UAW almost broke,bloated management,runaway costs

[sjohnson]

Is this why International is so against a strike,why their strong arming us into accepting this contract? Is that why King wanted us to give up our right to strike? Makes you wonder if he had his hands in the decision for Gm and Chrysler workers to have to give up their right to strike. Where does King see that International constantly deserves a raise like they just voted themselves one recently. Obviously they need to downsize the international.

 

Bob King needs to wake up and realize and quit spending our millions on the transplants,its not going to work. From what we have been giving up the last 8 years and now this new contract,shit the transplants, from the veteran workers to the new hires make better money than we do. Why would them workers agree to a union when their better off and see us constantly getting screwed by our union? The only thing Bob King has been doing on the other concessions and has done on this contract is show the transplants that he can give their company whatever they want from the workers and screw us. All Bob King wants is the money from the transplants workers. Obviously their not stupid people. Their not going to pay someone union dues to get worse than they have without a union and constantly get screwed by their union. WHO WOULD?????

 

UAW in Financial Trouble

 

 

The UAW, which purchased among other things, a golf course with members dues money, appears to be hitting the financial skids.

 

 

The Truth About Cars reports that the union is down to its savings and is running on fumes:

 

 

A bloated management, run-away costs, declining market share, imploding volume, a sell-off of assets and investments, headquartered in Detroit – what is it? No, it’s none of the Detroit automakers. It is their former nemesis and current co-owner, the United Auto Workers.

 

 

“Two years after the wrenching restructuring of the U.S. auto industry and the bankruptcies that remade General Motors and Chrysler, the UAW is facing its own financial reckoning. America’s richest union has been living beyond its means and running down its savings, an analysis of its financial records shows. Unless King and other officials succeed with a turnaround plan still taking shape, the next financial crisis in Detroit may not be at one of the automakers but at the UAW itself.”

 

 

This is the beginning of a special report written by the best in the reporting business, by Deepa Seetharaman and her boss, Kevin Krolicki, Chief of the Detroit Bureau of Reuters, with the help of their team of combat reporters from the Detroit front-lines.

 

 

“The UAW might have three to five years before its budget difficulties forced a financial crunch, absent changes. The “hand-grenade” math of the projection gave the union less than a five-year window of opportunity to turn things around by winning new membership at foreign-run auto plants, said the person who saw the internal forecast and asked not to be named because of its sensitivity.”

 

 

In many ways, the UAW resembles the companies it opposed for so long. The UAW is America’s richest union. One of its biggest assets is its strike fund, which stood at $763 million at the end of 2010. If push comes to shove, a union is as strong as its strike fund. The trouble is: The UAW spends more than it takes in. Increasingly, the union has to dip into the strike fund, the Reuters report says. According to government filings, the UAW liquidated $222 million of investments from 2007 to 2009 to cover the shortfall between expenses and revenue.

 

 

Mirroring the U.S. auto industry, the union has seen better days. UAW membership dropped from its peak of 1.5 million in 1979 by 75 percent to under 377,000 workers. Less than a third of the membership works at the Detroit Three.

 

 

Membership fees dropped even more. Union workers still pay dues equivalent to two hours of work a month. The two-tier pay deal, negotiated in 2007, may have helped to stop an even larger membership erosion. But the membership fee is only $30 a month now.

 

 

Mirroring the U.S. auto industry, the UAW is spending heavily to get sagging volume back up. The union needs new members even more desperately that the Detroit Three need new customers. Says Reuters:

 

 

“In 2006, UAW delegates voted to move about $110 million from the strike fund to pay for organizing. In 2010, King went back for an unprecedented double-dip in the fund and won clearance to spend up to another $160 million over four years.

 

 

If that bet goes bust, the union squandered the bargaining power of its members. The odds are not good. “The only luck we’ve had has been bad luck,” UAW boss Bob King said last year. The UAW wants to get members at the transplants in the south. A risky gamble. Says Reuters:

 

 

“Volkswagen AG is paying newly hired workers at its Chattanooga, Tennessee plant $14.50 per hour. That is almost exactly what a second-tier UAW worker would make in Detroit. In a sign of demand for jobs at that pay level, the Chattanooga plant had 85,000 applications for more than 2,000 jobs. VW workers have been promised $19.50 after three years on the job. That is just above the $19.28 per hour maximum that entry-level workers at GM would make over the term of the four-year contract now before workers for ratification.”

 

 

Why pay dues if they don’t buy you more?

