Yes, she did well for the first 5 years or so. I myself would not have bought two of her products if she hadn't. But the last 12-18 months have been a disaster. It led to the largest auto strike in decades, and got her and her company in a lot of hot water, from local officials all the way up to the U.S. and Canadian Heads of Government. A no-confidence vote is a serious matter, and is not undertaken for nothing. On top of everything, she may (?) be facing a UNIFOR strike, across the border, in Canada.

Frankly, I wish it hadn't come to this. Despite comments I made about "watching the show" in earlier posts, I don't enjoy this confrontation any more than you do....and I can guarantee you that a lot of the UAW workers don't, either....they have to make ends meet on $250 a week from strike-funds and whatever they may have saved in the bank. I wish Mary Barra hadn't made the ill-considered decisions she did. But she brought it on.....and what one sows, they usually reap.

 

Do you realize that the UAW decided to strike? If GM decided to lock out the UAW, it would mean that Barra initiated all of this. UAW was always going to strike.

 

The UAW had little choice. Strikes today are not held for nothing. Nor are they held at the drop of a hat....especially with so many workers at stake. The last major one in the U.S. was ten years ago. There were numerous advance warning-signs of this one, but not many people were listening...even here on Car Chat. I was one of the few exceptions.....and the strike went even further than I had expected.

 

Do you realize that Barra is under pressure from Wall Street because she essentially made her "street cred" by being a toughie who wanted to go after the UAW on things like pensions and medical? Now she's essentially backed herself into a corner with Wall Street with the "get tough" tactics which have not worked... and the UAW who see her as being brittle and inflexible.

Why do you think she offered a secret meeting in the first place? Because as I stated earlier in this thread: Wall Street and its banksters and billionaires have started shouting at her. Tough place to be for a woman who is GM true blue.

 

OK cool. So we are clear the UAW decided to strike. GM Mary Barra did not decide to strike.

I personally think the workers are losing here. GM will ultimately win.
GM workers fret about paying bills as strike continues

 

Respectfully, that's where we disagree. She did, by her actions bringing it on.

We'll see. This time, unlike past years, GM has ticked off everyone from their own nighty janitors clear up to the highest levels of government. The UAW can't say the same.

 

Yep. The no confidence vote is largely symbolic and will have little influence on the BoD. But what it does signal is that the UAW is now going after Barra personally to show a flaw in her leadership and that means Wall Street is going look at this with doubts about her. Everything... everything hinges on capital/money's confidence in her. She didn't call that secret meeting for nothing, that's for sure. She and the leadership are watching stock prices day by day.

She is now personally involved in the talks and that is unusual. This means there is pressure to resolve this quickly.

 

The workers will lose. What is at stake is the future of UAW jobs, they will never grow in the US. And sadly, those plants won’t be coming back. Won’t be any new ones either.

 

You make some good points, Matty. But this also goes beyond mere stock-prices. This is a long-term issue, of getting people back to work again, getting vehicles built, and, most important, getting them built with American labor, not Chinese or Mexican.

 

It's a confrontation that is as old as the pyramids IMHO. It's a marathon to see who can outlast the other - Barra and Co. figured and will figure that the UAW's members are feeling a lot of pressure to cave to Wall Street and the CEO class. The UAW is pushing back and betting on their members not to give in and watch GM drain its cash to the tune of $90M/day.

As you said before. It has nothing to do with who wins/loses or the "I pay this much in health insurance... and I love my co. nonsense". This has to do with the idea that you can't just get rid of 50,000 Americans arbitrarily because you don't like their view that they can't build your product cheaply enough.

 

Getting them built with non-union labor, I suspect...

Too bad for them but this may be the inevitable result.

Perhaps the union wages/pension/healthplan has priced them out of the world market.

Other US auto factories produce profitable product without union involvement.

 

That would have been true in the past (even a couple of years ago) but not in the world of today. Globalism is no longer considered acceptable to a majority of the American public (it is becoming a thing of the past, and the future will be Build American). Polls show that 64% of the public supports the UAW, although there are no firm numbers right now as to just who would be willing to boycott or avoid buying or leasing an American-brand vehicle built overseas....that's anybody's guess.

Americans aren't the only ones sick and tired of Globalism. I think you will also soon see some serious attempts to bring the British auto industry back home....the vote to leave the EU was probably a start. What was once a huge and thriving, but poorly-run industry (Morris, Austin, Cunningham, Healey, Triumph, AC, Sterling, Rover, Land Rover, MG, Jaguar, Rolls-Royce, Bentley, etc..... is now all owned by Asian or other European companies. The next Monarch to succeed Queen Elizabeth (she's in her 90s now) won't even be able to ride to the Coronation in a British-built vehicle, like she did.

 

Now get back to work

GM Tells Employees It Is ‘Critical’ They Return To Work As UAW Strike Enters Day 26

General Motors issued a statement Friday urging the UAW to respond to a contract proposal it made to the union on Monday, saying it is “critical,” that is employees return to work and “get back to producing quality vehicles for our customers.”

The details of the proposal the automaker sent on Monday are private, but GM believes the offer meets the UAW’s demands. The company claims the offer “would increase compensation through wages and lump sum payments, preserve industry-leading health care benefits without increasing out-of-pocket costs, enhance profit-sharing with unlimited upside, and improve the ratification bonus,” as well as offer temporary workers “a clear path to permanent employment.” It also included a ratification bonus....more

 

Ha. The Union is only getting warmed up. Their strike-fund, depending on whose source the information comes from, is large enough to last for a full 60 weeks. That's more than an entire year....at least at the current rate of weekly-distributions. They'll fight it out as long as they have to.

And, on that subject, I really admire the stamina, patience, and determination of the UAW workers. Although they are indeed backed by a powerful union itself, a lot of politicians, and do have the aforementioned strike fund to help them out, they are still showing remarkable courage in the face of injustice and corporate incompetence. It is not surprising that almost two-thirds of the public either formally backs them or approves of their actions.