United Auto Workers strike against GM may be headed to day 8

NEW YORK – A strike against General Motors by 49,000 auto workers appears headed to an eighth day.

Bargainers were meeting all day Sunday at GM’s headquarters in downtown Detroit. “They’re still talking,” United Auto Workers union spokesman Brian Rothenberg said.


The workers left their jobs early Monday after their four-year contract with the company expired.

They’re seeking a bigger slice of GM’s profits, products to manufacture at plants GM wants to close, a path to permanent jobs for temporary workers and other items.

GM wants to lower its labor costs so they’re closer to the compensation for workers at U.S. factories owned by foreign automakers. Most UAW production workers make about $30 per hour. GM’s labor cost including benefits is $63 per hour while the foreign companies pay about $50, according to the Center for Automotive Research, an industry think tank.

Democrats have been quick to back United Auto Workers in their strike against General Motors, a union they long have aligned with politically. The Republican response has been muted.

Presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren visited the striking workers on Sunday at the GM Detroit-Hamtramck plant.

“GM is demonstrating that it has no loyalty to workers in America …. Their only loyalty is to their bottom line, and if they can save a nickel by moving jobs to Mexico or to Asia or anywhere else on this planet, they will do it,” Warren said.

Meanwhile, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden visited and spoke with striking auto workers in Kansas City, Kansas.

The strike is playing out as a federal corruption investigation against top UAW officials widens. The FBI raided UAW President Gary Jones’ suburban Detroit home last month and prosecutors have charged 11 people in the investigation so far, leading many of the 49,000 workers nationwide to question whether leaders have their backs. /gsg

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

Ford recalls 1.39M vehicles in North America

DETROIT - Ford Motor Co said on Thursday it is recalling 1.39 million SUVs and sedans in North America, most for the possible loss of power steering.

About 1.186 million of the vehicles Ford said it is recalling are in the United States. That figure is only 2,200 shy of the total number of vehicles that Ford recalled in the United States during all of last year.

Automakers are giving heightened scrutiny to safety issues in the wake of General Motors Co's ongoing safety crisis that began with an ignition-switch issue in older-model cars.

So far this year, GM has recalled 15.8 million vehicles worldwide.

Analyst Karl Brauer of Kelley Blue Book said Ford's spate of recalls on Thursday may be "driven by the heightened sense of concern all automakers are feeling right now, though we'll likely never know for sure."

Brauer added that there have been so many recalls since February when GM issued its first ignition-switch recall that the actions have become "sort of background white noise for consumers."

Ford said it will recall 195,527 Explorer SUVs in North America from the 2011 to 2013 model years and 915,216 Ford Escape and Mercury Mariner SUVs from model years 2008 to 2011 on power steering issues.

In addition, it will recall nearly 200,000 Taurus sedans in North America from the 2010 to 2014 model years on a corrosion issue.

Finally, Ford is also recalling 82,576 sedans with floor mats that may interfere with the operation of accelerator pedals. The floor mats were put in 2006 to 2011 model year Ford Fusion and Mercury Milan and Lincoln Zephyr and MKZ sedans.

The loss of power steering can increase the risk of a crash when vehicles are traveling at lower rates of speed.

US regulators have received consumer reports of six injuries and five crashes related to the Escape and Mariner models, Ford said.

As of mid-April, Ford said it was aware of 15 accidents including two minor injuries believed to be related to the loss of power steering in Explorer SUVs. The accidents all involved vehicles moving at lower speeds, Ford said.

In cold-weather US states and Canadian provinces where road salt is used, corrosion can affect license plate lamps which in turn may cause a short circuit that could start a fire, Ford said. A Ford spokeswoman said the company is aware of 18 consumer reports of fires believed to be associated with this condition.

Ford did not say how much the recall campaigns are expected to cost. For the Mercury Mariner and Ford Escape recalls, dealers are to be notified on Thursday and letters to all affected US owners will be sent by July 25, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said.

There may be additional vehicles included in the recall campaigns outside of North America, Ford said.  — Reuters

source: gmanetwork.com

US eyes bankruptcy link in GM ignition defect probe – report

WASHINGTON - Federal authorities are investigating whether General Motors hid an ignition switch defect when it filed for bankruptcy in 2009, The New York Times reported on Saturday.

The Justice Department's investigation of the automaker includes a probe of whether GM committed bankruptcy fraud by not disclosing the ignition problem, a person briefed on the inquiry told the Times on Friday, the paper said.

Authorities are also investigating whether GM understated the defect to federal safety regulators, the Times said.

The ignition switch problems led to the recall of 1.6 million vehicles last month.


GM has handed over documents to federal investigators in New York, the person, who was not identified, told the Times.

The automaker cannot comment specifically on the Justice Department investigation, spokesman Greg Martin said in an email on Saturday. "We are cooperating fully with authorities on several fronts and we will continue to do so," he said.

The investigation is being run by FBI agents and federal prosecutors who worked on the fraud case against Toyota that ended in a $1.2 billion settlement last week, the paper said.

On Wednesday, GM was hit with a lawsuit demanding that the company be held liable for allegedly concealing ignition problems before its 2009 bankruptcy.

GM is a different legal entity than the one that filed the 2009 bankruptcy that shook the U.S. economy. The so-called new GM is not responsible under the terms of its bankruptcy exit for legal claims relating to incidents that took place before July 2009. Those claims must be brought against what remains of the "old" or pre-bankruptcy GM.

But the proposed class action, filed in federal court in California, said plaintiffs should be allowed to sue over the pre-bankruptcy actions "because of the active concealment by Old GM and GM."

The lawsuit also said GM was responsible for reporting to the federal government any safety-related problems for cars made before its bankruptcy.

It is one of several lawsuits filed against the company since the recall was announced. — Reuters

source: gmanetwork.com