POSTED: AUG. 28, 2010
Auto headlines: Let's restore some benefits, King says

FREE PRESS NEWS SERVICES
United Auto Workers President Bob King said workers' concessions helped save U.S. automakers and the employees should regain some benefits now that the industry is recovering."We want workers to share in the upside just like they did in the downside," King, 64, told journalists Friday outside the gates of a Ford factory in Wayne. "Workers made a lot of sacrifices to help the industry survive."
King was elected president in June, succeeding Ron Gettelfinger, 66, who helped persuade President Barack Obama to organize rescues of General Motors and Chrysler last year. Workers have called for King to restore the wages and benefits they gave up to bolster the industry. Membership in the union has fallen to 355,000 from 1.5 million in 1979.
UAW members who work for U.S. automakers have each given $7,000 to $30,000 in concessions in the past five years, King has said. The union surrendered raises, bonuses and cost-of-living adjustments at GM, Ford and Chrysler.
It also agreed to a two-tier wage system in which new hires earn about $14 an hour, half the amount paid to hourly production workers.
The government should enact economic-stimulus measures that would put people back to work, King said Friday.
Auto sales "are not going as well as they should," King said. "Consumers are not going to buy vehicles if they don't have jobs or aren't confident in their job."

Autoworkers Adjust to Job Banks’ End as GM, Ford Try to Rebound2010-08-26 

By Theo Keith    Aug. 26 (Bloomberg) -- General Motors Co. gave Kevin Dorey’sfather a paycheck for 34 years, kept him working near home andlet him out in time for his kids’ football games.    

“‘It’s steady’ -- that’s what my dad always told me aboutGeneral Motors,” Dorey, 44, said over chicken wings and beer atthe Beef ‘O’ Brady’s sports bar in his hometown of SaginawTownship, Michigan. “For me, it’s been anything but steady.”    

Kevin Dorey worked at three plants in three years until hismost recent location in Orion Township, Michigan, which requireda 90-minute commute, closed in November. Previously, he wouldhave received full pay during the layoff while GM revamped thefactory for a new car. The United Auto Workers agreed last yearto give up that benefit, known as the jobs bank, and thepaychecks stopped coming in July.    

Less employment security, lower starting pay and stricterwork rules signal a new era for the jobs viewed as a ticket tothe middle class since Henry Ford’s $5-a-day wage in 1914. Thechanges also mean GM, Chrysler Group LLC and Ford Motor Co. arefree of the obligations that helped sink the industry in 2009and can make money with lower sales volumes.    

UAW President Bob King said in June that he’ll seek to winback benefits and rebuild the union’s power when contractnegotiations begin next year. Automakers may seek even moreconcessions as sales remain close to a 30-year low.    

In the meantime, autoworkers are adjusting to a new way oflife in an industry where deliveries fell to 10.4 millionvehicles in 2009, the lowest level since 1982, the year Doreygot his driver’s license. Sales averaged 16.8 million a yearfrom 2000 to 2007.