Uaw

DETROIT - As a negotiator, Ron Gettelfinger, the United Auto Workers president, is known more for the carrot than the stick. Just don't mistake him for easygoing. This year, he briefly banned Marines stationed near Solidarity House, the union's headquarters, from parking in the union lot if they drove foreign cars or had Bush bumper stickers. And in 2001, shortly after being nominated for the union presidency, he summed up his style in one word: "abrasive." This summer, as he faces the fight of his union life in a showdown with General Motors Corp.

Ernest B. Crofoot, a former labor organizer who later headed Council 67 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, died Friday of complications from cancer at his Annapolis home. He was 88. "Ernie was one hell of a trade unionist," said Ed A. Mohler, who went to work for Mr. Crofoot at AFSCME in 1968. "He put together a first-class staff at AFSCME and had people from the United Auto Workers, machinists, building trades and other unions who had a variety of experiences.

A state council of the United Auto Workers has announced its endorsements of Harford County candidates in the coming elections.The Maryland State UAW Community Action Program Council has endorsed incumbents Mary Louise Preis and Rose Mary Hatem Bonsack and first-time candidate Sean Patrick Carven for the three seats up for grabs in 34th legislative district House of Delegates race. All are Democrats.In District 35, where two Harford delegates will be elected, the auto workers have endorsed Democrats Joseph V. Lutz and incumbent Donald C. Fry.In the state Senate race, the UAW endorsed incumbent Sen. William H. Amoss, a Democrat, for the 35th District seat.

I thought I had said all I was going to say about Fareed Zakaria's plagiarism Friday night when I wrote about how wrong it was to steal the words and ideas of another -- and how deadly for a public intellectual. Read here what I said about Zakaria's actions shredding any sense of intellectual authority I once thought he had. But then, came the lame defenses from some other people in the media the last two days -- defenses that only underlined in my mind what I said about the deeply confused and debased state of journalism today.

Ford Motor Co. and the United Auto Workers struck a tentative contract deal yesterday that mirrors a new contract at General Motors Corp. by committing Ford to spend up to $1.6 billion over three years to maintain the income of displaced workers.It doesn't, however, immediately shrink the company's labor cost gap with Japanese automakers.And it sets the stage for a showdown with Chrysler Corp., where top officials have insisted they can't afford to match wages and benefits paid by GM and Ford.

DETROIT -- The United Auto Workers union, traditionally a mighty force in the struggle of labor against capital, could be on the brink of a new role: the U.S. automakers' biggest stockholder. Under new four-year labor agreements with the three Detroit automakers, retiree health care costs will be shifted to independent trusts under the auspices of the union. These trusts could take control of hundreds of millions of shares of General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. The fact that the UAW could virtually be holding almost one-sixth of the equity in the nation's two biggest automakers could drive profound changes in the way the union thinks and acts, experts say. "Equity as part of the [trusts]

CHICAGO -- The United Auto Workers' tentative contract with General Motors Corp. includes unprecedented promises to secure the jobs of thousands of workers for years, while requiring GM to pay out at least $35 billion in health care benefits and establishing a new pay tier for thousands of new workers, according to the UAW. Yesterday, local labor leaders endorsed the contract, which includes promises from GM to build current and new models at 16 U.S....

DETROIT -- Negotiators for the United Automobile Workers and General Motors have agreed on the framework for a health care trust, GM's key demand in talks on a new contract, people with direct knowledge of the private discussions said yesterday. But the two sides face a long weekend of bargaining on other matters, such as pay and job guarantees, before negotiations are completed, they added. GM and the UAW have tentatively sorted out the details for a voluntary employee benefit association.

DETROIT -- Two hours before they were formally to sign a three-year contract negotiated last month with Ford Motor Co., top officials of the United Automobile Workers union notified Ford that they were unhappy with the company's view of one provision and would not sign.Ford officials said they were caught off guard Tuesday night by the union's objection, which deals with a provision giving workers a four-day weekend around Independence Day. Ford and the union had scheduled a signing ceremony at 10 a.m. yesterday, which they called off at 8 a.m. No new date for signing the agreement was scheduled.

DETROIT -- General Motors Corp. could close or sell some parts-making subsidiaries unless it gains concessions on wages from the United Automobile Workers in contract talks, a top company executive said yesterday, sketching out the company's bargaining stance before the contract talks begin on June 23.Since those subsidiaries, which make products like bearings and axles, generally compete against companies that are not organized by the UAW, GM pays up...

