last Friday, hundreds of thousands of young people and adults from the U.S. were added to the so-called "strike climate", a mobilization to sensitize the public authorities and corporate about the need to take measures against the climate change. Another strike, more small followers, continued with greater attention: the one that remain from the Monday, 50,000 workers of factories of the General Motors . The mobilization, with a significant impact on the automotive industry american and with a potential impact on future negotiations with other big producers of cars, it is an exhaust valve of an industry in transformation, the future uncertain and threatened by several sides.
at The close of this edition, the negotiations between the trade union of the automotive United Auto Workers (UAW, its acronym in English) and General Motors continued to produce results. About 50,000 workers of half a hundred manufacturing plants have stopped. The strikes of this size are unusual. The last time that the workers of General Motors proclaimed it was in 2007. Each day of strike, the company loses close to a hundred million dollars, with a much greater impact if it is posted, the impact on the nearly ten thousand companies that supply or provide services to General Motors.
The claims are not new: they want an agreement with better wages, guarantees of preservation of jobs and prevent the flight of jobs to labor markets cheaper, as Mexico . The company, for its part, does not want to get your fingers caught to a of the automotive sector in transformation, and of uncertain future.
The mobilization has a political connection is obvious. The rise of Trump to power had to do in part with the discontent of the working class of the midwest , that has for decades been the worse their living conditions and how companies casting a blind at the slightest opportunity and brought the production to Mexico-in particular, in the automotive - or China.
General Motors announced in 2018, a cut of 14,000 jobs and the closure of five factories"oh, The jobs are going to come back!", proclaiming Trump in his electoral campaign, which promised that the great american industry would "roar" in states like Ohio or Michigan, where before it had won and Barack Obama, where he managed to win in 2016. These perspectives have not been met. Without a doubt, have not made it into General Motors, which last November announced a cut of 14,000 jobs and close five factories in the next two years in USA and Canada . Months earlier I had reported that the new model of the Blazer was manufactured in Mexico. While the company was closing plants and announcing layoffs, won the last three years the amount of 35.000 millions of dollars .
General Motors was bailed out with public coffers in the worst of the financial crisis of 2008 and the local politicians have put now the cry in the sky, like Trump, who threatened to eliminate the subsidies that the company receives in the sale of electric vehicles.
The company tried to avoid the strike with a last minute offer: investment of 7,000 million dollars, creation of 5.400 jobs and better wages . It was not enough, the union wanted commitments to four years, and the company did not want to accept them due to the uncertainty in the sector: there is an open war between California and the Administration to Trump by the standards of efficiency of consumption that affect the entire industry; the new trade agreement between the U.S., Canada and Mexico still has not ratified; the transition to electric vehicles could lead to a romp in the labour market; the trade war with China is far from being resolved; Trump imposed tariffs on steel, despite lifting two-key exporting as Canada and Mexico; and the threat of new tariffs on the import of cars could also shake up the sector. Among voltages commercial, political, environmental and technological -the development of driverless cars progresses, but don't just materialize-workers of General Motors try to hold on to the brightness industrial U.S., although its future is in doubt.
Date Of Update: 24 September 2019, 01:01
