UAW

  • Ford Workers Should Be Applauded, Not Ridiculed

    Editor’s note: Ford workers rejected a proposed concessions package last week that included a six-year wage freeze for new hires (who make half of current workers’ pay), combining of skilled trades, and giving up the right to strike for contract improvements. Ford had made some weak assurances of continued work and offered a $1,000 bonus.

  • More Ford Workers Voting No

    Despite heavy pressure from United Auto Workers officials, Ford workers are voting against concessions this week. The two largest ‘no’ votes came from assembly plants in Kansas City and Walton Hills, Ohio: 92 and 88 percent.

    Bloomberg News reported today that thus far four plants with 6,100 UAW members have voted yes and seven plants with 11,400 members have voted no. In most locals reporting a ‘yes’ majority the margin is slim, as at Local 900 west of Detroit, with 51 percent in favor.

  • Ford Workers Say ‘We Gave Enough!’

    It started with a simple question, “Can you hear me?” United Auto Workers International Vice President Bob King was inside Ford’s Dearborn Truck Plant, near Detroit, ready to tell a crowd of rank-and-file members why they should vote for more concessions to the profitable automaker.

  • Labor History: Concessions Trend Begins at Chrysler
    Labor Notes Staff
    Oct 20 2009 - 1:09am

    November 20, 1979, Issue #10: Labor Notes Special Report. There were a number of historic firsts in the United Auto Workers-Chrysler agreement ratified this month. For one, Doug Fraser, president of the union, was elevated to the company board of directors.

  • Support Locked Out Auto Parts Workers

    Body:
    United Auto Workers Local 822 members in Bronson, Michigan struck May 1 after refusing to surrender major concessions sought by auto parts supplier Douglas Autotech. The company wanted to cut wages and reduce retiree benefits, but the 140-member local voted instead to strike after four months at the negotiating table.

    On May 5, the strikers offered to voluntarily go back to work under the old contract and resume negotiations. The company, however, locked them out and brought in scabs from its two non-union plants in Kentucky.

    Strikers have received support from their local community, although one of Bronson’s city councilmen is a manager at the plant and has thrown his weight behind the company. There has also been community solidarity and help on the picket lines from American Axle workers at UAW Local 2093 in nearby Three Rivers, Michigan. Truck drivers delivering parts to the plant have refused to cross the picket line.

    Expiration Date:
    Thu, 07/31/2008 - 10:59pm

  • As Talks Drag, American Axle Strike Enters Third Month

    Author(s):
    Jane Slaughter

    Excerpt:
    Although the two-month-old strike at parts-maker American Axle has shut down 30 General Motors plants and idled more than 40,000 GM workers, the United Auto Workers appear unable or unwilling to make use of their leverage to reach a settlement. . . .

    Available Online:
    Yes

  • Auto Parts Workers Battle Demand to Cut Wages in Half

    Author(s):
    Wendy Thompson

    Excerpt:
    Picketers at American Axle talk about the need to draw a line in the sand—or snow—against spiraling concessions on wages, health care benefits, and pensions. . . .

    Available Online:
    Yes

  • Shortcuts Hamper Unions in South, Say the UAW’s Fired ‘Freightliner Five’

    Author(s):
    Tiffany Ten Eyck

    Excerpt:
    Pounding the pavement in a two-month tour of cities throughout the Midwest and West Coast, four fired United Auto Workers members have been busy speaking to supporters in a quest to get their jobs back. Questions about the effect concessionary bargaining and shortcut neutrality agreements may have on the future of new member organizing in the South are frequently raised at their meetings. . . .

    Available Online:
    Yes

  • After Wildcat Strike Against Concessions, Freightliner Workers Fight for Their Jobs

    Author(s):
    Tiffany Ten Eyck

    Excerpt:
    Cleveland, a small town with less than 1,000 residents in western North Carolina, is an unlikely home for an active autoworkers’ union. . . .

    Available Online:
    Yes

  • Viewpoint: One-Sided Class War: The UAW-GM 2007 Negotiations

    Author(s):
    Sam Gindin

    Excerpt:
    In 1978, then United Auto Workers (UAW) President Douglas Fraser, frustrated with corporate America's new aggressiveness, accused employers of waging a "one-sided class war against working people, the unemployed, the poor, the minorities, the very young and the very old, and even many in the middle class of our society." In response, he warned, "we in the UAW intend to reforge the links with those who believe in struggle: the kind of people who sat-down in the factories in the 1930s and who marched in Selma in the 1960s." . . . .

    Available Online:
    Yes