[90503]

Enough is enough....Good luck to laid off US plant workers.

http://gmauthority.com/blog/2019/01/...vrolet-blazer/

[JKiss45]

I just built one for fun. $50,710. Are you kidding me!? Residual value is garbage too as a 36 month 12,000 mile/year lease showed $810/month

[90503]

The United Auto Workers union has urged its members to boycott the Mexico-made Chevrolet Blazer in a scathing new letter published to Facebook.
WardsAuto reported on the letter on Thursday, which said the UAW continues to have “conflicts and disagreements” with GM. The letter’s two main motifs are ones we’ve seen highlighted in recent months. Terry Dittes, director of the UAW’s GM Department, said the automaker has doubled down on cheaper labor in Mexico and continues to use temporary workers at U.S. plants, which robs laid-off UAW members of jobs.

“It’s my opinion America is with us in this fight to build here what we sell here,” Dittes wrote in part. The letter was addressed to Local Union Presidents, Shop Chairpersons, Vice Presidents, Financial Secretaries and Recording Secretaries.
Dittes continued and explicitly advocated for a boycott over GM’s latest mid-size crossover SUV and said it’s his hope every UAW member and family does not purchase the Chevrolet Blazer “unless it is made in the USA by the members of the UAW.”
GM did not respond to the UAW letter at the time of this report.

He didn’t hold back elsewhere in the letter, using some incredibly strong language. Specifically, he called out GM and said the automaker cares about one thing only: money. He said GM’s slumping stock price and U.S. sales is evidence the automaker cannot afford to close four U.S. production plants while Mexico builds new vehicles.
GM announced this past November that it would close two vehicle assembly plants and two transmission plants in the U.S. as part of a massive restructuring operation. The Lordstown plant in Ohio, Detroit-Hamtramck plant and Warren transmission operation in Michigan, and Baltimore transmission plant in Maryland are all scheduled to go idle in a few months.

The automaker will need to negotiate the plants’ closures with the UAW this year as the current labor contract expires this September. So far, it appears GM is in for a tough fight.
GM has vowed to find new jobs for the thousands of UAW workers that will be laid off with the plant closures, but the UAW has already filed a lawsuit against the automaker over its use of temp employees. Dittes also urged UAW members to expose any plants where GM currently uses temp workers as the legal battle ramps up.


Read more: http://gmauthority.com/blog/2019/01/...#ixzz5cW6bsIf7

[kevint]

in order for a boycott to work you'd have to want whatever you're boycotting.

[DenverTaco07]

Originally Posted by JKiss45

I just built one for fun. $50,710. Are you kidding me!? Residual value is garbage too as a 36 month 12,000 mile/year lease showed $810/month

and a Silverado / Sierra is $70K, it's all ridiculous.

[Vegas Bound]

It’s my opinion America is with us in this fight to build here what we sell here,” Dittes wrote in part. The letter was addressed to Local Union Presidents, Shop Chairpersons, Vice Presidents, Financial Secretaries and Recording Secretaries.

This is why unions are failing, too fat. Break all unions and move employees to merit based employment.

[DenverTaco07]

Originally Posted by Vegas Bound

It’s my opinion America is with us in this fight to build here what we sell here,” Dittes wrote in part. The letter was addressed to Local Union Presidents, Shop Chairpersons, Vice Presidents, Financial Secretaries and Recording Secretaries.

This is why unions are failing, too fat. Break all unions and move employees to merit based employment.

I worked for Coors for a short time after getting out of the Navy. Warehouse work, loading trucks and all that jazz. At one point the shift manager was not allowing anyone to take a break, no lunch...nothing. When I confronted him that it was illegal, he said "there's 10 guys waiting outside the fence for your job".

This is one example why Unions form. This was in the year 2000.

There's quite a violent history surrounding workers' rights in this country, including many striking workers being murdered, gunned down in cold blood, by hired thugs.

Note: I've never been a Union member in my life, but I understand the good they have done and reasons why they still exist today. Are there bad ones, and maybe some negative aspects of some, that can be argued against, sure...but scorched earth policy about unions probably isn't the answer.

[90503]

Meanwhile, in Canada...

https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/20...ycotts-blazer/

Unifor Planning to Protest General Motors at Detroit Auto Show, UAW Boycotts Blazer
By Matt Posky on January 13, 2019


Things are starting to get truly ugly between Canada’s Unifor and General Motors. On Friday, the union held a rally in Windsor, Ontario, with that automaker’s headquarters just a river away. During the event, Unifor President Jerry Dias expressed his annoyance with the automaker’s restructuring plan and promised to bring the noise to GM’s front door during the North American International Auto Show this week.

Friday’s gathering, which Unifor and the Windsor and District Labour Council claimed drew around 2,000 people despite its brevity, focused primarily on the company’s decision to shift more of its North American production to Mexico and the shuttering of Oshawa Assembly and the end of this year. Dias said he wants the union to work with the automaker to keep Canadian jobs and avoid a potential boycott. Though that might be just around the corner, as the UAW has already issued a boycott of its own within the United States.

UAW Vice President Terry Dittes has requested that union members, their families, and just about anybody else who might have union sympathies not purchase the new, Mexican-made Chevrolet Blazer, which recently started arriving in the U.S. Automotive News recently obtained a letter, dated January 4th, from the leader of the union’s UAW-General Motors Department saying he hoped “that not a single UAW member [or] family member ever purchase this vehicle unless it is made in the U.S.A. by our UAW members.”

