Year after year, NAIAS has been, thanks to the large number of industry executives and decision makers present there, the place to be for all those planning to make their voices heard. This year is, as we already see, no exception.
In 2011, the main concern of the protesters who are beginning to arrive near the show's floor is the the two-tier wages policy agreed upon as part of the bailout concession by the UAW and, for some, the recently signed Free Trade Agreement with South Korea.
The protest in itself is, as you will see in the videos our team now in Detroit shot, not very convincing. The few people carrying signs and voicing their concerns are probably not enough to change the policy, just as the anti-bailout concessions protests failed to have any effect in 2009.
As a rumor and a side story, a group called Citizens for Legitimate Government (CLG) says that Ford, the single American car maker to have survived the 2009 crisis without taxpayers money, is paying tea partiers to protest at NAIAS against the bailout in 2009 of its two competitors, GM and Chrysler.
These protests might be however just a preview of what might become a very rough year for the UAW, the CAW and the American manufacturers. The president of the Canadian unionized workforce in the auto industry, Ken Lewenza, already called for an end for the two-tier system.
This summer, the Detroit Big Three and their workers will sit down and begin new contract negotiations. UAW locals will begin voting on the end of tier-two systems starting this month.
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