WASHINGTON -As time for a deal wound down Wednesday, the Obama administration finalized a plan to send Chrysler into bankruptcy, replace chief executive Robert Nardelli and pump billions of dollars more into the effort, all in hopes the company can emerge from court proceedings as a re-energized competitor in the global economy. The government's attempt to save the automaker amounts to another extraordinary intervention in the U.S. economy, but what would happen by Thursday's deadline for making a deal wasn't clear.

DETROIT: UAW workers at Ford Motor Co. reluctantly ratified an agreement that reduces their benefits, break time and potentially weakens the fiscal soundness of a retiree health care fund in an effort to help the ailing automaker survive the global recession. The United Auto Workers said yesterday that 59 percent of production workers and 58 percent of skilled-trades workers voted in favor of the agreement during elections at locals nationwide. "Once again, UAW members have stepped up to make the difficult decisions necessary to deal with the reality of the current economy, the deteriorating auto industry as a whole and specifically the negative impact the economic climate is having on Ford Motor Co.," UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said.

General Motors Corp.'s worst-case labor scenario came true yesterday when workers at a Kansas City, Kan., factory that builds the hot-selling Chevrolet Malibu walked off the job. GM had hoped to avoid a strike at the Fairfax Assembly plant, which is one of two U.S. factories that have been scrambling to keep up with the demand for the Malibu, arguably the automaker's most critical vehicle on the market. The United Auto Workers launched the walkout yesterday morning after a strike deadline passed with no new labor deal for the plant's 2,600 workers.

Douglas A. Fraser, 91 United Auto Workers leader Douglas A. Fraser, who led the United Auto Workers union through dark hours in the U.S. auto industry in the 1970s and '80s, died late Saturday at Providence Hospital in Southfield, Mich., his wife, Winnie Fraser, said yesterday. She said he had emphysema and went into the hospital with breathing problems. Mr. Fraser was popular with the union's rank and file, who appreciated his candor and accessibility. "Everybody thought he was wonderful," Mrs. Fraser said.

DETROIT -- The United Auto Workers union, traditionally a mighty force in the struggle of labor against capital, could be on the brink of a new role: the U.S. automakers' biggest stockholder. Under new four-year labor agreements with the three Detroit automakers, retiree health care costs will be shifted to independent trusts under the auspices of the union. These trusts could take control of hundreds of millions of shares of General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. The fact that the UAW could virtually be holding almost one-sixth of the equity in the nation's two biggest automakers could drive profound changes in the way the union thinks and acts, experts say. "Equity as part of the [trusts]

DETROIT -- Over the last two years, the three American auto companies have vowed that their plans to slash nearly 80,000 jobs and close more than two dozen plants would be enough to transform them into leaner and nimbler competitors. But the housing bust and soaring oil prices have forced Chrysler LLC and General Motors Corp. to make another round of surprising cuts, with no guarantees that these will be the last. Yesterday, Chrysler announced it would eliminate 11,000 hourly and salaried jobs in the United States and Canada, and cut shifts of workers at five plants.

DETROIT -- While leaders of the United Auto Workers and General Motors Corp. may essentially agree on the solution to long-term health costs, a contract agreement eluded negotiators last night. People briefed on the matter indicate the two sides are down to the final multibillion-dollar decisions on matters such as establishing a retiree health care trust - known as a voluntary employee beneficiary association, or VEBA - and job-security issues, including commitments for plant investments in the United States.

DETROIT -- United Auto Workers members harbor widespread concern about a two-tier pay and benefits plan that they believe may come out of this year's contract negotiations with Detroit automakers. The plan essentially creates a situation in which new hires never catch up to the wages and benefits of current Detroit autoworkers. "We're worried about the second-tier people," said Daniel Gibson, 41, a Delphi Corp. worker from Athens, Ala., who is in Detroit this week for the 2007 UAW Special Convention.

CHICAGO -- With its two short walkouts, the United Auto Workers union used a strategy that has almost become a relic for organized labor, the strike. Before the UAW's two-day strike last month at General Motors Corp. and its roughly six hour walkout Wednesday at Chrysler LLC, the union hadn't launched a nationwide strike against a major automaker in 31 years. There are fewer than two dozen major walkouts each year, down from 400 or more annually in the 1950s, which raises the question of whether the UAW's quick settlements with the two automakers on the heels of strikes will pump new life into an old tactic or whether U.S. unions remain gun-shy about the tactic, which has often backfired?

DETROIT -- Chrysler LLC, deep into labor contract negotiations with the United Auto Workers, also is making changes to its non-union work force - cutting hundreds of salaried and contract jobs. The automaker announced plans in February to eliminate 13,000 jobs over three years, including 2,000 salaried jobs. Now it intends to reduce even more white-collar positions by cutting the non-union salaried work force by 5 percent and cutting the contract work force at its Auburn Hills headquarters by 37 percent, people briefed on the plan said.