been four months since Gunite locked its workers out of the factory. But with a union contract now in place doors will soon reopen. But today’s deal didn’t come without debate. More than a [...]

March 10, 2008 American Axle, UAW Talks Resume In Detroit by The Reuters Representatives of American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings and the United Auto Workers returned to the bargaining table on Monday for talks aimed at ending a two-week-old strike seen as increasingly costly for General Motors Corp and other suppliers. Monday marked the fifth straight day of bargaining [...]

March 9, 2008 Auto Workers Plan To Attend The Labor Notes April 11-13 2008 Conference by Labor Notes Magazine Special day rates announced (see below). Auto workers from multiple countries will use the Labor Notes Conference to compare notes and strategies about how their industries, unions, and changing working conditions. Meet International Auto Workers Since the early 1980s, Labor Notes conferences [...]

March 9, 2008 Gunite Lockout Could End by WIRF News Channel 23 Workers at Gunite, an auto parts maker in Rockford, have spent the past four months picketing outside the plant’s locked gates. But they may soon be able to put down their signs and get back on the assembly line. It’s been a long cold winter for Gunite’s [...]

March 9, 2008 American Axle Offers Real-Life Look At How NAFTA Hurts Workers by James Parks/blog.aflcio.org With the political debate over the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) heating up, candidates for president need only look at American Axle & Manufacturing for a real-life example of why our trade policies must change now. Some 3,600 workers at American Axle [...]

March 9, 2008 American Axle Talks Continue As Pressure Mounts by The Reuters Talks between 3,600 workers and American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings continued for a fourth straight day on Sunday as the two sides worked toward a deal to end a nearly two-week-old strike that has hobbled GM truck production in the United States and Canada. Bargaining teams [...]

March 8, 2008 A Losing Strategy To Save Auto Jobs by Dave Mortimer/The People’s Weekly World Newspaper Last month my wife and I went to the North American International Auto Show. For Detroiters, this is an annual pilgrimage. Where else can you sit behind the wheel of a $110,000 Maserati when you can’t even afford to buy a [...]

March 8, 2008 Strike Affects 29 GM Plants by Eric Morath/The Detroit News With half of hourly workers threatened, carmaker may need to help end American Axle walkout. As negotiations between American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings Inc. and the United Auto Workers union spill into the weekend, it’s increasingly likely General Motors Corp. will need to step in to [...]

March 8, 2008 Case-IH Retirees Win In Court by Rita Pearson/The Quad-Cities Online A long-pending court case over former Case-IH retirees’ health care benefits took a giant step forward Friday when a federal court judge issued three rulings in the retirees’ favor. “It’s been a champagne day in this office,” said attorney Roger McClow of Southfield, Mich., who represented [...]

March 8, 2008 GM Loses Almost A Third Of Daily Output As Plant Closings Widen by Greg Bensinger/Bloomberg News General Motors Corp. is losing almost a third of its daily U.S. and Canadian vehicle production as parts shortages caused by an 11-day supplier strike shut down more of the automaker’s manufacturing network. GM is building about 5,000 fewer vehicles [...]

March 8, 2008 Ford’s Job Fair Pushes Buyouts by Sarah A. Webster/The Detroit Free Press But some workers aren’t ready to go. As Ford Motor Co. hosted its 20th job fair in the past two years, part of a ramped-up effort to get workers to voluntarily take early retirement or buyout offers and leave the company, one thing became [...]

March 8, 2008 UAW, American Axle Restart Talks by The Toledo Blade The United Auto Workers and auto-parts maker American Axle and Manufacturing Holdings Inc. resumed bargaining Thursday and yesterday, trying to end an 11-day strike that has affected factories in the United States and Canada. Company spokesman Renee Rogers said negotiators had talked for two days, but she [...]