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Auto Workers Plan Public and In-Plant Resistance to Wage Cuts    [

    Delphi Talks Progressing
    By Michael Ellis
    The Detroit Free Press

    Friday 13 January 2006

    UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said Thursday he is hopeful about reaching an agreement with Delphi Corp. on a labor pact, and added that the union is not talking directly with General Motors Corp. about any role the automaker might take to avoid a strike at the parts supplier in bankruptcy.

    Gettelfinger also said that the union hasn't decided whether to support giving the Chrysler Group the same health care package recently agreed to with GM and Ford Motor Co. Those deals lowered the automakers' costs by shifting some of the cost to retirees and deferring some of the future wages of current workers.

    When asked about the Delphi talks before a speech in Southfield, Gettelfinger told the Free Press, "I'm just kind of hopeful that we can kind of work our way through this."

    Last month, Delphi withdrew contract proposals it made in November that included cuts in wages of more than 63% and plans to eliminate 24,000, or 60%, of the jobs with its labor unions.

    Delphi said it withdrew the proposals because GM agreed to enter into discussions that would allow it to offer a different deal. GM's involvement in the talks could avert a labor strike at its largest supplier making critical parts for its cars and trucks.

    Gettelfinger said that the union was only speaking directly with Delphi, and he was not privy to discussions that Delphi was having with GM.

    "There's no three-party talks going on, so to speak," he said before a dinner-time speech to the Detroit chapter of the Labor and Employment Relations Association. "There has been some dialogue, but I wouldn't characterize it as negotiations," he said, referring to talks with Delphi.

    Delphi filed for bankruptcy on Oct. 8 after efforts to win labor concessions from its unions and bailout money from GM failed. The Troy-based supplier expects to emerge from bankruptcy in summer 2007 after using the broad powers of bankruptcy court to cut the wages and benefits of its 34,000 hourly US workers.

    Gettelfinger said he was encouraged by progress at Delphi. "I think the progress that's been made, more than anything else, is the fact that Mr. Miller has saw fit to quit bargaining in the media."

    Delphi CEO Steve Miller has angered autoworkers for declaring that their wages and benefits are too high. At the same time, the company proposed offering bonuses to top executives if they stayed with the company through the bankruptcy.

    In addition to the Delphi talks, Chrysler also wants to speak with the union about its health care costs. DaimlerChrysler AG Chairman Dieter Zetsche said this week that Chrysler Group will be at a disadvantage if it doesn't receive the same concessions on health care that GM and Ford got.

    One difficulty for Chrysler is that UAW members approved the Ford concessions by a razor-thin 51% approval. Chrysler is in much better financial condition than Ford, which could make it more difficult for Chrysler workers to approve such a deal.

    "There's no question it's a different situation," Gettelfinger said.

    But he said that more than the current financial situation will be assessed. "If you back up three years ago, Chrysler was the one that was in the tank, so to speak. This is a cyclical business. I haven't said one way or the other what we're going to do at Chrysler."

 

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    Auto Workers Plan Public and In-Plant Resistance to Wage Cuts
    By Tiffany Ten Eyck
    Labor Notes

"This is why we're fighting," this Delphi worker said, carrying her grandson on a picket line in Flint. (Photo: Jim West)

    January 2006 Issue

    Rank-and-file United Auto Workers members stepped up their organizing efforts in December, forming a group called Soldiers of Solidarity (SOS) and planning actions to confront concessions.

    Meanwhile, auto parts maker Delphi pushed back the deadline for its bankruptcy proceedings twice - leading observers to wonder whether the corporation was dragging its feet now that its workers do not seem ready to concede.

    UAW leaders had been slow to react to October's vast concession demands from Delphi, but they have begun taking steps towards mobilizing members and have talked about a fight to come. Delphi first announced a delay to January 20 of its deadline for imposing these concessions - which include wage cuts of over 50 percent - through a bankruptcy court. On December 19, Delphi announced yet again it would delay bankruptcy proceedings until "at least February 17."

    Four large meetings, each with over 150 rank-and-file workers, have been held in Midwest communities near Delphi plants to discuss strategy. A fifth meeting was held in St. Louis December 11. Two more are planned for January in Milwaukee and Lockport, New York.

    The meetings have focused on "working to rule" - using workplace rules to "legally" slow work down - in order to cut production and prepare for a strike. UAW leaders have stated that a strike is a definite possibility.

    A December 11 meeting in Flint, Michigan was attended by 180 rank and filers who invoked the UAW's 1937 Flint sit-down strike and the power of rank-and-file activism. Workers reminded each other that benefits like "30 and out" retirement came from "bottom up" organizing.

    Gregg Shotwell, a Michigan Delphi worker who has spearheaded the rank-and-file organizing, told the Flint crowd, "This is our generation's historical moment. The future of the union depends on what we do now."

    The meetings adopted an action plan that includes picketing at Detroit's high-profile Auto Show on January 8 and at Delphi's headquarters in Troy, Michigan on January 22.

    The rank-and-file meetings are the largest the ranks have seen in years. At the Bay City, Michigan meeting December 4, auto workers agreed that they were larger than any union meeting they'd ever been to.

    Working to Rule

    The work to rule campaign is already under way. In Flint, one Delphi worker reported that "most in our department and the department that supplies us are doing it." Another worker said that skilled trades and production workers are working to rule together; production workers report small problems, and skilled workers take their time in making the repair.

    A GM worker in Flint advised workers to "think of work-to-rule not just as something you're doing now but as a way of life for a unionist. When a younger person comes on my job, I teach them Union 101."

    Resisting overtime has been harder, for workers who fear future job and pay cuts. One Delphi worker said he'd been unsuccessful in encouraging his co-workers to refuse overtime just for a week.

    With a new deadline to reach an agreement with Delphi - or plan a fight-back - the UAW International has been organizing town hall meetings and informational pickets, though there's been little communication with the rank and filers who have been organizing their own meetings.

    Rallies

    Lockport Local 686 held a rally November 30 that brought hundreds out, as did Kokomo, Indiana's Local 292 on December 10. In Dayton, Ohio, city business leaders and state legislators lobbied Delphi to stay in operation in that manufacturing city.

    In central Indiana, an estimated 1,000 workers and community members attended a rally in support of Delphi workers. Workers held signs that said, "Delphi cooks the books, workers get burned."

    In the two months since Delphi's bankruptcy announcement, the UAW has oscillated between bleak predictions and tough fighting words.

    UAW Vice-President Richard Shoemaker initially told Delphi workers, "The best we will probably be able to do is buy time for retirement and save some plants." Later, Shoemaker, the UAW's chief negotiator with Delphi, said that a strike was likely if Delphi did not improve its "ridiculous" offer.

    Delphi said that the delay of its bankruptcy proceeding to February gives the company time to negotiate a life-saving deal with GM, which created Delphi in 1991 by spinning off its own parts-making operations. GM recently volunteered to forego the planned 2006 price cuts it had previously demanded for Delphi parts.

    The union claims that GM is still responsible for Delphi workers' pensions, although it has been unable to produce a written guarantee to that effect. Rumors abound that GM will help Delphi - and pacify the UAW, which recently granted the company $1 billion per year worth of health care concessions - by offering buyouts to Delphi workers.

    In 2003, the UAW signed an agreement allowing Delphi to cut new-hires' wages to $14 an hour, citing the need to make the company competitive with other parts-makers (the parts sector is 80 percent non-union). All observers believe the International would not hesitate to accept wage cuts from the current $26 to $16-$17, having bravely fended off management's opening demand for $9.

    But will the ranks follow suit?