American Axle: It's the Economy Stupid

Well, looks like GM may finally enter the fray on American Axle and Dick Dauch’s resolve not to negotiate, from CBS channel 3 News in Michigan:

(NEWSCHANNEL 3) - It looks like striking American Axle workers will stay on those picket lines a little longer.

UAW President Ron Gettelfinger says the company didn't do much negotiating with the union over the weekend.

He says he's not sure when they'll actually reach an agreement.

I think they might have gotten this information from the AP or perhaps the Detroit News.  There’s also the Ft Wayne Paper...

Gettelfinger told reporters before speaking to a Detroit-area Democratic Party dinner that American Axle isn't negotiating much.

> snip

"I would hope we could resolve Axle, but we cannot negotiate an agreement with ourselves," he said before a speech to Livingston County Democrats. "It seems like it's all give on our side."

> snip

Gettelfinger said in his speech that American Axle Chairman and CEO Richard Dauch made $258 million from 1997 through 2007 but wants workers to work for nothing.
"They use the word competitive until they wear it out, but are they competitive with their own salaries?" he asked.

What is interesting in all of this is that GM still isn’t putting public pressure on Dauch to bargain in good faith, of course, I do hope they are putting the screws to him behind closed doors, but that’s probably a pipe dream.  With more than 30 GM factories affected by the strike, I have to wonder when they will.  I suppose Fort Wayne Indianais also thinking about it.  

The unemployment rate for the Fort Wayne metropolitan area shot up to 6.4 percent in March, 1.5 percentage points higher than the 4.9 percent rate from March 2007, a state unemployment report showed Friday.

> snip

The strike at American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings Inc. was cited as one of the factors. The strike, which began in late February, has caused several shutdowns and layoffs in the auto manufacturing industry.

"Unfortunately, the effects of the American Axle strike are being felt here and have had an impact on our unemployment numbers," Teresa Voors, commissioner of the Indiana Department of Workforce Development, said in the report.

American Axle is a key supplier to General Motors Corp., which has a truck assembly plant in southwest Allen County. Production at the plant was shut down between Feb. 29 and April 7 because of a lack of parts, affecting 2,500 hourly workers. Currently, the Allen County plant is back to normal production on a temporary basis.

With the American Axle strike now affecting employment rates in other states, over 30 GM plants, and the workers at American Axle out of work as well, perhaps it’s finally time for the candidates to address this issue and take a stab at understanding what it really means to HAVE to WALK A PICKET LINE and how important this strike is for ALL US workers.  It's also time for GM to get its head out of the sand and publicly address Dauch and his cronies on this.  Of course, it's been time for the candidates and GM to answer this call for weeks now.  Wonder when they finally will.

The strike at American Axle is now having a dramatic affect on communities around the country.  When are we all going to realize that it really is the Economy?

•  solidarity jar

  blessed be

  by Bendygirl on Mon Apr 21, 2008 at 06:01:13 AM PDT

  •  good for you for keeping after this story

    by Tasini on Mon Apr 21, 2008 at 06:13:03 AM PDT

    •  thanks

      for reading it and commenting.

      by Bendygirl on Mon Apr 21, 2008 at 06:55:45 AM PDT

  •  Thanks for the diary, Bendygirl.

    This is a strike that gets far, far less attention than it should.  Thank you for your persistence.

    On a side note...I know you have commented multiple times on how little media coverage this gets.  I just thought I'd let you know I heard a discussion of the American Axle strike on NPR Thursday or Friday.  It was a segment about 6-8 minutes long.

    by DemocraticOz on Mon Apr 21, 2008 at 06:32:46 AM PDT

    •  OMG

      Do you remember what story segment?  Perhaps I can find the audio and link to it on my site as well!!  I'd love to know more.

      by Bendygirl on Mon Apr 21, 2008 at 06:56:35 AM PDT

      •  I'll try to find it for you. n/t

        by DemocraticOz on Mon Apr 21, 2008 at 08:59:08 AM PDT

•  My husband may be affected soon

  He works for a major supplier to GM and there have already been some lay-offs.  If he gets laid off, we will be looking for shelter under a freeway overpass.  Things aren't looking good here in MI at all.  Still, the union workers must hold to their stance, we have been screwed enough with all the union busting that has been allowed and encouraged.

  by jilikins on Mon Apr 21, 2008 at 06:13:45 AM PDT

  •  so sorry to hear this

    Perhaps now that this is an issue for Indiana, that maybe the candidates will actually address this now.

    by Bendygirl on Mon Apr 21, 2008 at 06:54:31 AM PDT

•  Thanks for continuing to diary this, Bendygirl

  My gut feeling is that this kind of dispute is the result of

  (a) the shrunken state of US organized labor.  Once you get below 10% of the private sector work force, you're in such a weak position that you're going to be taking it on the chin somewhere all the time;

  (b) the UAW's recent Big 3 contract, which pretty much amounted to waving a white flag on the union's part.  Any of these asshole bosses would have said, "Hmmm, UAW just conceded to a lower wage tier for less-skilled workers, and to a lower tier for new hires, and they punted their company health care for retirees!  Smells like blood..."  No wonder the sharks are out.  I imagine that UAW is going to be taking concessionary contracts for a while longer.

  by Pesto on Mon Apr 21, 2008 at 06:15:54 AM PDT

  •  Dick points to delphi

    so, yeah, it has a lot to do with both the UAW and the current state of the auto industry.  I find the arguments of some on the web that the non-union plants are doing well and their workers happy really mis-informed of what the UAW has done for them as well.  If it weren't for the fight for fair wages and benefits, than many of those non-union jobs would also not have those things.  It's in all of our best interest to have strong unions.

    by Bendygirl on Mon Apr 21, 2008 at 06:58:54 AM PDT

•  On markets and people

  To allow the market mechanism to be the sole director of the fate of human beings and their natural environment, indeed, even of the amount and use of purchasing power, would result in the demolition of society.

  The alleged commodity "labor power" cannot be shoved about, used indiscriminately, or even left unused, without affecting also the human individual who happens to be the bearer of this peculiar commodity. In disposing of man’s labor power the system would, incidentally, dispose of the physical, psychological, and moral entity "man" attached to that tag.

  Robbed of the protective covering of cultural institutions, human beings would perish from the effects of social exposure, they would die as the victims of acute social dislocation through vice, perversion, crime, and starvation. Nature would be reduced to its elements, neighborhoods and landscapes defiled, military safety jeopardized, the power to produce food and raw materials would be destroyed.

  Finally, the market administration of purchasing power would periodically liquidate business enterprise, for shortages and surfeits of money would prove as disastrous to business as floods and droughts in primitive society. Undoubtedly, labor, land, and money markets are essential to a market economy. But no society could stand the effects of such a system of crude fictions even for the shortest stretch of time unless its human and natural substance as well as its business organization was protected against the ravages of this satanic mill.

  From Karl Polyani, The Great Transformation

  by Kab ibn al Ashraf on Mon Apr 21, 2008 at 06:47:59 AM PDT

•  $26 mill a year

  and the gluttonous pig Dick Dauch doesn't even want to negotiate? I'd also like to see our candidates make a visit Ft Wayne and make an issue out of this.

  by Prison4Bushco on Mon Apr 21, 2008 at 07:05:30 AM PDT

•  Keep pluggin' Bendygirl...

  great post.

  Iraq Moratorium

  by One Pissed Off Liberal on Mon Apr 21, 2008 at 07:18:48 AM PDT