BY JOHN SARGE
DETROIT, Michigan - Contracts between the United Auto
Workers (UAW) and the Big Three auto makers - General Motors
(GM), Ford, and DaimlerChrysler (DCX) - expire September 14.
One week later agreements between the Big Three and the
Canadian Auto Workers end. This takes place as the auto
bosses' continued drive to cut production costs and worsen
conditions of their unionized workforce.
The UAW represents almost 400,000 auto workers currently under the Big Three contracts: 75,000 at 50 DCX locations, over 100,000 at 60 Ford sites, 150,000 at GM assembly and powertrain locations, and about 46,000 at Delphi Automotive Systems, GM's parts division, which was recently spun off as a separate company.
The bosses have made clear that they plan to continue the decades-long drive to increase their return on investment. The only way they can to do this is by lowering their costs to assemble vehicles, which means using fewer workers per car or truck. At GM and DCX, it still takes in excess of 31 hours on average to assemble a unit. At Ford it takes 23 and a half hours. All of the Big Three want to match their international competition, led by Nissan, which assembles an average vehicle in just over 19 hours. The Big Three have cut total employment in the U.S., union and nonunion, from over 960,000 to barely 525,000 between 1979 and 1999.
Bosses impose job cuts, speedup
After lagging behind Ford and Chrysler for years, GM has
been leading the charge, slashing 125,000 hourly jobs this
decade. It has either spun off or sold most of its parts-
making operation in the last five years. Beginning with the
sale of their axle division in 1994, with the creation of
American Axle Manufacturing, through the May spin-off of
Delphi, the bosses will have shrunk the number of workers
covered under the national agreement. Delphi workers are
covered under the contract until September 14.
Soon after Ford reorganized its parts operation and renamed it Visteon, with 23,500 workers, speculation surfaced of its spin-off. Recently numerous reports in the business press point to well-developed plans to hive off Visteon quickly and merge it with Lear, a major auto parts supplier.
These moves to divide the unionized assembly workers and parts workers are designed to weaken the union in both sectors of the industry to allow more speedup. As the auto industry is presently structured, workers at Big Three-owned parts and assembly plants have similar wages and benefits, while workers at other auto parts makers earn substantially less. Strikes at key parts plants have the power to disrupt auto production, such as the 54-day strike last summer in Flint, Michigan, by workers at a Delphi plant and a GM stamping plant. Those walkouts closed most of the auto giant's assembly operations and idled nearly 200,000 workers. A strike in 1997 to win a union contract at a Johnson Controls seat-assembly plant in Michigan shuttered Ford's most profitable assembly operation, its Michigan Truck Plant, for a time. At the same time, union membership in the auto parts sector has fallen sharply, and with it,wages, benefits, and conditions.
The bosses hope to use the pressure from nonunion and lower- paid union plants to undercut wages and conditions in previously Big Three-owned parts plants and to use this combined pressure to force concessions on all UAW workers. The effects of the bosses' strategy can been seen in the recent local contract at GM's Baltimore van plant. Union officials of UAW Local 239 argued that workers there had to make concessions in hope of winning a new product when the van they presently build is phased out.
The bosses want more of these local agreements, at the same time that they want to weaken the national agreement. Press reports indicate that the auto barons hope to get a national agreement that allows the shifting of more work to outside suppliers, using lower-paid workers in auto plants, and other concessions. These reports also indicate that the bosses want a contract longer than the three years that has become a tradition in the industry. The bosses want to gut any union control on the job that still exists as they prepare to hire tens of thousands of new workers. An estimated 300,000 UAW members are approaching retirement.
More mood to fight in UAW ranks
The last national UAW strike against at an auto maker was a
12-day walkout at Chrysler, forerunner to DCX, in 1986. The
last national shutdown at Ford was in 1976, and at GM in 1970.
But today the union ranks are growing restive. There have been
18 local strikes against GM since 1993. Chrysler has faced
local issue strikes, including a 29-day walkout at its Detroit
engine plant in April 1997. In August union members at Ford
voted 96.4 percent in favor of strike authorization. Ford UAW
locals reported increased turnout for this years' strike
authorization vote over the 1996 ballot.
Many in the ranks of the union, like other workers, are responding to the growing pressures by the bosses and sense that they are in a better position to fight. The auto industry has seen an extended period of sales expansion and massive profits. In the five years between 1994 and 1998, the Big Three have reported combined profits of almost $70 billion, and sales this year are on a pace to set new records in the U.S..
Since the contract talks opened in June, the auto barons have come under public scrutiny for their actions. While DCX upper management claims that it is neutral in the union- organizing drive by workers at its Alabama Mercedes-Benz plant, press reports indicate that the company is a member of the Economic Development Partnership of Alabama. The partnership has established a foundation to fight the UAW drive and has hired an consultant to aid in that work.
Meanwhile, on September 2 Michigan state officials announced their findings on the blast that killed six workers at the Ford's Rouge Complex in February. While the company didn't admit guilt, it agreed to pay a $1.5 million fine for safety violations in the plant. The company will not face criminal charges around the explosion.
John Sarge is a member of UAW Local 900 at Ford's Michigan Truck Plant.