 

 

Gary Chaison, a labor relations professor at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, figures that organizing Chattanooga could cost the UAW up to $3 million, or some $1,500 per worker. It would take the union over four years to recoup its investment – if they win.

 

 

If that bet is not successful, then at some point, someone will have to bail out the UAW – again. No thanks, no UAW deathwatch.

[poop]

 

 

You drive a made-in-mexico fusion. Stop posting anti-uaw garbage on here please.

[damagedone37]

You drive a made-in-mexico fusion. Stop posting anti-uaw garbage on here please.

I smell Chucky...

[sjohnson]

You drive a made-in-mexico fusion. Stop posting anti-uaw garbage on here please.

 

For one thing I own a F150,escort also,my parents drive nothing but Ford,most of my family drives Ford because I preach at them if they dont. I am all union,very proud to be union. This is not anti-uaw garbage. Its the truth. Its not my fault that your blind and cant see whats really going on. They tell you something and you believe it and do as your told. Sounds like a union puppet to me. Your probably the kind of person that believes everything your tv tells you. Wake up and get a grip. I see your replies everytime Gary up at DTP posts something and your always negative on everything he posts thats against the new contract.

 

By the way,the Fusion was my wifes car before we met and got married and we cant afford to buy another vehichle because I havent had a damn raise in 8 yrs,no cola,bonuses. Now I will be going on 12 years. At least she was smart enough to buy some kind of Ford and not a Foreign car. So what your saying is,when Ford owned Mazda,Volvo, Land Rover a union worker couldnt buy them vehicles either?

 

If you dont see something wrong with Bob King then thats your opinion and this is mine.

[mikem12]

You drive a made-in-mexico fusion. Stop posting anti-uaw garbage on here please.

 

 

 

regardless of whether he drives a fusion or not is the statement he made true>

 

 

Is the IUAW. spending more than it takes in???

 

 

from the huffington post, which I almost never read

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/22/uaw-facing-financial-reckoning_n_976630.html

Edited October 14, 2011 by mikem12

[TBodette68]

UAW in Financial Trouble

 

 

The UAW, which purchased among other things, a golf course with members dues money, appears to be hitting the financial skids.

 

 

The Truth About Cars reports that the union is down to its savings and is running on fumes:

 

 

A bloated management, run-away costs, declining market share, imploding volume, a sell-off of assets and investments, headquartered in Detroit – what is it? No, it’s none of the Detroit automakers. It is their former nemesis and current co-owner, the United Auto Workers.

 

 

“Two years after the wrenching restructuring of the U.S. auto industry and the bankruptcies that remade General Motors and Chrysler, the UAW is facing its own financial reckoning. America’s richest union has been living beyond its means and running down its savings, an analysis of its financial records shows. Unless King and other officials succeed with a turnaround plan still taking shape, the next financial crisis in Detroit may not be at one of the automakers but at the UAW itself.”

 

 

This is the beginning of a special report written by the best in the reporting business, by Deepa Seetharaman and her boss, Kevin Krolicki, Chief of the Detroit Bureau of Reuters, with the help of their team of combat reporters from the Detroit front-lines.

 

 

“The UAW might have three to five years before its budget difficulties forced a financial crunch, absent changes. The “hand-grenade” math of the projection gave the union less than a five-year window of opportunity to turn things around by winning new membership at foreign-run auto plants, said the person who saw the internal forecast and asked not to be named because of its sensitivity.”

 

 

In many ways, the UAW resembles the companies it opposed for so long. The UAW is America’s richest union. One of its biggest assets is its strike fund, which stood at $763 million at the end of 2010. If push comes to shove, a union is as strong as its strike fund. The trouble is: The UAW spends more than it takes in. Increasingly, the union has to dip into the strike fund, the Reuters report says. According to government filings, the UAW liquidated $222 million of investments from 2007 to 2009 to cover the shortfall between expenses and revenue.

 

 

Mirroring the U.S. auto industry, the union has seen better days. UAW membership dropped from its peak of 1.5 million in 1979 by 75 percent to under 377,000 workers. Less than a third of the membership works at the Detroit Three.

 

 

Membership fees dropped even more. Union workers still pay dues equivalent to two hours of work a month. The two-tier pay deal, negotiated in 2007, may have helped to stop an even larger membership erosion. But the membership fee is only $30 a month now.

