The UAW brothers are getting ready to cause trouble for the Big Three.

The UAW has been forced to take deals they really weren't happy with (are they ever?) over the last couple of contracts. Foreign competition and the economy left them in a poor negotiating position. Now, auto production is at record levels and Ford and GM are making good money. The UAW wants a cut.

Via Wall Street Journal:

The United Auto Workers is threatening to strike Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV by Wednesday night, signaling a breakdown in efforts to salvage a labor deal widely rejected by members last week.
The UAW, representing 40,000 Fiat Chrysler employees in the U.S., said it plans to strike if it can’t reach a deal by Wednesday at midnight, at which time a contract extension expires. If the union follows through on its threat, it would represent the first walkout in a contract against a U.S. auto maker since before the Detroit car companies filed for bankruptcy in 2009.
Keep on reading…

Video: The revolutionary auto plant Ford built in Brazil, but can't in America because of the UAW...

Suppliers liens are located in the same plant and integrated into Ford's line.  If a U.S. supplier visits some UAW plants in the U.S. over a quality problem, they can't even pick up one of their defective parts and carry it to the door. A UAW flunky has to do that.

Ford's Joint Venture assembly plant in Brazil

Actual Good News: UAW Throws In The Towel At Volkswagen Plant In Tennessee

My guess is they didn't think they had a snowballs chance in hell with a re-vote.

Via ABC News:

The United Auto Workers dropped its appeal of a worker vote against unionizing at a Volkswagen plant in Tennessee, a move that the union said should put pressure on Republican politicians to quickly approve incentives the German automaker is seeking to expand its lone U.S. assembly plant.
The prolonged fight over labor issues at the Chattanooga facility appeared headed for a lengthy National Labor Relations Board appeal until the UAW announced an hour before a scheduled hearing that it was ending its challenge. The February vote went against the union 712-626.
Some GOP lawmakers had blamed the appeal for holding up expansion plans at the plant — and the UAW says that perceived obstacle is now out of the way.
"Now they need to step up and do what's right for VW and those workers over there, get the incentives without any strings attached," UAW Regional Director Gary Casteel said in a phone interview.
The appeal had focused on public statements from U.S. Sen. Bob Corker, Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam and other GOP officials that the union argued raised fears among workers about the plant's future if they voted to organize.

Heroes: Tennessee Volkswagen workers slap down the UAW...

Unbelievably, Volkswagen was supporting the UAW unionization drive. The reason is thought to be related to politics in Germany. Unions are very powerful in most European governments.  Volkswagen used to have a plant in the us near Pittsburgh. It closed in 1988 in large part because militant UAW workers called too many strikes and walkouts.

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (AP) — Workers at a Volkswagen factory in Tennessee have voted against union representation, a devastating loss that derails the United Auto Workers union’s effort to organize Southern factories.
The 712-626 vote released late Friday stunned many labor experts who expected a UAW win because Volkswagen tacitly endorsed the union and even allowed organizers into the Chattanooga factory to make sales pitches.
The UAW for decades has tried without success to organize a foreign-owned plant in a region that’s wary of organized labor. The loss now makes it even harder for the union to recruit members at another Southern factory.

Obvious: Tennessee Volkswagen plant workers claim UAW tricked them...

Lies, trickery and the support of democrats are the only things union have left. 

Via Fox News:

Autoworkers at a Tennessee Volkswagen plant say they’ve been tricked into supporting a drive to bring in the union.
Workers at the two-year-old Chattanooga plant informally indicated support for bringing in the United Auto Workers, a decision that could pave the way for letting the powerhouse labor organization represent workers in collective bargaining. However, since Tennessee is one of 24 so-called “Right to Work” states, plant employees don’t have to sign up or contribute dues.
Now, some eight workers at the plant, which employs about 1,600, say they thought they were simply agreeing to have a secret vote on bringing in the union, when in fact, they were signing cards professing their support for it. The workers also say that when they objected, they were told they had to go to the local union hall in order to reclaim the cards. The National Right to Work Foundation filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board.
“There’s been a long history of bad actions in pushing workers into the union,” Patrick Semmens, vice president of legal information for the NRTW foundation, told FoxNews.com. “These workers were told that it was a secret ballot vote. They were being forced into the union illegally.”
Keep on reading…

Amusing: OPEIU workers file 3 unfair labor practice complaints against UAW

Obama's union-loving unconstitutional Labor Board is going to be really conflicted...

