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Planned Closings Stun GM Employees
General Motors Corp. said it will cut 30,000 workers and close all or part of 12 facilities by 2008, including the Lansing Metal Center in Michigan, above. The automaker is scaling back North American operations in an attempt to cut costs.
(By Rod Sanford -- Lansing State Journal Via Associated Press)
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"It's not as if workers will be able to transfer from one location to another," he said. "GM is going to become much leaner company."
The UAW has shown flexibility by relinquishing some of the ground it has gained in negotiations with GM over the years. This month, GM workers represented by the UAW agreed to a proposal that would raise the amount retirees and active workers must pay for their health care.
"There is a serious question as to whether the UAW feels it can mobilize rank-and-file resistance to the company. There was no real resistance to fight off health care cuts or to prevent a Delphi bankruptcy," said Robert Bruno, professor of labor and industrial relations at the University of Illinois, referring to the troubled partsmaker. "I think it's a reasonable question to ask what's missing from the UAW . . . that is preventing a more militant kind of resistance. It seems to me like they've been rather silent on galvanizing locals."
The UAW's agreement to reduce employee and retiree health care coverage signaled that it may be willing to let go of more, and it may have to. "They've shown their cards. They were being asked to do their share," said Chaison. "Then GM just essentially said, 'Now we're going to have to take some more drastic steps.' "
Yesterday's job cuts add 5,000 to the 25,000 promised by Wagoner in June. GM has cut 30 percent of its workforce over the past five years.
Although yesterday's news came as a surprise to Sherwood, labor experts said the UAW has known for years that such cutbacks are inevitable. The UAW, which was known as a fight-back union, famous for its historic Flint General Motors sit-down strike of 1936 and 1937, now must determine how to save what it has and cushion the losses for its members.
"The UAW looks at it from longer-term perspective. What they're seeing is GM restructuring now before they have to restructure through bankruptcy," Chaison said.
Although most plant closings must be approved by the UAW, the union will likely agree to the cuts, Chaison said. "The UAW knows that if GM wants to lay off 30,000 workers, it can do that by disabling plants," he said. The union must tread carefully during the GM changes, as too much pressure -- such as a strike -- could cause GM to file for bankruptcy protection. But the union must also continue to be an advocate for the workers, Chaison said.
