not baseball

detroit is now seeing the 4th UAW strike in less than 6 months. this time it is picketing American Axle Manufacturing, a detroit based auto supplier with plants in michigan and new york. this comes in response to management asking the union to take cuts in wages, health benefits, and restructure retirement programs. the union says this amounts to unfair labor practices.

the union gave just such concessions to all of the big 3 late last year. my guess is that AAM needs to cut costs, and this is the first offer. these things always come down to negotiations and in light of the deals at the auto makers you cant blame AAM for trying to reduce costs. the cynical side of me wonders if this was worked out in advance by AAM and the UAW to draw attention to the situation, then positive press for resolving it quickly. the detroiter in me wonders if AAM, which has been a bright spot in detroit's ever gloomy economy, is trying to get more for the bottom line at the expense of the workers.

either way, its in everyone's best interest to restructure things in the pattern of the GM and ford agreements late last year. no one can afford to have this draw out for any length of time.

from what i hear, word of mouth, mind you, there are union guys making $65/hour. if thats true, these guys need to take a cut. thats ridiculous. union carpenter wages arent nearly that inflated in this area where the cost of living is at least twice as high as detroit. apprentices make like $14. foremen make something like $28 to $33. the union has to accept something at that scale. thats damn good pay for the type of work. and to come in line with the rest of the world and accept 401K's instead of company retirement is not only reasonable, its the way the rest of the world works and perfectly acceptable. and as far as health insurance goes, the union should fight for the best coverage possible. everyone should.

lets hope this one follows the pattern. i think it will. it should. detroit cant afford a prolonged strike like this for sundry and various reasons.