Detroit Free Press: OPEIU workers file 3 unfair labor practice complaints against UAW
 

Specifically, the union alleged that the UAW-GM leaders failed to pay the OPEIU bargaining team, proposed to change workers’ health care plan and stopped bargaining at one point.

 

“Obviously in a world where GM is making billions of profit, we feel this contract should have been done by now,” Nix said.

A UAW spokeswoman did not respond to phone and email messages.

Good News: Chrysler workers fired in 2010 for partying during lunch are back on the job...

Fox 2 News Headlines
The UAW fought tooth and nail for these drunken losers. They won in arbitration. This is why unions have transitioned to something evil...

Two years ago Fox 2 Problem Solver Rob Wolchek got a tip from someone inside Chrysler's  Jefferson North Assembly plant about what some workers were doing at the park on their lunch break.

For several days our TV crews followed some of these workers.

Play the video above to see what these guys were doing [...]

Chrysler suspended two workers and fired thirteen others.   [...]

And now this statement from the auto maker:

"Chrysler Group LLC acknowledges the reinstatement of a number of employees  from the Jefferson North assembly plant who were  discharged from the company in September 2010 after  appearing in a local TV station's story about their off-duty conduct."

Congratulations: The UAW bailout cost each federal income taxpayer about $357

About 140 million people file tax returns, but only half of them actually owe any federal income tax liability. That makes about 70 million federal taxpayers. Divide that number into the $25 billion cost of the auto UAW bailout and each federal income taxpayer is out about $357.

Washington -The Treasury Department says in a new report the government expects to lose more than $25 billion on the $85 billion auto bailout. That's 15 percent higher than its previous forecast.

In a monthly report sent to Congress on Friday, the Obama administration boosted its forecast of expected losses by more than $3.3 billion to almost $25.1 billion, up from $21.7 billion in the last quarterly update.

The report may still underestimate the losses. The report covers predicted losses through May 31, when GM's stock price was $22.20 a share.

Apparently, the $25 billion loss is a conservative estimate.

Turbo Tax Timmy Geithner driving force behind termination of 20,000 salaried retirees at the Delphi auto parts?

It appears several Obama administration figures may have perjured themselves before Congress. That is becoming par for the course for the Obama administration.

Emails obtained by The Daily Caller show that the U.S. Treasury Department, led by Timothy Geithner, was the driving force behind terminating the pensions of 20,000 salaried retirees at the Delphi auto parts manufacturing company.

The move, made in 2009 while the Obama administration implemented its auto bailout plan, appears to have been made solely because those retirees were not members of labor unions.

The internal government emails contradict sworn testimony, in federal court and before Congress, given by several Obama administration figures. They also indicate that the administration misled lawmakers and the courts about the sequence of events surrounding the termination of those non-union pensions, and that administration figures violated federal law.

Obama to UAW: “trying to climb to the very top” was not what America is “about,”

Could the contrast be any greater?

Barack Obama:

“America’s not just looking out for yourself, it’s not just about greed, it’s not just about trying to climb to the very top...”

Ronald Reagan:

The American dream is not that every man must be level with every other man. The American dream is that every man must be free to become whatever God intends he should become.

Via CNS:

President Obama – in a speech to the United Auto Workers union – said that “trying to climb to the very top” was not what America is “about,” saying that it was “greed” and that in reality “we’re all in it together.”

“America’s not just looking out for yourself, it’s not just about greed, it’s not just about trying to climb to the very top and keep everybody else down,” Obama said at the UAW’s annual National Community Action Program Legislative Conference in Washington, D.C.

Instead, Obama – who climbed to the very top of American politics just three years ago – said that instead America was about being “all in it together,” and giving people “a hand up.”

“When our assembly lines grind to a halt, we work together, and we get them going again,” he said. “When somebody else falters, we try to give them a hand up, because we know [that] we’re all in it together.”

Who is up for giving GM UAW workers a $5000 signing bonus?

If you aren't, it's tough luck for you because taxpayers still own part of Government Motors General Motors. Interestingly, the new contract raises starting wage for new workers by as much as $3 an hour over the course of the contract. The lowered starting wage was touted as a major concession by the UAW to make the big three more competitive with the Japanese transplant automakers. Now that the bailout is over, until next time, the UAW wants to backtrack and go back to the old days and ways.

The AP reported:

The United Auto Workers union won $5,000 signing bonuses and the possibility of sweeter profit-sharing checks as part of a new four-year contract with General Motors Co., two people briefed on the talks said Saturday.

