This article is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis. It was originally published at The Conversation.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=1470740
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=1470740
record profits should lead to a record contract
Interesting article and encouraging events happening with the worker’s union.
No cat this time. Instead, Crocs cowboy boots with spurs. Get yours October 23.
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I think Crocs are just trying to stirrup trouble with this pointless shoe.
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The good professor has written a nice apologia for the new version of “labor collaboration,” dressing it up as confrontation. A much more effective and militant strike would have brought out the entire workforce, instead of letting the auto companies work around the strike to a great extent (and for the union bureaucracy to keep having dues come in). And the Biden angle is consistent with that hands-behind-the-back approach: what the professor fails to mention is that Biden opposed the strike and worked hard behind the scenes to avert it, and then heavily pressured Fain to limit its impact. After all, Fain wouldn’t want to embarrass, let alone break from the Democrats, would he? It’s been long said that American labor bureaucrats wouldn’t know how to run a strike if they were given a how-to manual.
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More militant for sure. Doubtful that it would be more effective.
They are rewriting the rules here on how to conduct a strike rather than following old patterns. It seems to be working and we will see what they ultimately accomplish.
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Marick Masters is currently Director of Labor@Wayne at Wayne State University, where he is a Professor of Business and Adjunct Professor of Political Science.
I would put more faith in this guy’s opinion over a bomb-thrower. Masters lives and works in Michigan and has a good idea what would work and what wouldn’t.
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Back in the pre-80s days, media outlets had reporters who covered labor issues the way they now breathlessly cover the random daily noise of the financial markets. Go figure
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So, burn it down: lose further market share to non-union shops like Subaru, Toyota (mostly), Volkswagen, BMW, Honda, Hyundai/Kia, etc.
You do understand that the point of a strike is not to destroy the business, don’t you? That the relationship between the UAW and the auto companies is a commensal relationship?
The point of a strike is to inflict pain on management in support of the negotiators. Calibrating the amount of pain you are inflicting is being smart. Note that management can (and has) also inflicted some pain on the UAW with plant shutdowns, but they appear to be managing this carefully.
Thanks for the useful summary, Professor Masters.
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I invite you to provide citations for these assertions.
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God, it is good to see some unions get some victories. I know it is not that big in the overall scheme of things and their membership continues to dwindle, but I am just going to cling to the good things that are happening.
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Yeah, that must be why he went to the picket lines and stood with the strikers.
Try harder not to post stupid shit.
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Joe Biden’s initial instinct seems usually to be to maintain existing social traditions. One of those traditions in labor-management negotiations is that a strike is an absolute last-resort. If a strike is the last resort, then continuing to work under the old contract is the reasonable (and responsible) thing to do.
The problem is that management knows those traditions, too. I’m sure the UAW told them something along the lines of, “If we haven’t made significant progress by the end of the contract, we’re going out.” I’m equally sure the companies’ negotiating teams said, “Yeah, sure.”
The way you show it’s not a bluff is to show your cards. So the UAW shocked everyone by going on strike the day after the contract ended.
This will pay off when the next contract gets negotiated: when the UAW team tells them, “If we haven’t made substantial progress towards a new contract, we’re going out when the contract ends,” management will know it may not be a bluff, because they did it last time.
There are lots of paths to a contract. What we don’t need is government taking tools away from labor.
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Those are NOT cowboy boots! I would be laughed out of the saloon if I walked in wearing a pair of those.
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Don’t be a heel. Your sole purpose seems to be spurring on another pun thread.
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The pun thread must be maintained. We can not go squishy about these pointless boots.
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If we do that it will clog the thread!
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By a while, you’ll get booted for this crock!
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This was in my inbox this AM . https://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/2023/10/06/uaw-strike-update-gm-battery-plants/71085498007/
As I happen to reside in TEXAS, this article resonated as the Union strike could result in a walk-out in a battery operation in TX - terrible optics for Big 3 The GM development, which Fain called a “major breakthrough,” is a win for the automaker and for the union, labor experts said. Fain told some 52,000 viewers tuned into his live update that he had planned to call for strike action Friday at GM’s Arlington Assembly plant in Texas, where GM makes its full-size SUVs. Those are some of GM’s most profitable vehicles and to lose that production would have been costly.
For the union, it ratchets up the pressure on Ford to have workers at its future battery plants be included in the UAW’s master contract, labor experts said.
“We were about to shut down GM’s largest moneymaker in Arlington, Texas,” Fain said. “The company knew those members were ready to walk immediately. Just that threat provided a transformative win. GM has now agreed, in writing, to place their electric battery manufacturing under our national master agreement.”
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Hi! To find out what I can do, say @discobot display help.
We need footwear puns.
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