Auto bosses, UAW press ahead with “pay-for-performance” scheme

[Hannah Bell]

The top management of Detroit’s carmakers and the United Auto Workers union are pressing ahead with their campaign to introduce a “pay-for-performance” scheme in the new labor agreement being negotiated this year for 120,000 workers at General Motors (GM), Ford and Chrysler.

(Akerson, a former Carlyle Group hedge fund manager slotted into top management by the White House Auto Task Force, has stressed wages should not add to the company’s fixed costs. Workers should receive “performance” bonuses only if the company profits.

The UAW has already indicated a willingness to consider the idea, which it has palmed off as workers getting a “piece of the profits” after giving up tens of thousands in wage and benefit concessions.

The implementation of the proposal, however, would mean a return to conditions not seen since the 1920s, when auto workers were paid according to output and wages fell precipitously if production slowed because of falling demand. One of the most basic principles fought for by the UAW during the mass struggles that established the union in the 1930s was the abolition of the hated piecework system and its replacement with standardized hourly wages, protected by a union contract.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/feb2011/wage-f04.shtml

[Lars77]

1. This is the exact opposite of what a union should do nt

[safeinOhio]

2. Not all that simple

From 1998 to 2002 I did piecework at a big 3 plant and made 6 figures every year. Worked my butt off, but well worth it. People fought for those jobs and no one would have done them for hourly pay. Now those jobs are outsourced.

[blindpig]

3. The thing is....

by busting your ass you had probably deprived a union brother of his job while increased the profits of the company. That is playing into the Capitalist's hand.

[Sal Minella]

4. Bingo.

I worked a piecework-pay job in a furniture factory, sewing the covers.

Many of the women became incredibly fast and efficient at sewing the pieces together, and in six months, we had three rounds of pay cuts -- reductions in the number of pennies you were paid for sewing each unit. Three rounds of pay cuts. In six months.

Then my group was laid off when a contract fell through.

Piecework may be okay in a union shop, or in a factory where the management has some sense of social responsibility. We had no union, needless to say, and the pay cuts happened after the original owners wanted to retire, and sold the factory into foreign ownership.

[safeinOhio]

8. All I'm saying is,

it is not all that simple. These jobs were bid on by high seniority union members and the work rules were negotiated by an elected union. In this case, if a yard backed up, which it did all of the time, the plant would shut down, laying off thousands of workers. These were dangerous jobs in a changing weather environment. Only a certain type of person would want to do them. No low seniority employ would want to do them, no matter how many were on the job at an hourly wage. Perhaps you are against democratic rules voted on by union members. In a plant of thousands of workers, perhaps 30 jobs were piece work. This happened to be a case where it worked to the workers advantage. It is in the workers and the unions interest to have a profitable work place to keep jobs. The question is how to do this in the best interest of both the worker and company. A strong, flexible union can come up with remarkable solutions to accomplish both goals. That is why union shops tend to be the most productive when compared to nonunion shops. It is called the real world and not a black and white philosophical world.

[blindpig]

10. And that is why unionism is in shambles today

Nothing but concessions, where is a William Z Foster when you need him?

[SidDithers]

13. Tombstoned...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=user_profiles&u_id=258188

Sid

[blindpig]

17. cute...

Or are you that ignorant?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Z._Foster



Mebbe the best labor organizer ever.

[SidDithers]

18. Yes. I know who William Z Foster was...nt

Sid

[SidDithers]

7. So two people should slowly do...

what one person can quickly do? That's how things function in the workers paradise?

It's not hard to see where the unionized dog-fuckers stereotype comes from.

Sid

[blindpig]

9. No one should have to work as hard as two

just so the owner can realize more profit while another worker is left without the means of sustenance.

Nice ruling class attitude ya got there, scab much?

[SidDithers]

12. A one-person job shouldn't be done at half speed by 2 people...

no matter how much you wish it should, comrade.

Sid

[blindpig]

16. And who makes that decision?

Who decides what the proper speed of work should be?

Owner or worker?

Owners will always try to squeeze the maximum amount of labor out of a worker. And of course the worker never gets the full value of his effort and time, the owner appropriates that. Pretty one sided, huh?

[kudzu22]

5. The difference now is that the UAW owns the company

And like any owner they want to get the most work for the least cost. Conflict of interest anyone?

[SidDithers]

6. wsws unrec...nt

Sid

[JVS]

14. Rec to offset your unrec

[SidDithers]

15. Ain't democracy grand?...nt

Sid

[RegieRocker]

11. Groundhog Nation