WAGES
Wages will be a primary focus of this year’s negotiations.
Of course, like the sun rising or an executive getting a golden parachute after bankruptcy, the companies will be claiming poverty when it is time to sit down and bargain over hourly pay.
Never mind that vehicle prices, profit margins and executive compensation have all gone up. Ignore the news that GM reinstated its quarterly cash dividend and authorized a stock buyback of $5,000,000,000 (about $15 per person in the U.S.)! Stock buybacks increase the value of the remaining shares including those of company executives. Most of all, please forget that GM CEO Mary Barra, in early 2022, stated the company would “consider all opportunities to return excess capital to shareholders.”
HYPOCRISY
During the Town Hall, UAW leadership highlighted the hypocrisy of company efforts to plead poverty. This was done with a simple graphic that every sports fan can relate to. In the last 10 years, the Detroit 3 have made profits of almost a quarter of a trillion dollars. That is $250,000,000,000 (about $770 per person in the U.S.). That is enough money to buy every team in the NHL, NBA and Major Leage Baseball. After all this they would still have $50 billion!
