UAW exec says lower wages agreeable if GM plants reopen

Source: Detroit Free Press

UAW exec says lower wages agreeable if GM plants reopen
2:01 PM, Mar. 29, 2011
By CHRISSIE THOMPSON
DETROIT FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER


The UAW is open to agreeing to use a wage structure with a high percentage of lower-paid second-tier workers at more General Motors plants if it means reopening them, Vice President Joe Ashton said today.

"We will look at anything when it comes to negotiations that will retain jobs," Ashton told reporters at GM's plant in Orion Township, which is preparing to build the Chevrolet Sonic subcompact and Buick Verano compact this year.

The Orion plant was slated to close until GM agreed to build the Sonic in the U.S. instead of overseas. In exchange, the plant has a wage structure currently unique to any U.S. auto plant, with at least 40% of its hourly workers making about half the standard $28-an-hour wage.

In contract negotiations this year, Ashton said, the UAW will seek to reopen idled GM plants in Spring Hill, Tenn., and Janesville, Wis., and prevent a plant in Shreveport, La., from closing next year. The union is open to expanding the Orion-style wage structure to include those factories in exchange for new production there, he said.

Read more: http://www.freep.com/article/20110329/BUSINESS01/110329064/UAW-exec-says-more-lower-wage-jobs-agreeable-GM-plants-reopen?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE