GM, Chrysler Win Union Concessions to Bolster Aid Bid

[Omaha Steve]

Source: Bloomberg

By Mike Ramsey

Dec. 3 (Bloomberg) -- General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC, struggling for support in Congress for aid, won money-saving union agreements to delay contributions to medical funds and suspend a program that pays laid-off workers.

Today’s move by the United Auto Workers gives GM, Ford and Chrysler a boost as their chief executive officers prepare to testify tomorrow and Dec. 5 on their requests for $34 billion in financial help. Lawmakers have pressed the companies to show how they will survive and repay any government loans.

“This should be interpreted as a meaningful and a painful sacrifice,” said Harley Shaiken, a labor relations professor at the University of California at Berkeley. The jobs bank was “something the union worked over decades to achieve.”

Aid proposals sent yesterday to Congress by the automakers are more than a third larger than the $25 billion request set aside by lawmakers last month, heightening pressure for action as a deepening auto slump quickens GM’s rush toward a default.


Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=ajvYI3X2MzfI&refer=us

[WriteDown]

1. Of course they did...

:mad:

[Zhade]

2. So this IS an excuse for union-busting as some have said.

Bastards.

[whathappened]

3. that was my thoughts

the bastards , if they break these unions 1 by 1 , watch out for what is yet to come on your pay check , this will leave all mega corperations the very window to depress wages here in america , hang on to your hats everybody , the ruff ride is just begining , for all those who are not for lending the big 3 the money to keep them going , just rember just because you don't work in a union shop , don't mean the union was'nt watching your back , whats next will be a big cut in your wages per hour

[Hotler]

4. What did the CEO's and the board of directors, ....

the rest of upper management give up?

[Earth_First]

6. They just 'gave up'. n/t

[Earth_First]

5. Top this off with the HB-1 Visa increase and we're REALLY selling the American worker upstream! n.t