ISSUE:

The 2007 General Motors strike was a strike from September 24 to 26, 2007, by the United Auto Workers against Motors. On September 24, 2007 at approximately 11:00 a.m. EDT, the roughly 73,000 General Motors workers represented by the United Auto Workers union went on strike against the company with concerns of compensation, benefits, job stability and company investment. The first nationwide strike against GM since 1970 was expected to idle 59 plants and facilities for an indefinite period of time. Talks broke down after more than 20 straight days of bargaining failed to produce a new contract. Major issues that proved to be stumbling blocks for an agreement included wages, benefits, job security and investments in US facilities. Within hours, the ripple effect was felt in Canada with closures of two car assembly plants in Oshawa, Ontario and a transmission facility in Windsor on September 25. However, at 3:05 EDT on September 26, a tentative agreement was reached, and the strike's end was announced by UAW officials in a news conference at 4 a.m. By the following day, all GM workers in both countries were back to work.

REASON:
In wake of the General Motors strike which GM thought would never happen many people's lives are being affected and everyone is watching and waiting to see how the strike plays out. The UAW president is more determined than ever to insure that the auto workers concerns and issues are address and resolved. The major problem for the UAW and General Motors which led to the strike is the cost of healthcare. With healthcare costs so high and continuing to climb GM can't afford to cover workers as it promised so long ago. The problem with the Big Three was that a long time ago during the fifties and sixties when business was booming and cars were selling like hotcakes the Big Three were ecstatic. They had no problem making promises to pay this expense and that expense including healthcare. The problem with that was the Big Three never stopped during the fifties or sixties to think about what if the economic slows down, what if we stop selling so many cars, what if things turn bad. So now in the 21st century the 2000's the economic is slow, cars are not selling as fast as they use to and profits for the Big Three including GM are not rolling in

as much. Because of this they cannot keep their commitments to pay healthcare for auto workers. They need the auto workers to foot the bill or at least most of it and the auto workers don't want to. What GM could do is just give the UAW a billion dollars and say hey sort the healthcare issue out for your-selves and it would be a big burden off their shoulders. Every day that the UAW is on strike it was costing GM millions of dollars. The outcome of this strike was likely to be GM giving into the UAW workers conditions all though there may be some additional compromising.

Collective Bargaining by GM:

At the core of the new deal is the transfer of retiree health-care payments from GM to the UAW. GM will pay an estimated $35 billion into a trust designed to appreciate in value and pay health-care benefits for retired workers for at least the next 80 years, the union estimated. In return, GM is able to unload a $51 billion burden in retiree health-care obligations from its books, enabling the troubled company to borrow money more easily and move more nimbly against competitors. GM's health-care liability is more than twice the company's $21 billion market capitalization. In exchange for giving up annual raises over the course of the contract and allowing GM to pay new workers a lower wage, the union got job-security assurances. Not all details of the tentative contract were revealed, but it was known that underlying wages will be frozen during the duration of the four-year agreement, though workers will receive one-time bonuses in each of the contract years, in addition to a $3,000 signing bonus to entice them to ratify the deal soon. GM was be allowed to pay as little as $14 to $15 an hour to employees in non-manufacturing jobs that once paid as much as $28 as hour, as openings come up. Those jobs were prized by older workers who were able to become forklift drivers or janitors after years of physically demanding work on assembly lines.