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Is it sacrifice or surrender?
And is it a sign of things to come, for other workers across the country?
The recent Auto bailout has come with some hard-to-swallow terms. According to reports, “The $17.4 billion federal loan agreement does keep the domestic auto industry alive. But the terms of that loan also insist that the wages and benefits for union workers be lowered to "equal" the average of nonunion workers, specifically, those at the U.S. plants of Nissan, Toyota and Honda."
The fact is, that there are ONLY TWO possible solutions to America’s domestic auto crisis; (1) either the UAW shops have to be coerced into working for the same $50/hour wage, health and pension package as the non-Union Toyota, Nissan, and BMW shops, OR, (2) all those non-Union shops have to be either coerced OR tariffed/taxed into paying the same amount for THEIR labor. OTHERWISE the UAW shops will NEVER be able to compete.
The language of the current loan agreement is clear in that it sets a number of specific "restructuring targets" that General Motors and Chrysler must use their "best efforts" (whatever THAT means) to meet. Compensation must be made "equal" to the nonunion workers, and work rules must be "competitive" with those at nonunion plants. The companies also must reduce compensation to workers who have been laid off — the jobs bank and at least half of the company's payments into retiree health care must be made in stock, not cash.
Can this agreement be made to work?
We’ll see by March, when the “loans” come due and the Big Three will certainly come begging for more.