The deal, which was reached late Friday, also includes a $2- to $3-per-hour pay raise for entry-level workers over the life of the contract and guarantees more union jobs, the people said.

Both persons asked to remain anonymous because the details of the contract haven’t been reviewed by all local union leaders.

The GM deal will serve as a template for contracts that still must be negotiated with Chrysler Group LLC and Ford Motor Co. It would set the pay and benefits for 112,500 U.S. auto workers. It also sets the bar for pay and benefits at nonunion auto companies and other industries across the country.

The contract is the first since GM and Chrysler received government bailouts to make it through bankruptcy protection in 2009. GM earned $4.7 billion last year.
Workers have to approve the deal before it can take effect. A vote is expected within 10 days…

Also watching closely is the White House. GM received a $49.5 billion government bailout two years ago and is still part-owned by the U.S. Treasury. An agreement that is favorable to GM could help the company’s stock rise, which would get the Treasury closer to making back the money it is owed when it sells its remaining shares.

UAW Fail: Chrysler Workers Toking, Drinking in UAW Parking Lot

But..but...the UAW is against this kind of behavior.

Chrysler Auto Workers in Trenton Caught Smoking and Drinking During Lunch Breaks: MyFoxDETROIT.com

Transplant Auto Plant Workers Thumb Their Noses at UAW

These workers already have great paying jobs and good benefits. Why would they want to pay union dues and risk a strike?

(Bloomberg) — The United Auto Workers is trying to hold its first successful organizing drive at a foreign-car factory in the U.S. To succeed, the union has to convince people like Rocky Long.

“I don’t see any problems here. I don’t see how they could help me out,” said Long, who’s worked at the Hyundai Motor Co. (005380)assembly plant in Montgomery, Alabama, for five years. Of the union representatives who came to his home this year, he said, “I really didn’t give them the time of the day.”

UAW President Bob King has pledged to organize a foreign automaker this year to expand its bargaining power beyond the U.S. companies it has negotiated with for seven decades. While Detroit is mostly retooling old plants, overseas car companies are building and expanding U.S. factories. The union is seeking to revive membership ranks that declined 75 percent to 376,612 last year from its peak of 1.5 million.

Standing in his way are rising sales and added investments at Hyundai’s Alabama complex and sites such as affiliate Kia Motor Corp.’s factory in Georgia. Already, King and his organizers are learning that workers at foreign-owned assembly plants, most of which are in the U.S. South, may not be easy to persuade.

“The UAW has to convince workers that they need a union when in fact without a union they got what they consider to be one of the best jobs they’ve ever had: a good manufacturing job with a company that’s expanding,” Gary Chaison, a professor of industrial relations at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, said in an interview.

Government Motors Fail: Steering Wheel Falls Off Chevy Cruze (video)

Twenty-one hundred (2100) 2011 Chevy Cruze have been recalled for every drivers worst nightmare. The steering wheel fell off at 65 MPH. Perhaps the UAW should focus on quality a little more.

Steering wheel falls off Chevy Cruze. (video)

Taxpayers to lose as much as $84 billion on GM bailout

Here is what President Obama said last November.

"American taxpayers are now positioned to recover more than my administration invested in GM,”

A March 16, 2011 Congressional Oversight report disagrees to the tune of $25 billion.

“full repayment will not be possible unless the government is able to sell its remaining shares at a far higher price.”

That's $25 billion, but how are taxpayers losing the other $59 billion? When a company goes through bankruptcy, they normally lose tax write-offs for loses in previous years. Team Obama fixed that problem for GM. GM may not have to pay taxes for up to 20 years.

GM, which plans to begin promoting its relisting on the stock exchange to investors this week, wiped out billions of dollars in debt, laid off thousands of employees and jettisoned money-losing brands during its U.S.-funded reorganization last year.

Now it turns out, according to documents filed with federal regulators, the revamping left the car maker with another boost as it prepares to return to the stock market. It won't have to pay $45.4 billion in taxes on future profits.

The Obama administration changed the rules for GM and other TARP recipients.

"The Internal Revenue Service has decided that the government's involvement with these companies, both its acquisitions plus its disposals of their stock, means they should be exempt" from the rule, said Robert Willens, a New York tax consultant who advises investment banks and hedge funds.

A more detailed explanation can be found here.

