UAW considers what it can promise
The United Auto Workers is meeting to go over what they might promise in exchange for bailout cash. They may consider temporarily waiving health care and cutting benefits for laid-off workers. John Dimsdale reports.
Retired members of the United Auto Workers attend a monthly benefits meeting at the UAW Local 22 meeting hall in Detroit (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
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Scott Jagow: The CEO's of GM, Ford and Chrysler are on their way to Washington. This time, they're driving from Detroit -- in hybrids. And I imagine they'll be a little more humble after Congress gave them the what-for for flying their corporate jets last time.
According to their turnaround plans, the car makers will sell their corporate jets. Their CEOs will work for a dollar a year. They'll cancel executive bonuses and raises. And they'll make smaller cars, fewer trucks, cut their workforce and improve fuel efficiency. That's what they promise if they get a bailout.
Today, the United Auto Workers union holds an emergency meeting in Detroit to go over what it might promise. John Dimsdale reports from Washington.
John Dimsdale: The UAW will consider temporarily waiving health care payments from the companies and cutting benefits for laid-off workers.
But labor advocate Jonathan Tasini says the union should get something in return.
Jonathan Tasini: Any concession the UAW gives should be traded off with control over some of the board seats that the auto companies have, so at least this money the UAW potentially might give up isn't flushed down he drain by additional poor management decisions.
But former Reagan administration Commerce Secretary Peter Peterson says the average worker costs the Big Three $75 an hour -- compared to $45 an hour at Asian-owned factories in the U.S.
Peter Peterson: It's hard for me to visualize, given the politics of this, labor making those kind of changes voluntarily.
Peterson says bankruptcy, which allows companies to renegotiate their union contracts, is the only way to substantially lower the auto industry's labor costs.
In Washington, I'm John Dimsdale for Marketplace.
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From Farmington Hills, MI, 12/03/2008
It should also be noted that the UAW has already made several concessions which will lead to US auto makers having the same labor costs as foreign ones in 2010. Now, if US automakers could get the same government subsidies as foreign ones do, we might be talking.
From Queen Creek, AZ, 12/03/2008
The claim that US Autoworkers costs $75 is at best misleading and has been disputed by reputable sources. I think you need to correct this misleading remark.
Here is just one source, and I'm sure you can find more, from Media Matters.
http://mediamatters.org/items/200811250020
Why don't you do a report on what life would be like for the American workers if labor movement had not been strong in the last century.
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