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UAW strike has terrible implications for GM, the UAW, Michigan

The UAW striking General Motors, especially if the walkout lasts more than a few hours, is a dangerous move with all sorts of awful implications for the company and the future of the UAW to say nothing of Michigan's economy, according to the Detroit Free Press' Tom Walsh.

General Motors, while making good progress on its turnaround the past two years, is still losing money in North America and could still suffer enormous damage from a walkout of any length.

And what of the UAW itself, which has been touting its efforts to organize the nonunion U.S. plants of Toyota Motor Corp., other Asian automakers and growing suppliers such as Denso. By striking GM, the union provides fodder to the anti-union campaigns at all those companies, which play upon workers' fears that strike-happy U.S. labor unions will scare companies into closing U.S. plants and cutting jobs en masse.

Meanwhile, Michigan's economy labors under the dual burden of its reliance on the Detroit Three auto companies and their declining market share, exacerbated by the longstanding reputation of Detroit and Michigan as a stronghold of truculent, overpaid and inflexible labor unions.

Forget about all gains in productivity and recent cooperative deals between labor and management to cut health care costs and simplify work rules. The old anti-business, pro-labor image is a hard one to shake. Any nationwide automotive strike, no matter how brief, sends the wrong message to growing companies looking for the best place to invest.

Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth  at 4:28 PM to Auto industry , Unions | Permalink

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Posted by: Chris Ricker on September 25, 2007 7:38 AM

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