Auto Industry
What CETA would mean for Canada's auto industry
Canadian free trade negotiators are going all-out to get a deal with the EU on a new free trade agreement. The Harper government wants a deal badly for largely symbolic and ideological purposes, to show that the free trade agenda is back on track under this "stable majority government." Many valid concerns have been raised about the implications of a deal on pharmaceutical costs, on public procurement, and more. What would a Canada-EU deal mean for the auto industry? Here are a few summary points:
- Canada's auto industry would be especially hard hit by a free trade deal with Europe.
- Europe sells billions of dollars of auto products in Canada, but buys virtually nothing back from the Canadian auto industry.
Auto labour costs and auto industry recovery
I was recently invited to speak to the annual management briefing conference sponsored in Michigan by the Center for Automotive Research, a fine outfit which does the best research work in the continent on auto employment, workers, and skills. My slides are available here.
My panel was addressing the current UAW negotiations with the Detroit Three automakers -- the first big contract talks since the meltdown and bailouts of 2009. I was diplomatic enough as a visitor to the U.S. not to make any direct comment on the UAW talks (the "host" union), but rather addressed the broader economic issue about the North American auto industry's painful recovery, and what role -- if any -- labour costs have played.
Stop Signs: Cars and Capitalism on the Road to Economic, Social and Ecological Decay launch
Location
In North America, human beings have become enthralled by the automobile: A quarter of our working lives are spent paying for them; communities fight each other for the right to build more of them; our cities have been torn down, remade and planned with their needs as the overriding concern; wars are fought to keep their fuel tanks filled; songs are written to praise them; cathedrals are built to worship them.
GM to declare bankruptcy
GM bankruptcy restructuring puts risk on to workers and has no vision for a green transportation system.
GM reinvents more than itself
What's wrong with this picture?
The GM deal has left a lot of us scratching our heads in wonder at the power of the auto industry to garner billions in government support while the rest of us are stuck mostly going it alone, mano-a-mano with the recession.
But is it possible that the GM bail-out is a case of real-life experience that has gone so far off the rails that it's actually nudging us toward an entirely new paradigm?
Capitalism has most certainly driven itself way beyond its own comfort zone. There is no map yet for the road ahead.
Grand Theft Auto: How Stevie the Rat bankrupted GM
Screw the autoworkers. They may be crying about General Motors' bankruptcy today. But dumping 40,000 of the last 60,000 union jobs into a mass grave won't spoil Jamie Dimon's day.
Dimon is the CEO of JP Morgan Chase bank. While GM workers are losing their retirement health benefits, their jobs, their life savings; while shareholders are getting zilch and many creditors getting hosed, a few privileged GM lenders -- led by Morgan and Citibank -- expect to get back 100 per cent of their loans to GM, a stunning $6 billion.
The way these banks are getting their $6 billion bonanza is stone cold illegal.
I smell a rat.
Meet the new boss
The high drama in the auto sector keeps speeding along on a mind-bending course.
Due to just-announced concessions from U.S. banks and bond-holders, it appears at press time that both Chrysler and GM will avert bankruptcy though radically reduced job and projected sales numbers, and U.S. auto workers will be their new controlling shareholders.
Chrysler could be 55 per cent worker-owned and GM 39 per cent. That's a major milestone.
While the Canadian government watches closely and is careful not to rule out taking equity in GM itself, many voices are predicting only looming failure for companies moving so beyond the pale of private enterprise.
How to arrive alive
It's auto showdown time.
As the April 30 deadline nears, we're entering the final week of negotiations between Chrysler and its union. GM is close behind with its June 1 drop-dead date. (Sorry the term is so applicable.)
As he sits at that negotiating table, CAW head Ken Lewenza faces a nightmare-scape filled with different ways to lose. What's a union leader to do?
Unfair as it may be, it's a dark road ahead, and sacrifices are going to be made. What are the offsetting gains that might come with them and sustain the best outcome for auto workers and Ontario taxpayers called upon to be generous in their support?