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UAW says GM stance pushed union into strike DETROIT, Sept 24 (Reuters) - United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger said on Monday the union was pushed into a strike by General Motors Corp. (GM.N: Quote, Profile, Research) after the automaker failed to meet it halfway in marathon contract talks. "You can be pushed off a cliff and that's what happened here," Gettelfinger said, speaking to reporters at a news conference at the union's Detroit headquarters. Gettelfinger said that union negotiators would head back to the bargaining table on Monday and remained ready to discuss one of GM's key demands of establishing a trust fund to pay for retiree health care. He said that GM's push to establish a cost-saving voluntary employee beneficiary association, or VEBA, was not the reason the UAW had decided to set a strike deadline. "We were pushed into a strike and that's where we're at," Gettelfinger told reporters. Gettelfinger said that one of the union's key priorities was to protect the job security of 73,000 union-represented GM workers in negotiations.

WHAT! well lets put this from an old article talking about toyota concerning cuts... toyota is considering cutting their assembly workers while, there is this gap...? we must be thinking about different toyota's... cause if toyota pays better then why is there a 25$ wage different between the companies? "General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler Group officials say that closing a roughly $25-an-hour labor cost gap between Detroit and Japanese rivals will be a key issue in talks with the United Auto Workers this summer." and no they arent even bringing manufacturing jobs to america... Toyota in 2005 accounted for 38k workers in north america... we are talking about over 78 thousand people on strike right now... and thats not even half of gm's workforce... let alone workers in mexico and canada to include the areas toyota's gladly willing to group together just noticed they dipped below fridays close, but haha they are back up... haha!

General Motors rating unchanged by strike - S&P NEW YORK, Sept 24 (Reuters) - Standard & Poor's on Monday said its ratings on General Motors Corp. (GM.N: Quote, Profile, Research) are unchanged after the automaker failed to reach an agreement with its main union, the United Auto Workers, and union members went on strike. "We still expect GM and the UAW to reach an agreement in the near future that will start to address the automaker's legacy cost issues," S&P said in a statement. S&P rates GM's debt "B," five levels below investment grade, and has a negative outlook, indicating a rating cut is likely over the next two years.

It seems for the last... forever... this site cant ever keep me signed in... i've got the cookies and everything, i've tried deleting it and make it remember me again, no workie... whats the deal? its annoying to have to sign in every time i want to give my 2 cents

doubt it... mr... kill toyota...

it shows investors that the company isnt laying down... thats good press... if a good deal is acheived, stocks will soar, again more press many investors dont even know about upcoming models like the malibu, i recently read an article, slamming bob lutz for claiming that when he started... in 5 years gm would be the most technological automaker, and the article pushed, that its only evident in trucks and SUV's... they challenged lutz to take a seat in one of their lesser vehicles like a g6 or a cobalt and speak of technology... but as gm preps to spend over 100 million on the launch of the malibu, any press is good press i think... get people thinking... stocks are up today dispiate the strike...

i wonder, if such media broad casting, GM this GM that, puts GM on a massive spot light as it introduces its 2 major cars (CTS, Malibu) and in a few months the G8.... could this be a smoke screen for a massive advertising campaign gm has been talking about its malibu? GM needs it name in the media... perception change requires someone to even think about a company...

GM says it is 'disappointed' in UAW's call to strike ... sounds like GM wanted to handle things rationally... UAW says no...

i wonder if a contract were to be reached within the day... if moral would be lifted and productivity would be higher... as the workers suggest they dont want to strike but they want a fair contract

Canadian Auto Workers Chief:Will Support Possible UAW Strike September 24, 2007: 11:14 AM EST DETROIT -(Dow Jones)- Canadian Auto Workers President Buzz Hargrove said Monday that the union will support a potential United Auto Workers strike against General Motors Corp. (GM). "We'll support them anyway we can," Hargrove said in an interview. He noted the company builds key pickup trucks in Canada at a CAW represented plant, and said the plant will stop building these trucks if supply of UAW-made parts happens to run out. He said the CAW took similar action in 1998, when the UAW last struck GM. Hargrove said that demand for the pickup trucks has faded in recent years, meaning the CAW may not need to take action. -By John D. Stoll, Dow Jones Newswires; (313) 226-1249; john.stoll@ dowjones.com (END) Dow Jones Newswires 09-24-07 1114ET Copyright © 2007 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

why go to asia when they can just reject any contracts, and hire new people... it doesnt take 60 days of inventory to to train people sure quality may not be what it should for a few months, but the dealership will hash out any problems... and poof, gm's rid of its indefinate problem... the uaw must realize when its subject is backed in a corner

