UAW: Jobs the goal, even at 2nd-tier wages
Union says expansion a priority for summer contract
negotiations
CHRISTINA ROGERS
The Detroit News
March 30, 2011
Preserving and expanding U.S. factory jobs is the United Auto
Workers' top priority heading into contracts talks this summer
with Detroit's Big Three — even if that means having to consider
paying more workers a lower, second-tier wage. "We will look at
anything when it comes to negotiations that will retain jobs,"
UAW Vice President Joe Ashton said Tuesday at General Motors
Co.'s plant in Orion Township. "The most important thing going
into this set of negotiations (is) jobs."
Ashton's comments came in response to a question about whether
the union would consider applying a unique two-tier wage
structure in effect at Orion Assembly to other plants. Under the
agreement, about 40 percent of Orion workers will be paid
$14-$16 an hour, compared to $28 for veterans.
Separately, Ashton said he expects new hiring at GM to begin
immediately after the automaker recalls 1,200 workers still on
layoff. That should happen by September, as GM adds workers at
several other plants where the automaker is adding shifts, he
said. Ashton did not know how many new workers GM will need, or
where they will be hired.
Ashton said the union also will use the coming negotiations to
push for reopening idled plants in Spring Hill, Tenn., and
Janesville, Wis., and to block the shutdown of GM's factory in
Shreveport, La., in mid-2012.
Four-year contracts with GM, Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler Group
LLC expire Sept. 14.
He called the union's chances of succeeding in Tennessee and
Wisconsin "great," because those plants were put on standby
during GM's bankruptcy. But he is less confident about
Shreveport, because it is owned by the estate of the old GM,
Motors Liquidation Co. That's the repository of the company's
"bad" assets that were left behind in bankruptcy. "We're going
to put a big emphasis on jobs," Ashton said. "We can talk about
wages and benefits, but if you don't have jobs … wages don't
matter much."
The UAW also may not pursue its long practice of pattern
bargaining, in which the union targets one automaker to bargain
with, and then replicates the agreement with the other two.
"That could change at negotiations," Ashton said. "There are
different stipulations than we've had in the past."
Among those stipulations is a no-strike clause inserted into GM
and Chrysler contracts during the automakers' bankruptcies.
Expanding the two-tier pay model in place at Orion to other GM
plants could prove difficult. When the union agreed to lower,
entry-level pay for new workers in 2007 to help Detroit's
automakers stay afloat, the agreement did not mandate a
percentage of a plant's work force be paid the lower wage. The
agreement that covers Orion, struck in 2009, called for paying
the lower wage to 40 percent of workers in exchange for bringing
small car manufacturing back to a U.S. GM factory. The deal
saved Orion from closing and GM starts production there this
year on a new compact Buick called the Verano and the Chevrolet
Sonic subcompact.
The two-tier pay concept has riled some UAW members who say it's
divisive. Last week, UAW President Bob King said he doesn't like
the idea of different wages for the same job. The union wants to
reopen the issue, but eliminating two-tier wages may not be
feasible at this point, King said.
"This is going to be a tough issue," Harley Shaiken, a labor
professor at the University of California, Berkeley, said about
trying to expand the Orion two-tier model to other factories.
Ashton and the UAW will have to make some compromises in pursuit
of the larger goal — securing jobs, Shaiken said. "If they're
able to generate new jobs, then they can regain wages down the
road."
crogers@detnews.com
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