 

 

Mirroring the U.S. auto industry, the UAW is spending heavily to get sagging volume back up. The union needs new members even more desperately that the Detroit Three need new customers. Says Reuters:

 

 

“In 2006, UAW delegates voted to move about $110 million from the strike fund to pay for organizing. In 2010, King went back for an unprecedented double-dip in the fund and won clearance to spend up to another $160 million over four years.

 

 

If that bet goes bust, the union squandered the bargaining power of its members. The odds are not good. “The only luck we’ve had has been bad luck,” UAW boss Bob King said last year. The UAW wants to get members at the transplants in the south. A risky gamble. Says Reuters:

 

 

“Volkswagen AG is paying newly hired workers at its Chattanooga, Tennessee plant $14.50 per hour. That is almost exactly what a second-tier UAW worker would make in Detroit. In a sign of demand for jobs at that pay level, the Chattanooga plant had 85,000 applications for more than 2,000 jobs. VW workers have been promised $19.50 after three years on the job. That is just above the $19.28 per hour maximum that entry-level workers at GM would make over the term of the four-year contract now before workers for ratification.”

 

 

Why pay dues if they don’t buy you more?

 

 

Gary Chaison, a labor relations professor at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, figures that organizing Chattanooga could cost the UAW up to $3 million, or some $1,500 per worker. It would take the union over four years to recoup its investment – if they win.

 

 

If that bet is not successful, then at some point, someone will have to bail out the UAW – again. No thanks, no UAW deathwatch.

 

Excellent post. Reminds me of what our lovely government does everyday especially with the Social Security trust.

[TBodette68]

Excellent post reminds me everyday of the way our Federal Government steals from the Social Security Trust.

[sjohnson]

You drive a made-in-mexico fusion. Stop posting anti-uaw garbage on here please.

 

Now I changed my profile and listed all my vehicles. Still have a problem with that? I bet you drove some kind of foreign vehicle before you worked for Ford? I have always driven a Ford for as long as can remember with an occasional chevy in the mix. I Never have owned any kind of Foreign vehicle.

 

And dont tell me I am anti-uaw because I fight for what I want and what we deserve and I seek imfo on what our Union leaders are doing in my union,especially the way our money is spent. Thats not anti-union,thats union. Havent you ever heard of people embezzling money from companies? Not saying thats whats going on but when you put millions of dollars in the hand od some people,it happens.

 

Spending millions out of our strike fund,bloated management,out of hand spending by our international,now they want to take 10% out of our profit sharing supposedly for Veba,you dont see that as a crock of shit? Why does our international feel that they deserve a raise and WE (you know,the people that pay their wages) dont deserve one.Get a grip...

[sjohnson]

Now I changed my profile and listed all my vehicles. Still have a problem with that? I bet you drove some kind of foreign vehicle before you worked for Ford? I have always driven a Ford for as long as can remember with an occasional chevy in the mix. I Never have owned any kind of Foreign vehicle.

 

And dont tell me I am anti-uaw because I fight for what I want and what we deserve and I seek imfo on what our Union leaders are doing in my union,especially the way our money is spent. Thats not anti-union,thats union. Havent you ever heard of people embezzling money from companies? Not saying thats whats going on but when you put millions of dollars in the hand od some people,it happens.

 

Spending millions out of our strike fund,bloated management,out of hand spending by our international,now they want to take 10% out of our profit sharing supposedly for Veba,you dont see that as a crock of shit? Why does our international feel that they deserve a raise and WE (you know,the people that pay their wages) dont deserve one.Get a grip...

 

 

We here from Bob King and Ford management that The American Auto Companies need to remain competitive. What? Obviously they are more competitive than the transplants,when it comes to hourly workers. Transplant workers actually make more money than we have the last few years when you include their bonuses. The new hires are making more than our 2nd tier workers,their new hires are getting raises quicker and that are higher than our 2nd tier workers. Think about it,Bob King wants to unionize the transplants (which is never going to happen) so bad that all he is doing is selling us out so he can prove to the transplants managment that he can screw his people and keep the wages down and keep us from receiving anything we deserve or want. He just wants their money and the transplant workers arent stupid and can see what he is doing.

[TBodette68]

We here from Bob King and Ford management that The American Auto Companies need to remain competitive. What? Obviously they are more competitive than the transplants,when it comes to hourly workers. Transplant workers actually make more money than we have the last few years when you include their bonuses. The new hires are making more than our 2nd tier workers,their new hires are getting raises quicker and that are higher than our 2nd tier workers. Think about it,Bob King wants to unionize the transplants (which is never going to happen) so bad that all he is doing is selling us out so he can prove to the transplants managment that he can screw his people and keep the wages down and keep us from receiving anything we deserve or want. He just wants their money and the transplant workers arent stupid and can see what he is doing.

