| How the UAW Helped Delphi
JCI signed a Neutrality Agreement on the promise that the UAW would "help" the company gain more business from GM, Ford, and Daimler/Chrysler.
If you want to know the real impact of UAW help, just look at Delphi.
Totally unable to compete, Delphi filed bankruptcy last Fall and immediately began to renegotiate UAW contracts. Delphi's "final" offer included such worker benefits as:
- wages from $10 to $12.50 an hour
- as much as a 63% reduction from current wage rates for U.S. hourly workers
- cutting of 24,000 U.S. jobs
- 60% of union workers laid off
- sharply reduced pension and health benefits
Meanwhile, in a court filing the UAW complained that large executive bonuses at Delphi would make it hard to sell a new package to Delphi workers.
In an objection filed November 22 in the US Bankruptcy Court, UAW lawyers argue, "It is unlikely that the UAW will be able to garner the necessary support among its membership for a negotiated agreement if the employees view the process as tainted by large awards for a select few while they bear the brunt of the cost-cutting."
Since then Delphi and the UAW negotiated buyouts -- and UAW members are rushing to accept, knowing that the union can do nothing to help them and their families.
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