A closer look at this summer's GM-UAW negotiations
For as far as the 'Drive it Home' campaign has gone in just a few short months, it still leaves questions about how negotiations between the international UAW and GM will go this summer. Given how much Lordstown workers have sacrificed in the last 20 years just to keep the plant going, it's not unreasonable to think that there's nothing else for them to concede when the two sides sit down at the bargaining table. The battle that will ultimately decide GM Lordstown's fate is still mon...
LORDSTOWN, Ohio - For as far as the 'Drive it Home' campaign has gone in just a few short months, it still leaves questions about how negotiations between the international UAW and GM will go this summer.
Given how much Lordstown workers have sacrificed in the last 20 years just to keep the plant going, it's not unreasonable to think that there's nothing else for them to concede when the two sides sit down at the bargaining table.
The battle that will ultimately decide GM Lordstown's fate is still months away.
Dave Green, president of UAW Local 1112 which represents the workers at GM Lordstown, can't say much about those upcoming negotiations this June or July.
But some insight from past negotiations - including deep concessions the UAW made in 1998 and 2015 when the last contract was agreed to - gives the impression that those workers' backs may be against the wall.
"I know in 2007 when we had very difficult negotiations, we went on strike that year," Green said. "Only for a couple of days, but that launched our core/non-core two-tier wage structure. It was probably the most concessions we've given up in my lifetime. A couple of years later, GM's in bankruptcy and we're giving up more."
"It's not just local concessions, it's going to be what's the national contract looks like," said Kristin Dziczek of the Center of Automotive Research. "The company goes into these negotiations saying, 'This is our target price for labor. Now how do we divvy it up?'"
Green feels some reassurance that GM has already invested in other US plants - but there's still concern that this summer's negotiations with such high stakes could pit one plant against another.
"They call it whipsawing," said Green. "We've had discussions many times that this has been a struggle for us across the nation. Once one plant gives up so much work, agrees to so much outsourcing, the next plant's going to be expected to do it. I don't know that the members are really excited about making any more concessions. We've helped the company get out of those legacy costs that they had."
And while Green is in constant contact with the international union reps, any strategy that might convince GM to stay in the Valley and keep the facility on its tract of land for perhaps another 50 years is out of his hands.
"The international union's going to come to us when they have an agreement, and we'll have to roll this out to our members, and it'll be up to the membership to either vote for or against whatever is in that contract," he said. "I don't bargain. I won't be there, but it's probably a good thing I won't be there."