Bob King and the IUAW need to take better care of the people he represents before going around trying to get more union dues from the transplants..

Edited October 14, 2011 by TBodette68

[1993Stang]

Bob King and the IUAW need to take better care of the people he represents before going around trying to get more union dues from the transplants..

Sadly, $110 million out of the strike fund was used to organize before King took over back in 2006, then in an another double-dip of funds in 2010 of $160 million was taken out to organize and bring more union members in when King was in. Since 2006, $317,000 people left, that is a lot of dues paying members. Now you also have to include $300,000 used to help save the NUMMI plant in California which resulted in 4,700 people losing their jobs. My question is, if your non-union transplants make the same competitive wage as your second tier workers, I am concerned with the fight to organize. While you have then just completely eliminated ever giving the seniority full time wage earner any concessions back. I absolutely understand that when the bargaining is going on,

 

Mr. King has to see it from both sides, but as hard working U.A.W. workers, we are also seeing it from one side (the company side). Some people say don't compare Al Mulally's salary but if its one Ford, it truly is one competition, to sell more vehicles at the lowest cost period. His hourly rate if he works 80 hours is $19,500/hr. A wage increase for all the hourly workforce is an increase in the dues that are needed to keep organizing. I get the catch 22 though, the company will not hire more, if wages are not kept stagnant, The U.A.W needs more workers to add on to the U.A.W. Meanwhile the ones who are paying the most dues have their wages remain completely stagnant. Stagnant is one thing but not for 11-12 years.

[TBodette68]

Sadly, $110 million out of the strike fund was used to organize before King took over back in 2006, then in an another double-dip of funds in 2010 of $160 million was taken out to organize and bring more union members in when King was in. Since 2006, $317,000 people left, that is a lot of dues paying members. Now you also have to include $300,000 used to help save the NUMMI plant in California which resulted in 4,700 people losing their jobs. My question is, if your non-union transplants make the same competitive wage as your second tier workers, I am concerned with the fight to organize. While you have then just completely eliminated ever giving the seniority full time wage earner any concessions back. I absolutely understand that when the bargaining is going on,

 

Mr. King has to see it from both sides, but as hard working U.A.W. workers, we are also seeing it from one side (the company side). Some people say don't compare Al Mulally's salary but if its one Ford, it truly is one competition, to sell more vehicles at the lowest cost period. His hourly rate if he works 80 hours is $19,500/hr. A wage increase for all the hourly workforce is an increase in the dues that are needed to keep organizing. I get the catch 22 though, the company will not hire more, if wages are not kept stagnant, The U.A.W needs more workers to add on to the U.A.W. Meanwhile the ones who are paying the most dues have their wages remain completely stagnant. Stagnant is one thing but not for 11-12 years.

 

 

Bob King is aiding and abetting the company as they fatten up their profits. Vote NO !!

[sjohnson]

Bob King is aiding and abetting the company as they fatten up their profits. Vote NO !!

 

What happens if the Uaw does go bust? We lose all of our strike funds,all of our unions dues paid in and now we will lose the 10% we all pay in supposedly for Veba and we are no longer union..Then what? Do we take what we can now or wait?

[Die Wahrheit]

Is this why International is so against a strike,why their strong arming us into accepting this contract? Is that why King wanted us to give up our right to strike? Makes you wonder if he had his hands in the decision for Gm and Chrysler workers to have to give up their right to strike. Where does King see that International constantly deserves a raise like they just voted themselves one recently. Obviously they need to downsize the international.

 

Bob King needs to wake up and realize and quit spending our millions on the transplants,its not going to work. From what we have been giving up the last 8 years and now this new contract,shit the transplants, from the veteran workers to the new hires make better money than we do. Why would them workers agree to a union when their better off and see us constantly getting screwed by our union? The only thing Bob King has been doing on the other concessions and has done on this contract is show the transplants that he can give their company whatever they want from the workers and screw us. All Bob King wants is the money from the transplants workers. Obviously their not stupid people. Their not going to pay someone union dues to get worse than they have without a union and constantly get screwed by their union. WHO WOULD?????

