UAW Local 5960 Members Discuss 50% Pay Cut, Two Tier & the Future of the Union at GM Orion Assembly

At their last UAW Local 5960 meeting on October 3rd 2010, some 500 of the nearly 1,300 workers at GM Orion Assembly were informed they could either accept a transfer to GM's Lordstown, OH plant, or stay at Orion Assembly and have their pay cut in half, to about $14 per hour. These interviews were conducted after the next UAW Local 5960 meeting on November 7th 2010. More at:

http://soldiersofsolidarity.com/
http://www.factoryrat.com
http://autoworkercaravan.org/
http://labornotes.org/

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• labor
• union
• uaw
• two
• tier
• protest
• soldiers of solidarity
• autoworker
• caravan
• detroit MI
• gm
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[GSXRMark99]

This is a no-brainer for the low seniority to transfer to Lordstown to maintain their current pay. Lordstown is a good facility for GM, and even if the workers had to walk away from their houses and rent down in Ohio, thats the best move in this economy

[FlintPublic]

@GSXRMark99 You're probably right, but the dubious way this all went down and the crappy options presented to these workers are what unions are supposed to fight - not play along with.

[panjok2]

I think we need to start over and with new unions! No more uaw, and the such! We need a fresh new union that doesnt have people in it that are as bad as the corporate themselves! We need unions but not the bad ones we have today! As it stands companies are all going thru temp services for most of their workers and that keeps them from paying better wages to people and they dont even have to pay over time cause they just work ya 12 hrs one day and them say they dont need ya the next day!

[FlintPublic]

@panjok2 So true. You're right, democratic, action-oriented, solidarity unionism all the way!

[rwcbanzai]

Sadly, Corporatism won once ithey divided the pay into tiers, with those with less senoirity making less. Them's have a master plan & the local officers were bought out when you didn't get a copy of the contract when you voted on it! The UAW has been bankrupt since membership declined......

[FlintPublic]

@rwcbanzai Too true!

[MegaSaginaw]

cut cut cut cut the middle class thats all ceo's ask 4 they have five houses while we struggle to pay 4 one tell me anybody is this fair to care about a few ceo's or the majority of workers

[panjok2]

@TheMusicman1956 I have grown up & watched the same factories that were union get sold & in comes another company doing the same thing but no union and half the pay! People in America that dont work for the union dont like the union but if we could get rid of the bad seeds in the unions then people would see how bad we really need them! Sadly I have to work for Walmart now & with no unions I get cheated out of fair pay raises, unfair work practices, etc and cannot do anyth about it!

[panjok2]

@TheMusicman1956 That is the only thing wrong with the union! I am a 37 year old with a dad,aunts,uncles that worked at Dana and mom that worked at Alcoa with UAW and the union was great for america but the big wigs in the union became as bad as the ones in corp. and they stopped working for the people and just for themselves! America was great! towns looked beautiful because people made good money=kigher taxes to towns for upkeep! Now look what towns are doing! they are broke!

[a2r7n6]

GM is again going to be out of business in five years. Just wait and see what again happens when gas hits $4 a gal. or higher. The economy sucks and less and less people have money for those expensive toys. Sure we have to have a car for those of us still working, so for $17k one can buy a new Civic that gets 35+ mpg and will last a lot longer then anything the UAW builds. And Honda has never asked the US taxpayers to be bailed out. Bad companies should be allowed to fail. Good buy GM.

[FlintPublic]

@surkhalam Here, here!

[TheMusicman1956]

The UAW leaders need to be tossed out. They don't support the works anymore. Just themselves. They even make the workers pay to go to Black Lake.