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Thursday, January 13, 2011

UAW Considering GM Proposal To Change Auto Worker Compensation Structure

By Doug Cunningham 1/12/2011

In Detroit auto labor contract talks this year General Motors will push for a dramatic, historic change in the way hourly United Auto Worker members are compensated.

GM reportedly wants to compensate union workers the way non-union, salaried employees are paid – including performance-based variable compensation instead of a set amount of money spelled out in labor contracts.

UAW President Bob King says the union is open to considering some portion of UAW member compensation tied to financial and quality performance. But he said the details of how union workers “share in the upside of the companies” will be left to collective bargaining that starts this summer.

UAW members fought hard many decades ago to do away with piece-work and other performance-based forms of compensation because such methods could be and in fact were abused by management to unfairly target some workers while rewarding the boss’ favorites.

If the UAW does accept this form of compensation it would be huge shift, essentially eliminating the union as a representative of workers on wages, since compensation would be determined by management based on the financial performance of the company.

Rightardia agrees with the UAW position. UAW workers are not managers. They don't manage people or manage budgets. 

Nepotism and favouritism often creep into corporate evaluations. Would a management team want to reward a union worker who filed a justified grievance against the company? We have also seen good workers who have limited people skills passed over for promotions. 


Unions should be like the "three Musketeers, "All for one. One for all."

If corporations want to beat up on their managers to improve performance, let them. The managers who get paid 'big bucks take this abuse. Union workers get paid less than managers and pensions are about one third of what a a manager gets. 


The GM proposal would divide workers and weaken unions.  The UAW has already worked with the auto makers and made numerous concessions.

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