
From Deadspin to picket lines, a moral workplace is 2020’s stealth issue - smacktoward
https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/deadspin-gm-chicago-teachers-strike-worker-rights-medicare-20191105.html
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remotecool
The GM strikes devastated many of the local suppliers, which were forced to
layoff employees. Some people never got their jobs back and these businesses
still haven't recovered.

One of the main complaints is that they don't want GM to sell more electric
cars.

The reason is that it requires a different set of skills (more
engineering/software and less blue-collar mechanic work).

Instead of the unions educating their members and helping them transition to a
new position, they instead strike and use mob tactics to prevent advancements
in technology.

~~~
brylie
It seems like the strike is primarily about keeping jobs and healthcare while
raising wages:

""" Union demands for job security, higher base wages and retaining arguably
the best health care coverage in the private sector are certain to clash with
GM's plan to negotiate the shutdown of four U.S. plants and its push to close
the cost gap with non-union foreign automakers operating mostly in the
American South. """

[https://eu.detroitnews.com/story/business/columnists/daniel-...](https://eu.detroitnews.com/story/business/columnists/daniel-
howes/2019/09/10/uaw-demands-profits-gm-cost-cuts-portend-potential-
strike/2267255001/)

""" STEVE GORALSKI: We’ve got a company that had $35 billion in profits in the
last few years. We’ve got temporaries that have been here over seven years and
are still temporaries, and they’re asking for more temporaries. They’re moving
our plants out of country; they’re taking them to Mexico and to China. And now
they’re asking for concessions on our healthcare. I don’t know about you, but
that’s the only reason I took this job. I used to have my own drywall company.
I took it for the benefits. """
[https://www.democracynow.org/2019/9/18/uaw_nationwide_strike...](https://www.democracynow.org/2019/9/18/uaw_nationwide_strikes_gm)

