Solidarity with Antwerp

The GM workers at Lordstown, Ohio in the United States are facing Delta/Astra problems also. They are standing up to GM. The UAW negotiating team has broken off talks as the GM team tried to force similar concessions onto the workers. There was a special membership meeting called on Sunday, April 29, at the local union headquaters in Youngstown Ohio. A report about the special meeting is expected from the local union execuitive later this week. Checke the UAW Local 1714 website for further details: http://uaw1714.info/joomla

The Associated Press April 27, 2007, 5:01PM EST - Business Week

GM delays work at 2 plants on UAW row

DETROIT

General Motors Corp. has suspended development activities on vehicles at two major U.S. assembly plants as the United Auto Workers union has backed out of negotiations on cost cuts at the factories, labor and company sources said Thursday.

GM, scrambling to trim labor costs in order to better compete in the United States with Asian auto makers, has requested so-called Competitive Operating Agreements at its Fairfax, Kan., and Lordstown, Ohio, plants. However, the UAW's senior leadership team has abruptly ended the COA negotiations at the two plants owing to disagreements with GM, according to people familiar with those talks.

The auto maker in recent days has informed the UAW that it is suspending work related to two new-vehicle programs -- the Epsilon mid-size car program and Delta compact-car program. Epsilon cars, such as the Chevrolet Malibu, and Delta cars, such as the Chevrolet Cobalt, are built in Fairfax and Lordstown, respectively.

A UAW source said the move to suspend the programs is seen as a largely political gesture aimed at raising the stakes in the negotiations, but the union is nevertheless taking the move seriously. The union fears that future vehicles may be outsourced if it does not provide GM with adequate cost savings, this source said.

A source at GM said the company is halting some work on the future projects in retaliation for UAW leaders in Detroit having forced local plant representatives to pull out of COA negotiations. "We said, `if you are going to go 180 degrees on us, after you told Lordstown and Fairfax to stop talking, then we will too,'" this person said.

The conflict comes just two months ahead of the start of critical labor negotiations between the parties, during which GM and its domestic counterparts are expected to lobby for substantial health-care cost savings as part of a new collective bargaining agreement.

The company's inability to win local Competitive Operating Agreements serves as a rocky prelude to the UAW talks. It also reinforces underlying tension between the UAW and auto makers that exists after the parties have cooperated on cost-cutting projects in recent years.

The standstill on COA negotiations is frustrating for some GM executives given the success Ford Motor Co. had in negotiating 38 such agreements at plants in the past year. The UAW says those Ford agreements saved the auto maker about $750 million in 2006, but UAW officials have been slow to extend similar agreements to GM. GM did ink a COA in Tennessee recently, leading the auto maker to promise a future product to the plant.

UAW spokesman Roger Kerson declined to comment on the negotiations at the GM plants, saying he doesn't know the details.

GM spokesman Dan Flores said, "I can't characterize the status of discussions or the status of the activities at the plants." He said the company's forthcoming redesigned Malibu sedan will go into production this fall as planned, but declined to comment on product plans beyond that.

"We are still on track and moving toward the fall launch of the Malibu," Flores said. GM is already making plans for the redesigned Malibu's replacement, likely to come early next decade and the UAW is eager to win assurances related to that product, according to a UAW official.

The UAW's move to walk away from the Lordstown and Fairfax negotiations has surprised both GM labor negotiators and officials working at UAW locals at both plants. Union officials in Lordstown had hammered out a COA with the GM "that all but gave the farm to GM," according to one official. He said, "We were very receptive to helping the company become profitable," but UAW senior leaders are worried that giving away too much in Lordstown could set a bad precedent as GM pursues more COAs.

The COA discussions began in February after UAW Vice President Cal Rapson traveled to Lordstown to inform the plant's officials that it needed to make some changes to become more competitive, according to various sources familiar with Rapson's trip. In negotiations, GM was looking for several changes, including the ability to outsource lower-skill jobs to workers not protected under the UAW's contract. At GM, workers make about $70 an hour in wages and benefits.

GM wants to cut hundreds of additional UAW jobs in Lordstown through buyouts, and either outsource the positions or leave the positions vacant. Many of these jobs involve janitorial, parts-delivery or maintenance-type work not directly associated with the assembly line.

Shares of Detroit-based GM slipped 89 cents, or nearly 3 percent, to close at $31.56 Friday on the New York Stock Exchange.

Dus, als ik het logisch bekijk, wil men nu zogezegd de "kleine Chevy" naar Antwerpen halen ( die momenteel in Azië wordt geproduceerd, en waar de loonkosten, productiekosten, kortom alle kosten gewoonweg veeeel lager zijn). Waar denk je dat ze over gaan vallen? De hoge kosten in een West-Europese fabriek? Zouden ze kiezen voor een duurdere fabriek, terwijl ze hetzelfde product voor minder dan de helft aan productiekosten kunnen maken?
Mensen, beste GM'ers, WAKKER WORDEN ALLEMAAL!!! Na 2010 gaat de fabriek gewoon dicht. Als ze nu al dreigen om simpelweg de fabriek te sluiten als we niet aan het werk gaan, dan is de conclusie toch snel gemaakt?
Ik denk dat we gewoon allemaal op zoek moeten naar een nieuwe job, maar laat ons dit allemaal doen in alle sereniteit. Veel sterkte allemaal.