The UAW strike at GM may have only lasted two days, but the underlying issues generating the conflict between the union and auto manufacturers are much longer lived. Primary among these is the burgeoning health care liability of the big 3 auto makers.
Though GM’s American workforce is less than a fourth of what it was the last time workers walked out in 1970, the problems with health care are as big, if not bigger, now. As the American Prospect pointed out yesterday:
If business and labor had joined together in 1970 in the fight for health insurance, unionized and non-union auto companies would now be on a level playing field, and GM would not be at such a financial disadvantage against producers like Toyota because of retiree health care costs.
Some other advice GM should have heeded long ago if it wanted to stay competitive with Toyota: Former president of the UAW, Walter Reuther’s argument, made all the way back in 1956, that “American auto companies should build a small, non-polluting, fuel-efficient car.” Maybe if GM had listened to Reuther’s advice, it wouldn’t have lost over $12 billion in the last two years.
(Image of workers on strike by Andrew Ciscel, CC 2.0)
