GM Auto Workers Begin Strike As Deadline Passes

AP:

The United Auto Workers has launched a national strike against General Motors Corp., GM spokesman Dan Flores said Monday. It's the first nationwide strike during auto contract negotiations since 1976, when Ford Motor Co. plants were shut down.

Workers walked off the job and began picketing Monday outside GM plants after the 11 a.m. UAW strike deadline passed.

The UAW had extended its contract for nine days after it expired on Sept. 14, but the negotiations became bogged down Sunday, apparently over the union's quest to protect jobs by getting the company to guarantee that new vehicles would be built in U.S. factories.

Read the whole story: AP

Comments

[JohnBryansFontaine]

11:57 PM on 09/25/2007

I was fortunate enough to photograph a 2007 Pontiac Solstice at my local beach. Would I want one? Perhaps even more than a new 'vette. Maybe. But not while the strike is going on, of course.

The Alfa Romeo Brera is my obsession, however.

[mrcontinental]

11:14 AM on 09/25/2007

There is no such animal as a "job guarantee".
To even ask for a concession like that is suspect.

The original benefits model was drawn up during a time of economic prosperity. Much has changed in this country, and not for the better.

You can keep the unions but you also need organizers who are in touch with reality because the last time I checked nothing from nothing leaves nothing.

A bankrupted GM sold to the chinese will have far less benefits and far lower wages than any of them currently have.

It's time for the autoworkers to join the party with the rest of america and partake in the misery and job insecurity that the majority of the country is prone to at the present time.

And remember that people still need to be able to afford your product and $1600 goes along way to helping achieve that.

Lifetime healthcare indeed.

[loki]

09:49 AM on 09/25/2007

"Bush Government Agency Advised Staff to Buy Asian Hybrid Vehicles"

http://www.treehugger.com/page5.php

[wsblake]

07:58 AM on 09/25/2007

Not to worry. The Bush Admin. is adding jobs to the economy all of the time. You just have to not mind not flipping burgers at McDonalds for 6 bucks an hour.

[Progress08]

11:20 AM on 09/25/2007

Or getting blown up in baghdad for $9.80 an hour

[nomoredead]

07:28 AM on 09/25/2007

Here is an idea for all these anti-union, jealous whiners....shut down all US plants and just import Chinese made cars.

[Progress08]

11:16 AM on 09/25/2007

We're halfway there. but how long until the Chinese paint our cars with lead. Sneaky commies are trying to poison us with our own American brand names.

[GenXLiberal]

01:54 AM on 09/25/2007

It would be a wonderful gesture if all of the liberals posting here on Arianna Huffington's website would pledge to immediately purchase a General Motors vehicle.

That would help the UAW and help General Motors.

Most of you are probably invested in General Motors, either through your pension plans, 401K, mutual funds or direct stock ownership.

God bless the troops.

It may be a good start but the best way to help the UAW is to organize more union shops across america. The reality is that most cars from the big three are not 100% American. I'm glad unions strike so people like Lindamart60 enjoy the benefits of 401ks,higher wages, better benefits, Overtime, minimum wage, etc. It's the brave like them who make "capatilists" on the right earn top dollar. We all support the troops, at least those us who want them to have a resposnible leader who has a plan and not some soundbites used for political gain!

[wsblake]

08:03 AM on 09/25/2007

I have a better idea GenX. If you really believe in this war like you claim why don't you just get off your useless candyass and get over to Iraq. Or are you just another chickenhawk piece of shit like your leaders in DC ?

[postedby]

12:12 AM on 09/25/2007

I suggest the UAW start their own car company.

[John]

11:04 AM on 09/25/2007

This is actually not such a crazy idea.

[lindamart60]

11:20 PM on 09/24/2007

It would be a wonderful gesture if all of the liberals posting here on Arianna Huffington's website would pledge to immediately purchase a General Motors vehicle.

That would help the UAW and help General Motors.

Most of you are probably invested in General Motors, either through your pension plans, 401K, mutual funds or direct stock ownership.

God bless the troops.

[lindamart60]

11:21 PM on 09/24/2007

Unless, of course, none of you liberals really care about the UAW and General Motors.

[Progress08]

11:13 AM on 09/25/2007

I bought a malibu 7 weeks ago. Sorry, can't afford another one.

[Firaxis]

10:36 PM on 09/24/2007

I drive a Ford Ranger. I have owned Fords, Mercurys, Pontiacs, Olsmobiles, Buicks , a GM truck and Chevrolets. I have never owned a foreign car, although I did own an American made Honda motorcycle.

Can you liberals say as much?

[lindamart60]

10:43 PM on 09/24/2007

firaxis, I, too have enjoyed ownership of several "Big Three" automobiles. I do not own a foreign vehicle.

