Go to Original
Auto Parts Workers Battle Demand to Cut Wages in Half
By Wendy Thompson
Labor Notes
April 2008 Issue
Holbrook Avenue is a busy thoroughfare stretching from I-75 to downtown Hamtramck,
a small town enclosed on all sides by Detroit. Cars honk in support of striking
members of UAW Local 235 as they pass five picket lines filled 24 hours a day
on both sides of the street along the large American Axle and Manufacturing
(AAM) complex.
There are five more lines going south on St. Aubin Street, and two to the north.
Spirits are high, and strikers are dressed warmly to face the bitter tail of
winter weather.
More than 3,600 American Axle workers have been on strike since February 26
at this plant and four other plants in Detroit and Three Rivers, Michigan, and
two Buffalo suburbs, Cheektowaga and Tonawanda, New York. The plants produce
the axles and parts for every General Motors light truck and SUV built in North
America. Their chokehold on auto production was quickly felt: 28 GM plants at
press time have stopped their lines as a result of the strike.
Line in the Sand
Many workers prepared for the strike and are ready to stay out as long as it
takes. One Detroit plant worker had gone as far as putting aside money for two
years in anticipation of the strike. When asked about how he was faring four
weeks into the strike he replied, "like a piece of cake."
American Axle stands out in the U.S. auto industry because it has stayed profitable
since spinning off from General Motors. Staying in the black hasn't stopped
the company's CEO, Dick Dauch - who himself averaged $14.5 million
in annual compensation between 2003 and 2006 - from demanding two-tier wage
concessions.
In 2004, American Axle workers were told by the company and the UAW International
that they had to accept two-tier wages. Although the AAM contract was voted
down in the Detroit flagship plant, it passed nationally over job security fears.
In 2007, two-tier wages were expanded to the Big 3. Now AAM wants the same
wage scale found at those companies, a scale that nearly halves starting wages
from $27 to $14 an hour.
Strikers, for their part, are demanding wage parity with Ford and Chrysler
axle workers, where the union never conceded on two tier. Shifting Gears, a
rank-and-file newsletter distributed at all American Axle plants, has consistently
hammered over the last year on the need for wage parity in its pages.
Community and union supporters have been a constant presence on the picket
lines - as has their food and donations. GM, Chrysler, Ford, and Delphi
workers stop by the lines and commonly voice their support for the kind of strike
action they wished they had seen at their companies.
"We know that American Axle workers got two-tier [wages] in 2004, and
in 2008 it was forced on us," said one such picket line supporter, Marcus
Hamilton, a Pontiac Truck and Bus worker. "If they force wage cuts on
seniority workers at a profitable company, it will come back on us next time...This
is a class war."
Plant closings are also a major issue in the strike. After the union refused
to open up the contract in 2006 to grant concessions, the company idled Buffalo
Gear and Axle plant despite "no plant closing" contract language.
The work was moved to American Axle operations in Mexico.
The corporation may be using its profitability to maneuver away from union
shops. Last September, American Axle opened a non-union forging operation in
Oxford, Michigan, and declared that it wanted to close two forges covered by
the contract.
There are now only 3,600 workers left in plants covered by the national pattern
agreement, and the company wants to eliminate 1,000 more.
The strike is technically not over plant closings or wages, though. The UAW
has filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board that the company
has withheld information during negotiations. The annual cost of the prescription
drug plan and vision plan, and the company's calculations on the per-hour
cost of retiree health care and pension plans, were among the points of information
the company withheld.
Union Promised Cuts
After the strike began, documents surfaced from negotiations showing that prior
to the strike, the UAW International had been willing to cut both skilled trades
and production workers' wages by up to $5 an hour.
American Axle said it has offered the union at the table retirement incentives,
buy-outs, and lump sum payments in exchange for permanently lower wages. (Many
in the workforce have put in almost 15 years and would be foregoing secure pension
and health care benefits if they accepted lump sum payments.)
At an informational meeting at Local 235, members told international reps that
they would not pass a contract that contained deep cuts. Several locals have
passed motions to see the actual contract language at least a week before the
vote and to have observers at the ballot boxes and during the vote count.
Many of the strikers have been moved by the picket line solidarity.
"Our members have been surprised by the support from the community, which
is just as good if not better after three weeks," said Kevin Bushouse,
an executive board member at Local 2093 in Three Rivers.
"Many of us see how important it will be for us to support others when
their time of need comes."
-----------
Wendy Thompson is a retired president of UAW Local 235 who was on
the national bargaining committee in 2004 and worked at the Detroit Axle plant
for 33 years. She is also on the steering committee of Shifting Gears.
-------
Jump to today's Truthout Issues:
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. t r u t h o u t has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is t r u t h o u t endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)
"Go to Original" links are provided as a convenience to our readers and allow for verification of authenticity. However, as originating pages are often updated by their originating host sites, the versions posted on TO may not match the versions our readers view when clicking the "Go to Original" links.
Print This Story
E-mail This Story