Fight back still needed as
Tentative agreement reached in American Axle strike
By
Bryan G. Pfeifer
Detroit
Published May 21, 2008 10:19 PM
May 21—Following a courageous and heroic workers’ strike at
American Axle & Manufacturing, the United Auto Workers International and
the local’s bargaining teams came to a tentative contract agreement the
evening of May 16.
On strike since Feb. 26.
WW photo: Alan Pollock
|
The AAM strike, which since Feb. 26 has lasted for more than three months, is
the eighth-longest strike in UAW history,
Informational meetings were held in every local almost immediately after the
tentative agreement, and voting took place May 19 for Local 846 at the
Cheektowaga and Tonawanda, N.Y., plants; Local 2093 in Three Rivers; and Local
262 at the Detroit Forge. According to preliminary reports from union leaders,
the tentative agreement has been approved by all of the locals voting on it
thus far. The decisive vote will take place at Local 235 in Hamtramck, Mich.,
on May 22.
Why the rush to judgment?
The leadership of UAW President Ron Gettelfinger has been pushing for a
concessionary contract even before the strike began. They even canceled a
massive solidarity demonstration April 18 to weaken and undermine the support
that was needed to strengthen the strike.
With 30 General Motors Corp. plants idled because of the AAM strike, two local
unions fighting supplementary agreements also struck against GM. The fight-back
mood of tens of thousands of UAW and other union rank-and-file members
internationally, as well as community supporters, hasn’t been seriously
organized by the UAW International to fight American Axle on a serious mass
scale.
The tactics and strategy of the International leadership flow from its deadly
ideology. Kevin Donovan, UAW Region 9 Assistant Director, reflects the
orientation of the Gettelfinger strategy to help management become more
“market-competitive.”
In approving this tentative agreement, “We put ourselves in a very good
competitive position with this contract to bid on future work at
Cheektowaga,” said Donovan in the May 20 edition of Business First.
American Axle CEO Richard Dauch and his Wall Street backers are laughing all
the way to the bank. Initial reports claim American Axle will be robbing at
least $185 million from the workers, their loved ones and their communities
with the 2008-2012 contract, if approved.
In Detroit, an informational meeting was held May 18 for Local 235, the largest
local with more than 1,900 members, less than 48 hours after the tentative
agreement was reached. At the packed meeting, strikers were angry over the
agreement’s details and what the majority saw as a too-quick timeline for
voting, which was scheduled for the next day. After much resistance from the
strikers, voting for Local 235 members only was pushed to May 22, and more
informational meetings were scheduled leading up to the vote.
Even the extended time is not enough to dissect and analyze pages and pages of
life-and-death issues within the tentative agreement. Doesn’t the rank
and file have a democratic right to study their tentative contract? Why is the
International not making this time available?
‘Vote it down!’
The majority of Local 235 members leaving the May 18 meeting were angry at what
they called a horrendous and precedent-setting tentative agreement.
“I would vote it down,” said Byrone Lanna, an African-American
worker who began working for GM in 1976 and once worked at American Axle for
three years.
The tentative contract agreement is rife with steep concessions and
givebacks.
According to a leaflet entitled “Is This The Best We Can Do?” which
is being distributed at the Local 235 union hall by Shifting Gears, a
newsletter by and for the UAW/AAM rank and file, some of the most onerous
provisions for the 2008-2012 contract include:
• Wages would be slashed on average $10 outright for current workers
and wages would be at different scales between plants. At Detroit Gear,
production workers would range from $14.35 to $18.50 per hour, at Cheektowaga
$14.35 to $16.50 and at Three Rivers $10 to $18;
• For the first time, workers would have to pay health care co-pays
and deductibles;
•Only the Detroit gear and axle plant and Cheektowaga would be in
the master agreement; the Three Rivers plant would be on its own;
• A no-strike clause would, in effect, take these locals out of the
Big Three-UAW umbrella;
• New hires in Detroit would start at $11.50 with no cost-of-living
adjustments for the life of the contract and no dental coverage for the first
three years of the contract;
• The closing of the Detroit Forge and Tonawanda, N.Y., plants
within the next year;
• Pensions frozen as of January 2009 and the implementation of a
401K plan at that time;
• The combination of skilled trades into only four classifications
and reduction of their hourly wage;
• Overtime would kick in after a 40-hour week, not an 8-hour
day;
• Limited and underfunded Supplemental Unemployment Benefit fund of
$18 million;
• Various buyout packages up to $140,000, which are subject to being
taxed;
• Buy-downs of up to $105,000 over three years as workers’ pay
is reduced to the new lower rate. But not all workers would see this much
because this amount depends on the amount of wage reduction a worker is forced
into. Furthermore, laid-off workers would have their buy-downs reduced to
exclude their unemployment pay.
This is only a partial list.
Lanna says there’s an alternative to these massive concessions:
resistance. He says his co-workers can vote no, continue striking and regroup
to fight for a solid contract. Lanna and others opposing the agreement suggest
building a massive, internationalist labor-community support network,
organizing protests at the plant and throughout the community, rallies,
increasing strike pay, and stopping scab trucks en masse, among other
tactics.
Says Lanna: “No one should take a pay cut at this company. It’s not
right. The workers don’t have to go for this tentative
agreement,”
Milt Neidenberg, David Sole, Jerry Goldberg, Martha Grevatt and Alan
Pollock contributed to this report.
Articles copyright 1995-2012 Workers World.
Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.
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