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Hunter Wilson/Daily News Dave Peters, community services chairman for UAW Local 2164, pickets Monday evening outside the General Motors Bowling Green Assembly Plant. Union workers plan to picket outside the plant 24 hours a day until the nationwide strike is resolved.

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Job security and health care benefits remain the focus of strained negotiations between General Motors and the United Auto Workers union, which lead 960 members of the United Auto Workers Local 2164 to begin striking at the General Motors Bowling Green Assembly Plant on Monday morning.

UAW workers at Bowling Green’s Corvette plant continue to strike along with 73,000 at about 80 GM facilities nationwide as negotiators return today for their 22nd straight day of bargaining.

Click here to watch video from the UAW strike.

UAW Local 2164 President Eldon Renaud said globalization is an increasing concern for the union.

“We want guarantees on job security,” Renaud said. “We see money - billions and billions going overseas ... They’re building plants in the Soviet Union, India, China and throughout Mexico. They’re not changing the price (of vehicles) because they’re paying those people a dollar an hour - the price is the same and the consumer is paying the price because they’re not going to have the jobs.”

Union members will earn $200 a week plus medical benefits from the UAW’s strike fund, as long as workers picket at the UAW Hall or at the plant’s gate off Louisville Road, Renaud said.

Between 150 to 200 salaried non-union workers will be crossing the picket line to work at the plant, Renaud said.

“There are management people; we have passes for them, so that they can go on through. Everybody knows everybody here, so it’s not an issue anyway,” Renaud said.

Renaud said the pressures of globalization have already reached beyond the manufacturing sector to white collar industries that are also being outsourced.

“Everybody’s being hurt by this. We just want to take a stand,” Renaud said.

GM spokesman Dan Flores said the automaker was disappointed in the union’s strike decision.

“The bargaining involves complex, difficult issues that affect the job security of our U.S. work force and the long-term viability of the company,” he said. “We remain fully committed to working with the UAW to develop solutions together to address the competitive challenges facing GM.”

Dean Peters, community services chairman for UAW Local 2164, said GM and other American car makers will have to rethink their business models in order to find long-term solutions.

“You cannot cost cut your way to profitability. At some point, GM and all American companies are going to have figure out a way to grow their way to profitability,” Peters said. “They’re trying to cost cut and it hasn’t worked so far.”

Ultimately, the real changes have to occur through political means, according to Peters.

“The things that really need to change in America need to change in Washington - we can only do so much at the bargaining table. The real changes that need to occur in health care, the standard of living for our middle class - those changes are going to be driven out in Washington,” Peters said. “Right now, every business is struggling to compete. We simply can’t compete against the low-wage labor (overseas), we can’t compete with these nations that offer universal health care and offer pensions for their workers, and we can’t compete against nations that don’t have any safety standards or environmental standards. Those are the kinds of things that have to be driven out of Washington. “

The UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said the union is willing to talk about taking money from the company to form a retiree health care trust - something the union proposed and GM rejected in 2005.

As part of the goal to eliminate the $25-per-hour labor cost disparity with its Japanese competitors, the trust, called a Voluntary Employees Beneficiary Association, would move a majority of GM’s $51 billion in unfunded retiree health care liabilities off the books, potentially raising the company’s stock price and credit ratings.

“This strike is not about the VEBA in any way, shape or form,” Gettelfinger said. “We were more than eager to discuss it.”

Dave Chrisley, health and safety representative alternate for UAW 2164, said the strike was long overdue as union members’ health care costs have increased.

“We gave as far as our prescription drugs were concerned - we started paying more and our retirees started paying more on their deductible for their health care,” Chrisley said.

Chrisley said America has to stand up and do something about its health care system.

“Canada can do it. European countries can do it. Why can’t we do it? We’ve got poor people all over the country that don’t have health care,” Chrisley said.

And having worked personally with the 12 retirees who are members of the union, Renaud said he doesn’t want anything to happen to their compensation.

“I want to make sure they get the pensions and health care benefits,” Renaud said.

Analysts have mixed thoughts on the impact of the strike.

William Parsons, director of Bowling Green-based Global Advanced Leadership Center, said people are stunned that the strike took place at such a delicate time in the American economy.

“I think it’s a huge mistake for the UAW to strike. This is such a critical time for our economy. The automotive industry is in a very important period of restructuring. To increase the difficulty for the workers and for the company, to me, doesn’t make a whole lot of sense,” Parsons said.

People aren’t going to stop buying cars, Parsons said, pointing out that competition will fill the void left by a dip in production.

“For every job that is impacted by the UAW, probably 10 to 14 jobs in the supplier community are (affected),” Parsons said. “So it’s counterproductive. It makes the job of the UAW even more difficult.”

The last time a strike occurred at Bowling Green’s GM plant was in 1985, Renaud said, but this is the first strike over a national contract since 1970.

— The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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