Boeing machinists walked off the job in 2008. Boeing’s C-17 plant in Los Angeles was shut in the summer of 2010 because workers were upset with the company’s benefits offer. There was more trouble with unions, which have members who work at Boeing, late last year. Machinists pressured Boeing then about the construction of a plant in South Carolina. The battle was great enough to involve the National Labor Relations Board. The UAW would never have had similar leverage at the Big Three over the past four years. And the future power of that union has been undermined at the car companies, with the agreement of the unions oddly enough, in exchange for a part of the financial turnaround of Detroit.
UAW workers at GM used to get among the best benefits given by any U.S. company. Hourly wages were high enough that, combined with these benefits, GM lost its margin advantage over Japanese rivals. The years and years of extraordinary compensation are over. New blue-collar workers at GM get a fraction of what their predecessors did. But GM paid 47,500 blue-collar workers $7,000 each earlier this year because of the car company’s large profits.
Caterpillar workers can strike. They have pay and benefits to maintain. Caterpillar’s success allowed them to keep much of what they are fighting for now. GM workers could not do the same. All each of them gets is $7,000.
Douglas A. McIntyre
Top Gaining Stocks
Top Losing Stocks