Concessions, concessions, and more concessions…

As goes GM, so goes the U.S. auto industry – On the heels of a 66% in favor contract ratification vote of UAW members at GM, it looks like the UAW is pushing another concessionary contract at Chrysler, with Ford negotiations next on the agenda….

Chrysler Workers Wary of New Contract
By DEE-ANN DURBIN and TOM KRISHER – DETROIT (AP) —
As they assembled cars Thursday, workers at Chrysler's Sterling Heights assembly plant were talking about their new labor contract, wondering if Wednesday's six-hour strike was enough to get a good deal from the company. Even as they waited to hear the details, industry analysts were predicting crosstown rival Ford will try to get more concessions than Chrysler.

Some workers were skeptical about job security promises, one worker said.
"A lot of people are sort of surprised that we only stayed out that long," said Brett Ward, a forklift operator at the Sterling Heights plant and a member of a group that's often critical of the union. "They're thinking that it might have really not gotten us that much."…

Read the rest here…http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iGb3e554ZIoaHipJevFbe6vQ85jAD8S7AJGO0

Listen to Labor Express Radio this Sunday night for interviews with Gregg Shotwell (UAW Local 1753 member and one of the founders of Soldiers of Solidarity) and Jerry Tucker (Former Director, Region 5 - UAW and Co-founder - Center For Labor Renewal) about what this all means for the UAW and the labor movement in general.

On the Radio in Chicago - 88.7 FM - 7:00 P.M.
Everywhere else - http://www.wluw.org/ - live streaming audio

Comments

Best Films of 2023...

Best Films of 2023 Well, it's already early February somehow and award season for the 2023 film year is well underway. 2023 was the first year post-pandemic I was able to see the volume of new films to warrant a top 10 list - a practice I started in 2017 but abandoned after 2020 when like the rest of the world I was mostly forced to watch releases from years past on streaming services. Last year, despite my ongoing poverty, through a host of tricks, streaming services, tight budgets, and the generosity of friends, I was able to see around 40 new releases. For most of 2023, I considered it the YEAR OF DISAPPIONTMENTS . That's still my primary description of the year in film. Long anticipated and ballyhooed new films by Nolan, Scorsese, Fincher, and Wes Anderson to name a few all left me dissatisfied. Not because I am an adoring fan of these directors, but given the high regard with which they are held and given the rich subject matter on which ...

In memory of Rafael Gomez Nieto, the anti-fascist COVID victim two wars could not kill, on the first anniversary of his passing…

When I was an up and coming young socialist high-school, then college student, moving gradually away from Liberation Theology, towards some form of democratic socialist-humanism, the example of the Spanish Revolution of 1936-1939 made a major impact on my thinking. I knew instinctively and without question Stalinism and Maoism had nothing to offer. How could two of the century's most brutal dictators have anything to say about creating a future free of oppression. What I was looking for was historical examples of a new stage in the movement toward full human freedom, one in which working class people were in control of their lives and their future. No bosses, no party bureaucrats, no cults of personality and increasingly, in a departure from my past, no gods. Probably the first and certainly one of the most influential works of revolutionary literature that I encountered was Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia , hence my Orwell attachment to this day. Soon following were the equall...

Financial Crisis Brings Historic Opportunity…

www.whatnowtoons.com Wow, what a difference a few weeks can make. Less than a month ago, every mainstream mass media outlet, U.S. politician, economic analyst, and probably the majority of average citizens would still have been singing the praises of the unfettered free market. Regulation was still a dirty word and privatization was still equated with efficiency and prosperity. Granted, the sand had already begun to shift under this ideological edifice of 30+ years. The sub-prime mortgage crisis and the bursting of the housing bubble had seriously shaken the confidence of some in the system. I had mentioned repeatedly on Labor Express Radio over the Summer the glaring contrast between the soaring gas prices we experienced here in the laissez-faire fuel market of the U.S. as compared to the low and stable prices maintained by the state oil company of our neighbor to the south. But none of that seemed to really change the mainstream belief in this country that free markets solve all prob...

Search This Blog