New York: Union Bashing in a Union Town
According to The Buffalo News:
As members of an exclusive group with high pay and benefits, they have a lofty sense of entitlement. Corporate executives?
Actually, the description was aimed at blue-collar autoworkers, the vanguard of the working class.
“I have no sympathy for these overpaid, underworked slackers,” one local factory worker named Jim wrote on a Buffalo News Web log. “I have no pension; I’m not guaranteed lifetime health care.”
The two-day strike last month at General Motors Corp. drew an outpouring of support for the United Auto Workers. But it also drew a barrage of criticism, exposing a rift in the Buffalo Niagara community and among the ranks of working people.
“No one on this plan[e]t can get a UAW job, unless you have a family member working already,” another anonymous Web writer said.
Whether it has any basis, the anonymous griping is widespread enough to show a broad vein of resentment against the UAW — surprising in a union stronghold like Buffalo.
The barbs were thrown on the day that the UAW walked out of GM plants around the country, including the 1,500-job Town of Tonawanda Engine Plant.
Union members locally are set to vote today on the tentative agreement that ended the strike. The four-year deal sets wages at $28 an hour and includes $13,056 in additional pay and benefits, the UAW estimates...click to continue.
