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The Militant (logo)
Vol. 79/No. 38 October 26, 2015
(front page)
Autoworkers’ rejection of Fiat
two-tier deal forces new offer
BY ILONA GERSH
CHICAGO — One week after Fiat Chrysler workers overwhelmingly rejected a
new contract because it maintained the widely hated two-tier wage
scheme, a revised proposal from United Auto Workers union officials and
the auto bosses was announced Oct. 9.
Autoworkers had surprised both the bosses and union officials by voting
down the first proposal by nearly two to one. It was the first time a
national contract negotiated between UAW officials and a major carmaker
was rejected in more than 30 years.
Currently new hires start out at just over half the pay of workers hired
before 2007. Under the rejected contract, they would have topped out at
$25.35 an hour, well below the $29.76 top pay of the so-called
traditional workers. The new offer says they would receive the same wage
as “traditional workers” after eight years.
The proposal divides “in-progression workers” — those hired in 2007 or
later — into eight groups, each one at a different pay rate.
“Traditional” workers would get a $4,000 signing bonus; workers on the
second tier would get $3,000.
The first-tier workers will get raises of 3 percent in the first and
third years of the contract, with 4 percent productivity bonuses in the
second and fourth years.
“Tier-two workers get a lot in this contract, and they deserve it,” said
Rich Cahalane, a tool store crib attendant in a Kokomo, Indiana,
transmission plant, in a phone interview Oct. 12. “The company has made
a lot of money today because it paid second-tier workers so little.”
Cahalane has worked for the company for 30 years.
Workers were told the second wage tier would be capped at 25 percent of
the workforce after the 2011 contract. But almost 45 percent, or
approximately 16,500, of Fiat Chrysler’s 36,600 union production workers
are second tier.
“Second-tier workers may be the majority here,” Cahalane said. “They
opened a new transmission plant in Tipton, Indiana. Most of those
workers were new.”
“They made some improvements in the wage proposal for workers in the
second tier,” Alan Epstein, who has worked at the Toledo Jeep plant for
more than 30 years, said by phone Oct. 12. “They promise that
second-tier workers will be at top pay in eight years. Chrysler clearly
does not want to see a strike. But it’s a four-year contract, so it will
all be up for grabs during the next contract negotiations.”
Many workers interviewed during a shift change at the Belvidere,
Illinois, Chrysler plant said they expected the new contract proposal to
pass.
The UAW uses pattern bargaining to negotiate contracts with the Big
Three auto companies: Fiat Chrysler, Ford and GM. Once the first
contract is achieved, the idea is that the other two will follow suit.
Fiat Chrysler, while increasing sales for 44 straight months, is seen as
the weakest of the three.
Suggesting that Ford workers will get a better deal than those at Fiat
Chrysler, UAW Vice President Jimmy Settles told the Detroit Free Press
that the Fiat Chrysler accord “is only a pattern and the tentative
agreement reached with Ford will be UAW-Ford specific, aimed at
addressing concerns with the current agreement and securing gains for
our membership.”
Voting on the Fiat Chrysler accord is scheduled in each plant on Oct. 20
or 21.
Related articles:
Lac-Mégantic action demands rail safety, condemns frame-up
Solidarity rally in Chicago backs Quebec safety fight
On the Picket Line
Farmworkers: We get respect, dignity with the union
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