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2015Bill Onasch 2015-11Read it in the scan (PDF at ETOL), page 2 →
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UAW & Chrysler downsize inequality The first Tentative Agreement between the UAW leadership and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles was shot down by the ranks—by a two-to-one margin. It was the first defeat of a Big Three national TA in a gen eration. But while this venting of disappointment was widespread, it was not very organized or focused. Though an indicated first step, rejection alone is not a solution. An alternative program needs to be ad vanced.
Former dissidents, such as those in New Direc tions and the Auto Caravan, who once had influence in some Big Three locals, could have played a role in shaping a policy attractive to the naysayers. But those oppositionists are now mostly retired—some migrating to sunnier new locations. The fragmented rejectionist majority could not pull together a viable alternative on the fly through social media.
At least months of advance preparation on the shop floor around clear objectives is required. That is the perspective encouraged by the leadership of more adversarial unions like the Chicago Teachers Union and National Nurses United. But in the top-down structure of the UAW, such initiatives have to come from below.
In this absence of a unified opposition, the self-per petuating Administration Caucus bureaucracy that has ruled the UAW without interruption since the days of Walter Reuther was able to recover from a sting ing defeat. After retaining—at members’ expense— a prominent public-relations firm, they were able to work with their company “partners” to quickly craft a new deal. It was a grab bag of putative additional raises for some, spread out over eight years, offset by new immediate concessions to management. Little, if any, new money was on the table.
Not seeing credible options, the package was ac cepted as the best that can be done. The swing in the second vote was as dramatic as the previous thumbsdown. Seventy-seven percent of production workers, 72 percent of skilled trades, and 87 percent of sala ried workers voted in favor of the second TA.
Chrysler was the targeted company to set the pat tern for contracts with the much bigger General Mo tors—which recently announced a record third-quar ter profit—and Ford as well. As this is written, UAW leaders have approved tentative four-year contracts with both GM and Ford.
An article from Automotive News opened: “The UAW’s new contract with Fiat Chrysler will set the pattern for how first General Motors and then Ford Motor Co. fix the divisive two-tier wage system at their factories, said sources familiar with the nego tiations. The UAW has no plans to resuscitate Tier 2 hiring caps at GM or Ford, aiming instead for the ap proach taken at FCA US that guarantees lower-paid Tier 2 workers an eight-year ladder of predeter mined annual raises until they reach full wages of $30 an hour, the sources said.”
Downsizing inequality Many news stories about the new contract pro claimed the second-class Tier 2—established in the Bill Pugliano / Getty Images (Above) Workers at Chrysler’s Warren truck plant.
historic give-back 2007 Big Three contracts—would be eliminated. This is an exaggeration to say the least.
The wage rate of the 43 percent of Chrysler’s UAW workforce in Tier 2, topping around $19 an hour in the expired contract, will catch up with the new Top Tier rate of $29 + change—in eight years. Since the contract just approved will expire in four, that re quires faith—perhaps misplaced—in the company to voluntarily abide by today’s promise in the next ne gotiations. At best, it is a lengthy journey to the two rates coinciding, not merging.
No Tier 2 workers will actually be upgraded to Top Tier when the differences include not only wages but defined benefit pensions rather than a 401(k) and better health coverage as well. And, there are other new reminders of their still inferior status. The new (continued on page 9, in “Labor Briefing”)
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