Isn't it odd to note that liberals are driving non-UAW produced, foreign owned vchicles?

God bless the troops.

[Firaxis]

10:52 PM on 09/24/2007

Libruls have been driving VWs and Fiats since the protest days of the 60s. I guess much hasn't changed in the last 40 years.

[John]

11:03 PM on 09/24/2007

Yes I can you pathetic lying dumb@ss. I grew up in a neighborhood in Detroit where a foreign car parked on the street would get flipped over.

[lindamart60]

10:32 PM on 09/24/2007

As I suspected.

Liberals posting here on Arianna Huffington's website are not purchasing UAW produced General Motors Vehicles.

Not that I'm surprised.

God bless the troops.

[John]

11:01 PM on 09/24/2007

As you suspect? Where do you get your information, bubba? I own 2 American made cars.

[MI6troll]

11:49 PM on 09/24/2007

lindamart took a poll whilst manning the express lane at the kmart.

[BC33]

11:29 AM on 09/25/2007

I guess you missed my previous post:

I currently own a 2005 Pontiac. Before that, I bought a 1996 and a 1992 Saturn, and my first car was a 1986 Ford. I also buy American made cars. Thanks for asking!


P.S.
I bought my mother a 2002 Pontiac also!

[Firaxis]

10:32 PM on 09/24/2007

You do not own the job you go to. It is owned by your employer and your job is safe as long as it makes economic sense to your employer.

When there is a $25 an hour labor cost disparity between Japanese auto workers and U.S. auto workers, it puts American automakers at a distinct disadvantage.

[StellaDuBois]

10:46 PM on 09/24/2007

"When there is a $25 an hour labor cost disparity between Japanese auto workers and U.S. auto workers, it puts American automakers at a distinct disadvantage."

There is no such wage disparity - the Japanese owned facilities in the US pay on par with the American owned ones so that they *won't* become unionied, although there has been rumbling at Toyota's Georgetown, KY plant. Rumor has it Toyota will start driving down costs there soon, via lower wages and benefits.

American workers need to get a clue and start defending themselves against the corporate moneymen. Even the French get that right!

[Firaxis]

10:50 PM on 09/24/2007

Not all Japanese auto are manufactured in the United States. So what's your point, except that U.S. autoworkers are vastly overpaid?

[meandmagoo]

10:29 PM on 09/24/2007

Gee,let's go on strike just as the economy is about to go in the shitter!

Seems like a plan to me.

[Firaxis]

10:37 PM on 09/24/2007

Of course, the natural inclination of a liberal is not to work for a living.

[John]

10:59 PM on 09/24/2007

I'm a liberal and I work harder than any of you lazy @ss rightwing stooges could ever imaging working. Most of you are sitting in your double-wide, or your momma's basement, collecting disability checks for fake back injuries. Either that or you work for the state on some zero skill job, requiring absolutely no effort or intelligence, and get paid by the hour to kill time at my expense. How many of you drive a white pickup truck with lock boxes on your jobs? I'll bet alot of you.

[Doug]

10:04 PM on 09/24/2007

Another case of unrealistic expectations.

There is no job such thing as job security and that's what this strike is about. These morons want job security when the company is losing or barely turning a profit. Hell, the CEO has no job security. Fucking moronic.

[ohiomark]

10:42 PM on 09/24/2007

Great point, although unions make it very difficult to fire even the laziest worker. So I guess being in a union gives you the best shot at job security.

That is until the greediness goes too far and the company has to close.

[lindamart60]

09:59 PM on 09/24/2007

I wonder how many of you liberals posting here on Arianna Huffington's website own and drive General Motors vehicles?

God bless the troops

[meandmagoo]

10:31 PM on 09/24/2007

I wonder how many of you conservatives have an IQ above that of the teenage male prostitutes you all seem so fond of?

God bless...whatever

[BC33]

11:24 AM on 09/25/2007

I currently own a 2005 Pontiac. Before that, I bought a 1996 and a 1992 Saturn, and my first car was a 1986 Ford. I also buy American made cars. Thanks for asking!

[BC33]

11:26 AM on 09/25/2007

P.S.
I bought my mother a 2002 Pontiac also!

[JohnBryansFontaine]

08:44 PM on 09/24/2007

I wonder if TheMadScientist, pauljwlr, realitytrumpsbull, ceasenake and/or askmeificare are really just highly paid, anti-union lobbyists???

Unions made this country great. They gave this nation a middle class. The afore-mentioned reactionaries, these Wall Street Liars waged a war against the Unions as well as the American people.

The anti-union side’s plan was to use debt, rather than wages, to drive the economy. And now the chickens are coming home to roost.

You - TheMadScientist, pauljwlr, realitytrumpsbull, ceasenake and askmeificare are the ones who HATE the USA because you hate so many of your fellow Americans.