well this is gm's turn to play hard ball and see how much confusion they have if they just let the employees go, and hire new ones... dont resign the contract and get the employees to quit their union high wage benifit job... gm may look like the bad guy but save themselves millions if they just kick em off the premisis

yea if no other company had gone through gm's troubles to get certified... then so be it... besides the japs dont even make any e-85 vehicles

why didnt he take back his more relevant vehicles statement... ass hole

i really dont see why there is too much contraversy over it except that they arent foriegn cars... but really people shouldnt be bitching about that either i mean think, good deal to me, 1300 vehicles at 17 million, thats like an average price of 13076 per vehicle... dont know if state purchased vehicles pay sales taxes... but, regardless... if u could get an impala or a silverado for 13000 i'd buy it... and sell it again... if this was part of last months fleet sale... who knows and its good that arnold sticks up for american jobs and GM in particular...

hack... he's doing a much better job than anyone has done in the last couple decades perhaps if all you see him doing is lifting barbels and driving hummers, then you certainly havent seen the man who has obviously proven the theory you can do anything if you put your mind to it. not like the coward like bush... I dont know about you but I havent even seen bush be as aggressive as arnold, and go to japan and other asian countries to try to open up trades with them.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1900841/posts there seems to be a small amount of contraversy forming... about to stir up some $h!...

Schwarzenegger may have pushed for General Motors to get lucrative state contract Mercury News ^ | 9/22/07 | Kimberly Kindy Posted on 09/22/2007 8:00:35 PM PDT by NormsRevenge SACRAMENTO - Despite state laws that require government officials to seek competitive bids on large purchases, internal documents reveal that state officials held a series of private meetings with General Motors during which they agreed to buy "flex-fuel" vehicles from the automaker - a month before a bid for such vehicles was ever issued. --snip-- Soon after, the state solicited bids to buy an entire fleet of flex-fuel vehicles designed to run on high-grade ethanol. General Motors dealerships won all of the contracts for ... 1,300 cars and trucks and $17 million in sales, because they were the only automaker that met the state's qualifications. Legal experts said the sequence of events - and especially the no-bid pilot project - appear to run afoul of state contract laws, ... . --snip-- State officials insist they followed the law, but e-mails indicate that several key players expressed concern at the time about the appearance of wrongdoing. --snip-- The paper also reported that only GM vehicles - Chevy Impalas and Silverados - qualified to be purchased for the fleet. But the new documents, provided by the state in response to a public records request, add considerably to the picture. They show that the flex-fuel deal came about only after a state policy that prohibited the purchase was eliminated at the last-minute. Soon after, the fleet contract was modified to add flex-fuel vehicles. An e-mail obtained by the Mercury News shows that just days before that modification was made, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger appeared to be pushing for it. Schwarzenegger has long-time ties to GM, having served as spokesman for the Hummer, ... received millions in contributions from the company to his charitable and political causes, ....

hasnt this been up for several months already?

isnt that an understatement at least they fixed that acceloration problem i always had... or lack there of, and in place of the vehicles accelorating when you want, they accelorate when you dont want... such a good fix

yea its good to let it go slowly, and buy out the remaining employees, every few years... but in a realistic point, if gm gets the healthcare to be managed by the uaw... then the uaw have vested intrest in the big 3 and have more insentive to see the companies flurish, just as gm would like to see the union flurish.. but when they arent joined together with the same goal in mind, they but heads, and strike and do all kinds of stupid things....

UAW: Continuing To Make Progress In GM Talks September 21, 2007: 07:44 PM EST DETROIT (Reuters) - United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger said on Friday that the union's closely watched negotiations with General Motors Corp were "continuing to make progress" and said the union wanted to reach a settlement without striking. "We are continuing to make progress; however, we are pushing to accelerate the negotiating pace at all levels," Gettelfinger said in an e-mail to local union leaders sent Friday afternoon. "It is our desire to reach an agreement without a strike, and we have demonstrated this by staying at the bargaining table up to this point." A copy of Gettelfinger's memo to local union leaders was posted in an update to union-represented GM workers on the Web site of a GM local in Oklahoma. A UAW spokesman was not immediately available for comment. >>>>>> it seems to me the title of this article shows that GM isnt being as strong in negociations as anticipated... seeing that UAW is making the progress, not GM...

well... he's on the american side, and using that last phrase, i can only assume he uses perception a lot... and perception is a thing that american companies lack... perhaps this mouthpeice will expose weak links in the japan inc armor...