TheGMSource - What do you do if your GM and your starring bankruptcy in the face? You approach your Union leaders in the CAW and ask for concessions. If your the CAW you reach an agreement just ratified last month giving GM what they want: More concessions.

Today though we're being told GM has once more went back to the CAW with a new ultimatium: More concessions or we liquidate our Canadian operations.

That's what the CAW's claiming GM has said. Both GM and Canadian representatives called the CAW to a meeting this morning. According to CAW President Ken Lewenza he was told that the CAW must go back to the table and give GM more. According to him, if no agreement is reached between GM and the CAW then "there will be no financial support for GM by Canadian governments and "Canadian operations will be liquidated."

http://detnews.com/article/20090507/...GM-liquidation

 

bye-bye camaro?

 

GM knows they'll get what they want from the CAW. There just planting the seed of 'if you are stupid enough not to do it..then this is what you'll face.'

 

lets hope so.

 

If GM liquidates their Canadian Operations that means no more contract with the CAW which may mean they can move Camaro production elsewhere. Although, a lawyer would probably need to confirm that.

 

If GM liquidated Canadian Operations and it could free up name-to-location-binding-contracts, that would free up a LOT more than the Camaro...

 

Like what then?

 

impalas.

 

I know about Impala and Camaro, nearly everybody does but the person said "a LOT more then Camaro..."

One name like Impala would not be "a LOT more" so I'm curious what else there would be that would be free'd up.

 

I had mentioned in another thread that it would be interesting if GM ripped up the parts of the contracts that had names dedicated for certain sites. I was rebuffed that the bankruptcy would not affect GM canada, which didn't make sense. Glad to see i was apparently right.

I wouldn't be surprised if this is one of the concessions GM demands. How can they make their best plan if their hands are tied in where they can build certain vehicles?

 

The CAW has re-openned their contracts 3 times in the last 3 years and many employees are pissed.

So if your name is Ken Lewenza and you just gave Chrysler Canada $19/hr worth of concessions and now the government and GM want the same deal, (after Fritz Henderson said the previous deal was good enough), this is the only way in hell you'll EVER get the caw members to vote in favor of a new agreement.

It's funny how they threaten with liquidation of GM Canada when in fact Chrysler Canada hasn't filed for bankruptcy and GM's oshawa plants are the most productive in North America.

The ONLY reason GM Canada would file bankruptcy is to make or "force" changes to their hugely underfunded pension plan.

GM will get what they want.

 

This is a repeat of what happened with Chrysler, and GM just needs the same deal.

The unions need to go along. Since Toyota, Honda, etc., aren't raising wages+benefits to GM's levels, the UAW needs to lower theirs. The auto industry is too competitive for a company to survive while paying more money to its workers than a competitive company. Long term, the UAW/CAW's best chance is to unionize the transplants. If they don't do that, then the non-union plants will set the prevailing wage. At least that's the way it looks from a distance.

 

Very true but what do you do about the legacy costs? GM has 5 retirees for every active worker. Chrysler has 1.5 retiree for each active worker and Toyota virtually has no legacy costs, just like Hyundai or Honda.

Obama claims that they will not go after pensions and retirees but I fail to see how we can have a levelled playing field without doing that.

 

I see this as turnabout, when the Union had the power they exploited it for everything they could. Unfortunately for them the shoe is really on the other foot. Where are they gonna go if GM says goodbye? They're f*cked! Unfortuantely both the Unions and GM management did this to themselves.

 

Back in March, GM and the CAW needed to come up with a cost saving agreement in order to qualify for more government money. In my opinion, they didn't do the aggressive cutting that needed to be done to actually make the company viable, they just made a small token reduction in order to appear as if they actually accomplished something. Luckily, the Canadian government didn't bite and told them to go back and come up with something realistic. Chrysler had the ***** (or the desperate circumstances) to actually do the real deal, and now GM wants in on that action.