What problems for the UAW might these new pay systems cause?

The Realities for General Motors GM must remain competitive with global competitors who have much lower labor costs (in some instances because wages are lower, such as in Korea, and in some instances because the work-forces are younger and retirement/health costs aren't as high, as in the case of Japanese auto-makers who have plants in the United States). To cut labor costs, GM has made numerous moves over the past 20+ years: 1. Shifted from a straight automatic pay grade and step increase in new contracts to providing a $5,000. signing bonus, and a shift from COLAs to a profit sharing plan. 2. Introduced technologies that reduced the numbers of workers needed, both in the assembly line operations and in the skilled trades (e.g., pattern makers work in wood or metal to make models of future cars or future parts of carsnew technologies lead to lower demand for these pattern makers). 3. Introduced a two-tier wage plan in which new hires are paid substantially less than workers hired before the two-tier plan was initiated. In the past years, new workers received about $!4/hour while their more senior counterpartsthose hired before the plan was implementedreceived about $28/hour in wages for doing essentially the same jobs. 4. Cut benefits costs, largely in the amount of health-care and pension expenses. The Realities for the United Auto Workers 1. Unions preach fairness and equity. Workers are attracted to unions in part because they fight for fairness and equity. 2. Unions have faced catastrophic reductions in their membership. Companies, seeking to survive in a global environment, assert they can't afford the costs (and reduced freedom in decision making) that accompany unionization. To survive, unions have reluctantly become more accepting of management demands. 3. The auto industry is a stronghold of unionization that unions cannot afford to lose. Further, Michigan is the historic birthplace of auto industry growth and industry unionization.