Strike!

For the first time in over 30 years the United Auto Workers has called a nationwide strike against an automaker. GM workers went off the job and onto the picket lines earlier today.

The UAW has 73,000 members who work for GM at 82 U.S. facilities, including assembly and parts plants and warehouses.

It remained to be seen what effect the strike would have on the automaker and consumers. The company has sufficient stocks of just about every product to withstand a short strike, according to Tom Libby, senior director of industry analysis for J.D. Power and Associates.

Charlie Coppinger, who has worked at GM's powertrain plant in Warren for 31 years, walked the picket line along with a handful of others shortly after the deadline passed.
The 51-year-old Rochester Hills resident said he hoped a strike could be settled quickly, but that union members were on the line to back the union and its bargainers.

Obviously these are tough times for the US auto industry and that’s going to impact workers. I am not sure how crippling an already wounded company is in the long term interest of employees but I am not a union guy or an auto worker.

Regardless, the most troubling part of this action is the opportunity it will present for Democratic presidential candidates to pander even more to labor. In fact, immediately upon hearing the news, John ‘Silky Pony’ Edwards was quoted as saying, “I’ll be in my bunk!”

posted by DrewM. at 12:31 PM

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