Angry autoworkers speak out, demand equal pay

A decade ago the phrase “low-wage United Auto Workers member” would have sounded like an oxymoron. It would have been hard to imagine a scenario of two autoworkers working side by side, doing the same job and the same amount of work, with one making half the wage of the other.

Now the injustice is all too real. Two-tier and multitier pay scales have spread like a virus, contaminating the vast majority of contracts between the UAW and General Motors, Ford, Chrysler and unionized parts suppliers. Thousands and thousands of autoworkers are busting their behinds making vehicles for the Detroit Three at $14 to $16.50 an hour, while parts companies are paying much less.

At a Detroit church, where the rank-and-file Autoworkers Caravan held a forum Aug. 13 on “Making the Case for Equal Pay,” their anger nearly blew the roof off.

“This is economic terrorism,” stated Bill Woodside, a truck driver for Chrysler Transport who is paid half what his fellow drivers with higher seniority make. “Tell these guys” — the companies and the UAW officials who are going along with two-tier — “how you’re losing your house.”

Mark Harris and Frank Hines work north of Detroit for parts supplier International Automotive Components, at a plant that had been part of Lear Corporation. Harris is a first-tier worker, Hines is second tier, but the largest number of workers at their plant are third tier, with their pay starting at $9.61 an hour. Others are “fourth tier” — temporary workers with no benefits. “Solidarity is gone, but we are trying to rebuild it,” Harris stated. Regardless of tier or pay rate, Harris remarked, in the UAW “you still pay two-hours-pay union dues — you deserve equal representation.”

Several workers from GM’s Lake Orion plant voiced their outrage. A secret deal at that plant with the UAW allowed the company to recall 40 percent of laid off workers at half of their former pay. Drew William explained how much of the work in the plant is subcontracted to companies paying union members as little as $7.61 an hour. Caravan spokesperson Nick Waun described how he was forced to transfer from Lake Orion, Mich., to Lordstown, Ohio, to keep his traditional rate of pay.

Clyde Walker, a seven-year Chrysler employee, worked several years at first-tier pay, but as a “TPT” — temporary part-time worker. To become permanent, he and many others had to sign a paper agreeing to $13-an-hour pay cuts. Not agreeing would mean losing even their precarious employment as a TPT.

First-tier workers, including skilled trades people not affected by two-tier pay, spoke strongly in solidarity with their lower-paid sisters and brothers and blasted the “divide and conquer” aspect of unequal pay schemes.

“Management is going to divide,” stated Chrysler engineer Rosendo Delgado. Using not only tiered pay but nationality, immigration status and other measures, companies will “pit one worker against another to compete for the lowest possible wage.” Recently hired engineers in product development make half of Delgado’s salary.

“We are putting the company and union on notice,” exclaimed Ford worker Debi Muncy. “I stand up as a first-tier worker and say this is wrong.” Workers at Muncy’s plant and another Michigan Ford plant wear differently colored uniforms for different pay rates.

As workers described struggling to keep up with bills, including their mortgages, Debbie Johnson delivered a solidarity message from the Moratorium Now! Coalition to Stop Foreclosures, Evictions and Utility Shutoffs.

Altogether, more than two dozen workers from 16 different UAW locals gave testimony on the hardships and divisions created by lower-tier wages. Reports on a survey the Caravan conducted showed nearly unanimous sentiment that “union negotiators should make getting ‘equal pay for equal work’ a top priority” and that “union members should vote ‘no’ on any contract with a tiered wage structure.”

Workers took stacks of educational leaflets and “no on tiers” stickers to build the campaign in the plants to reject any contract without pay equity.

One goal of the forum — to put the crisis in the public eye — was definitely accomplished. Articles on rank-and-file opposition to unequal pay appeared in the Detroit News, the Detroit Free Press, the suburban Oakland Press and even the Wall Street Journal.

The proliferation of two-tier contracts, not only in auto but in most sectors of the unionized economy, is the product of more than 30 years of accommodation to capitalist demands for lower wages in order to maximize profits. The cycle that began in 1981 with the breaking of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization came full circle in 2009, with massive wage and benefit concessions made by the UAW.

Still, the end of a cycle is not the end of the line. Wisconsin workers and students are part a new cycle of resistance. Workers on the assembly lines agree that it’s time to fight back.

Martha Grevatt is a 24-year UAW Chrysler worker. E-mail: [email protected]