Chapter 16

Summary
This article is about how the contracts of the auto workers at General Motors are being changed, and as a result, the workers are getting less and less. Being in the Canadian Auto Workers union, also known as CAW for short, the workers are represented by the union workers, who try to settle agreements between the workers and employee. As part of this, the workers at GM have voted and agreed to make new deals with the company. Many of the workers will be affected negatively as there will be cuts in wages as well as possible lay offs for many. For the company, this will hopefully create labour costs which are equal to or less than other auto-making developed nations. Currently, the labour costs of GM are much higher than those of other auto-making companies. Some other measures taken to reduce the labour costs are calling off the annual bonus of $1700 and reducing the paid off-time. Under the terms of the agreement, these changes are not expected to take place until a year after the end of their current agreement, in 2012.

Connection
The connections between this article and chapter 16 are that both can be related to payroll deductions and recording the payroll with the employee’s contribution. Payroll deductions include items such as wages or salaries, blank, and blank. The wages at GM are quite high and as a result, they will have to have a cut-down on the wages soon. Also, they are decreasing the time on workers’ paid time off, which helps to decrease the wages. Along with certain payroll deductions, such as blank, blank, and blank, the employer has to contribute a certain amount of money. There are guidelines to how much the employer contributes, which most of the time, has to at least match the employees’ contribution to the payroll deduction. In the new GM contract, there will also be changes in the health plans of the employees, and it would affect the deductions made in health insurance and possibly group life insurance.

Reflection
I think that having a union is important because it gives the workers a say in what the employer does. If the workers at GM were not in a union, they might have been fired immediately to lower the wages cost and a lot of workers would have been laid off as well. I think that GM is making too many cars for too little buyers, and I think that’s one of the reasons why they need to make this big cut in their costs. Having read this article and also from other experiences, I think that a job union has both its advantages and disadvantages.


www.vancouversun.com/business/workers+ratify+General+Motors+deal/1379171/story.html