Opposition to UAW-GM deal as workers vote on contract

There is widespread anger among rank-and-file workers towards the sweeping concessions accepted by the union. The deal freezes the wages of current workers, slashes the pay of new hires in half and abolishes employer-paid medical coverage for retirees. In exchange the UAW bureaucracy was given control of a multibillion-dollar retiree health-care trust fund.

Seven of the ten largest locals—including those in the Michigan cities of Pontiac, Lansing, Detroit and Flint—are voting this week, with the 2,600-member local at the Lordstown plant in eastern Ohio voting Monday. Results are expected by October 10.

The UAW has dispatched scores of highly paid bureaucrats across the country to try to sell the deal at union meetings. The union’s campaign of lies and half-truths has been echoed by the news media, which has claimed workers won unprecedented job guarantees. In reality, the deal paves the way for the shutdown of three plants—in Indianapolis, upstate New York and the Detroit suburb of Livonia—and the continual slashing of jobs by GM, which has eliminated more than 30,000 jobs since 2005.

On Wednesday Bank of America upgraded GM stock, citing the automaker’s “more favorable than expected labor agreement with the United Auto Workers.” The broker added, “the elimination of the UAW healthcare liability at a better than expected 25% discount (including the higher pension liability) results in a higher valuation for GM stock.”

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