UAW Threatens to brand transplants as “human rights violators” for resisting unionization

One of the reasons transplant auto companies have been more successful is their workforces haven't been organized by the UAW. Now that the UAW owns significant portions of GM and Chrysler, they want to level the playing field.

(Autoblog)- United Auto Workers president Bob King wants to reverse the UAW’s eroding course, and one of the best ways to strengthen its position is through increased membership. The Detroit News reports that King and company are looking to bring the power of one to the nearest transplant automaker producing vehicles in the U.S. King says that he wants foreign automakers to know that the UAW has learned from past mistakes and that the rank and file is not “the evil empire.” Good to know, right? Well…

After King informed the transplants that the dark side has no power over the UAW, he then went on to tell automaker management at Toyota and Honda that efforts to block the right to fair bargaining will be branded “human rights violators.”

UAW plans to tap strike fund in order to organize transplant automakers

The UAW has lost 1.1 million members since 1979. They are part of the reason taxpayers had to bail out GM and Chrysler. Now, they want to bring that pain to the transplant automakers such as Toyota, Honda and Nissan.

Also, the Wall Street Journal reported today that King is willing to tap the union’s $800-million strike fund for its push to organize hourly factory workers at foreign-owned car plants.

In December, King told the Free Press the union plans to begin with a friendly, cooperative approach to non-unionized automakers, but has made preparations for resistance.

Democrats Exempted Many UAW Members From Paying Health Insurance Premium Taxes

Everyone knows about the special deal democrats gave Ben Nelson to buy his vote for Obamacare. The rest of America is required to pay the additional Medicare costs for Nebraska forever and the largest health insurance company in Nebraska, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, is exempt from the new health insurance premium taxes levied on gold-plated health insurance plans. What many people overlooked is Michigan Blue Cross/Blue Shield was also exempted from the new health insurance premium taxes. When there was never any doubt how Michigan's Senators would vote, why was Michigan Blue Cross/Blue Shield exempted? The answer is the UAW. The UAW has one of the most expensive health care plans in America. The UAW health care plan even pays for Lasik eyesight-improvement surgery. Guess what insurance company covers most current and retired UAW members in Michigan. If you guessed Michigan Blue Cross/Blue Shield, you would be correct. Actually, the UAW has organized Blue Cross/Blue Shield workers in Michigan. Corrupt democrats exempted much of their UAW membership base from paying the tax on their gold-plated health insurance plan.

MSM Finally Realizes Consumers are Supporting Ford and Shunning GM, Chrysler

Ford reported a surprising third quarter profit of $1 billion. Ford sales have been much stronger than GM and Chrysler since the auto manufacturing takeover by Team Obama. Common sense says that Americans are rewarding Ford and shunning UAW owned Chrysler and government owned GM. Now, the mainstream media can no longer continue to ignore the facts.

From NewsBusters:

In the eighth paragraph of their article covering October's auto sales, AP reporters Tom Krisher and Dee-Ann Durbin recognized part of the reason -- and perhaps the most important reason -- why Ford has been cleaning the clocks of General Motors and Chrysler all year long:

Ford has benefited from consumer goodwill because it didn't take government bailout money or go into bankruptcy protection, as General Motors and Chrysler did.

Ford will be hampered by a competitive wage disadvantage for the next two years. The UAW membership refused to give Ford the same concessions they gave the bailed out auto manufacturers. One of the criticisms of giving the UAW such a large stake in bailed out Chrysler and GM was the UAW would have little motive to give Ford a good contract when they owned significant parts of Ford's competitors. This seems to be coming to fruition more quickly than anyone imagined.

Greedy UAW Workers Reject Ford Contract

Ford is the only American auto manufacturer that didn't have to take bailout money. The reasons are better management and a large loan secured before credit dried up. The UAW gave concessions to GM and Chrysler as part of the bailout reorganization. Ford was seeking parity in their contract with the UAW. Union members rejected their own leaderships advice and rejected the modified contract. Now, Ford will be at a competitive disadvantage for the next two years. This points back to one of the main causes of GM and Chrysler needing a taxpayer bailout. UAW members vote for greed above common sense.

From Yahoo News:

Ford Motor Co. workers have overwhelmingly rejected contract changes that would have allowed the automaker to cut labor costs, leaving Ford at a disadvantage to its Detroit rivals as it continues its struggle to return to profitability.

The United Auto Workers union had given local unions until Monday to complete voting. But a person briefed on the voting said Saturday that the contract changes have been rejected by large margins. The person asked not to be named because the UAW hasn’t announced the results yet.