 

UAW in Financial Trouble

 

 

The UAW, which purchased among other things, a golf course with members dues money, appears to be hitting the financial skids.

 

 

The Truth About Cars reports that the union is down to its savings and is running on fumes:

 

 

A bloated management, run-away costs, declining market share, imploding volume, a sell-off of assets and investments, headquartered in Detroit – what is it? No, it’s none of the Detroit automakers. It is their former nemesis and current co-owner, the United Auto Workers.

 

 

“Two years after the wrenching restructuring of the U.S. auto industry and the bankruptcies that remade General Motors and Chrysler, the UAW is facing its own financial reckoning. America’s richest union has been living beyond its means and running down its savings, an analysis of its financial records shows. Unless King and other officials succeed with a turnaround plan still taking shape, the next financial crisis in Detroit may not be at one of the automakers but at the UAW itself.”

 

 

This is the beginning of a special report written by the best in the reporting business, by Deepa Seetharaman and her boss, Kevin Krolicki, Chief of the Detroit Bureau of Reuters, with the help of their team of combat reporters from the Detroit front-lines.

 

 

“The UAW might have three to five years before its budget difficulties forced a financial crunch, absent changes. The “hand-grenade” math of the projection gave the union less than a five-year window of opportunity to turn things around by winning new membership at foreign-run auto plants, said the person who saw the internal forecast and asked not to be named because of its sensitivity.”

 

 

In many ways, the UAW resembles the companies it opposed for so long. The UAW is America’s richest union. One of its biggest assets is its strike fund, which stood at $763 million at the end of 2010. If push comes to shove, a union is as strong as its strike fund. The trouble is: The UAW spends more than it takes in. Increasingly, the union has to dip into the strike fund, the Reuters report says. According to government filings, the UAW liquidated $222 million of investments from 2007 to 2009 to cover the shortfall between expenses and revenue.

 

 

Mirroring the U.S. auto industry, the union has seen better days. UAW membership dropped from its peak of 1.5 million in 1979 by 75 percent to under 377,000 workers. Less than a third of the membership works at the Detroit Three.

 

 

Membership fees dropped even more. Union workers still pay dues equivalent to two hours of work a month. The two-tier pay deal, negotiated in 2007, may have helped to stop an even larger membership erosion. But the membership fee is only $30 a month now.

 

 

Mirroring the U.S. auto industry, the UAW is spending heavily to get sagging volume back up. The union needs new members even more desperately that the Detroit Three need new customers. Says Reuters:

 

 

“In 2006, UAW delegates voted to move about $110 million from the strike fund to pay for organizing. In 2010, King went back for an unprecedented double-dip in the fund and won clearance to spend up to another $160 million over four years.

 

 

If that bet goes bust, the union squandered the bargaining power of its members. The odds are not good. “The only luck we’ve had has been bad luck,” UAW boss Bob King said last year. The UAW wants to get members at the transplants in the south. A risky gamble. Says Reuters:

 

 

“Volkswagen AG is paying newly hired workers at its Chattanooga, Tennessee plant $14.50 per hour. That is almost exactly what a second-tier UAW worker would make in Detroit. In a sign of demand for jobs at that pay level, the Chattanooga plant had 85,000 applications for more than 2,000 jobs. VW workers have been promised $19.50 after three years on the job. That is just above the $19.28 per hour maximum that entry-level workers at GM would make over the term of the four-year contract now before workers for ratification.”

 

 

Why pay dues if they don’t buy you more?

 

 

Gary Chaison, a labor relations professor at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, figures that organizing Chattanooga could cost the UAW up to $3 million, or some $1,500 per worker. It would take the union over four years to recoup its investment – if they win.

 

 

If that bet is not successful, then at some point, someone will have to bail out the UAW – again. No thanks, no UAW deathwatch.

 

 

Go away, you are a Gary Wacko soildier!

[mule]

Corruption at it's best, all the trips to Florida and Vegas....Oh yeah did I forget the GIANT boondoggle where we sent untold people to Europe this summer???? How was that German beer at our expense Kinda reminds me of the shit CEO's pull.....

[TBodette68]

What happens if the Uaw does go bust? We lose all of our strike funds,all of our unions dues paid in and now we will lose the 10% we all pay in supposedly for Veba and we are no longer union..Then what? Do we take what we can now or wait?

 

Wait..vote no..make the iuaw go back and improve this contract and then the people need to take back our union before guys like King run it completely in the ground. It may be too late already. I hope not..