General Motors responded to the union ire by saying that numerous components in the Blazer, like tuhe engine, are still manufactured at the automaker’s U.S. facilities and noted that other parts of the vehicle supported jobs with several U.S. suppliers. While technically true, it has not swayed the UAW’s general opinion of what’s happening.

“Recent news articles have stated GM is the largest producer of vehicles in Mexico. This comes at the same time [when four] of our U.S. plants are in jeopardy,” Dittes said. “It is my opinion America is with us in this fight to build here what we sell here.”

While Unifor is of a similar mind, it hasn’t gone with the boycott option yet. “The ship hasn’t sailed, because we are not accepting the decision,” Dias told the Windsor crowd on Friday.
However, his tone was anything but positive. During the rally, Dias satirically claimed he wanted to “officially announce that General Motors is changing their name to Greedy Motors” and demanded meetings with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and General Motors CEO Mary Barra.

“We will meet with Mary Barra before this is over,” he proclaimed. “The message that Mary Barra has not met with us yet is one of total disrespect.”

Dias also wants desperately to speak with Ontario Premier Doug Ford, who recently suggested there was nothing to be done about the company’s decision to close Oshawa Assembly. That position resulted in harsh criticisms from Dias and Greg Moffatt, plant chair with Unifor Local 222 in Oshawa. Though, the focus of the day remained on GM.

“Shame on you, General Motors,” Moffatt said in Windsor before thanking Canadians for standing behind the Oshawa’s workers.

Last month, Canadian union leaders ran multiple full-page ads in the Detroit Free Press and The Detroit News regarding the matter. Unifor has also plead with the automaker’s senior executives in hopes that they could be persuaded replace the Chevrolet Impala and Cadillac XTS sedans, as well as the 2018 Chevrolet Silverado and GMC pickups, currently built in Oshawa with new product.
From Automotive News:
…GM, which rejected several Unifor proposals the union says would keep the plant operational, is encouraging Unifor to work with it in finding jobs for the 2,600 employees who will be affected by the closure. GM said it is willing to cover the cost for retraining affected employees, and is open to negotiations on packages for workers on top of what is already included in contracts.
The company also said about half of the 2,600 hourly workers are eligible for a pension. Retirement benefits include about $3,500 a month, a $20,000 car voucher, and a lump sum payment of about $50,000, GM spokesman David Paterson said earlier this month.

Unifor officials didn’t specifically say how many are eligible to retire but said not all will meet the requirements for $3,500 a month. Some, the union said, will only get $700 a month.
The automaker is adopting a similar strategy in the United States but also adopted temporary workers to support the launch of new product, rather than helping to relocate employees currently on layoff. UAW leadership alleged this was a breech of contract and the union filed a lawsuit against the manufacturer on January 2nd.

As for Unifor’s upcoming Auto Show protest, Dias said doesn’t want to spoil the surprise but promised the union would deliver a clear message to General Motors’ during NAIAS. “The message has to be — if you want to sell here, you’d better build here,” he said.

[90503]

Life is just grand for Mexican auto workers....Is this what you want for the US to "compete"?


https://business.financialpost.com/p...ake-40000-suvs

Boycott Mexican made GM vehicles, Blazer and Silverados….They can and should be made in the US at union plants.

[NW-99SS]

GM can call it whatever they want, but no Blazer should ever have a transverse mounted engine. Not that I would ever own a GM product like that anyway.

[Vegas Bound]

Originally Posted by DenverTaco07

I worked for Coors for a short time after getting out of the Navy. Warehouse work, loading trucks and all that jazz. At one point the shift manager was not allowing anyone to take a break, no lunch...nothing. When I confronted him that it was illegal, he said "there's 10 guys waiting outside the fence for your job".

This is one example why Unions form. This was in the year 2000.

There's quite a violent history surrounding workers' rights in this country, including many striking workers being murdered, gunned down in cold blood, by hired thugs.

Note: I've never been a Union member in my life, but I understand the good they have done and reasons why they still exist today. Are there bad ones, and maybe some negative aspects of some, that can be argued against, sure...but scorched earth policy about unions probably isn't the answer.

We have federal laws to protect against that type of action. Unions are redundant.

[DenverTaco07]

Originally Posted by Vegas Bound

We have federal laws to protect against that type of action. Unions are redundant.

So very true; there are many employment laws we all benefit from today, and many of our employment laws are due to....

Unions.

my example is about the treatment of employees, in my case in the year 2000, for which the law about breaks already existed, and for which the manager simply didn't care which is a catalyst for unionization.. I suppose as a 26 year old making $10 an hour after serving in the Military I could have launched a very expensive lawsuit against the tiny little company called Coors, but i needed the job.

I'm not saying that there aren't bad aspects in modern unions, but we shouldn't simply throw the baby out with the bathwater. A more nuanced approach is what I advocate.

Police Unions ok?

To keep this post somewhat on topic, i have a question about the made in America stuff.

I've seen the argument, or response to an stance when someone says we are supporting American Jobs when buying Toyota and Honda (because they build here in the US) and all these other "foreign" makes who build here, the response is well..."the profit" or dollars go back to these foreign countries and we should keep the dollars here.

So, isn't the same argument made then if GM builds cars in Canada or Mexico, if so, then we good right? The $$$ flows back to GM here in the US.

[Vegas Bound]

I'm glad you brought up police unions. The purpose of the union is protect the employees. The government has laws to protect the employees. So police have a union to protect them from the government who is also there employer tasked with protecting them. Endless circle.

My comment has nothing to do with politics, it's purely about unions.

[JerTM]

I've owned a Mexican built Silverado. What a rattle trappy, poorly assembled truck that was. It was a 2015 I bought brand new off the lot, traded it in about 30k