GM-UAW Talks: Temporary Workers Are a Sticking Point
By Michelle Krebs September 14, 2007By Joseph Szczesny
Selected Thursday as the strike target by the United Auto Workers union, General Motors recently slashed production of its full-size pickup trucks and large SUVs, laying off employees. At the same time, GM boosted output of its hot crossovers models, using temporary workers.
Such production adjustments underscores U.S. automakers' determination to keeping vehicle supplies in line with demand to compete with Asian manufacturers, especially Toyota, which have lower labor rates and smaller fixed costs.
The use of temporary workers -- and the potential for their expanded use --also illustrates one of the most contentious issues with GM as well as Ford and Chrysler, in the current labor talks. The deadline for the current contract expires at midnight Friday.
Tale of Two GM Plants
In Lansing, Michigan, GM is adding a third shift at its assembly plant that produces its hot new crossovers -- the Buick Enclave, GMC Acadia and Saturn Outlook. Roughly 500 temporary workers were brought in this month to help boost the production. Some of the temporary workers had been laid off earlier in the year after more full-time employees transferred into the plant.
Demand for the crossover vehicles is strong enough to justify the extra production, GM said. The temporary workers are expected to stay about six months, though it could be longer if customer demand is strong enough. "It plays into the whole idea of being able to fit production to match the dips and spikes," said GM spokesman Tom Wickham.
At the same time, GM is dismissing temporary blue-collar workers at a truck assembly plant in Pontiac, Michigan. Approximately 350 temporary workers from the Pontiac plant will face layoffs because of the cuts.
Jim Hall, bargaining chairman at UAW Local 594 in Pontiac, Michigan, said most of the temporary employees in the truck plant had accepted the jobs with the hope of getting full-time work at GM. "They're very disappointed," he said.
A Perennial Contentious Issue
The use of temporary or seasonal workers has been a contentious issue in the automobile industry for decades. The abrupt dismissal of workers because of overproduction was a major cause of the sit-down strikes in the 1930s, and the UAW demanded extra compensation for workers idled for long periods in exchange for concessions in the early 1980s. Without the use of long layoffs, over production and incentives became more common.
"The use of temporary workers is actually more important to companies than eliminating the jobs bank, which gets all the attention," said Alan Baum, analyst with the Planning Edge, a Birmingham, Michigan, firm that studies product and production trends. "The companies all want to use more temporary workers," he said.
Although temporary workers have become more common at GM, Ford and Chrysler, the UAW has ratcheted up its efforts to organize workers at the big Toyota complex in Georgetown, Kentucky, focusing on the Japanese automakerâs use of temporary workers.
"Temporary workers are real people, not cushions or buffers to be used and discarded whenever it suits you. They work just as hard as your full-time workers and deserve real jobs with good wages, benefits and security," the UAW noted in material prepared for the non-union Toyota workers.
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VOTE NO ON VEBA AND FIRE GETTELFINGER
What kind of labor leader is Mr. Gettelfinger?
His VEBA attack on retirees needs to be defeated and Gettelfinger needs to be removed from office. The damage he has already done to the UAW is irreparable.
By attacking retirees and the historic gains of the UAW Mr. Gettelfinger is using his power and influence to destroy the UAW from the top down. He apparently doesn’t understand how the corporations are using him.
Mr. Gettelfinger spent too many years going to college and simply doesn’t understand the difficulties of being a worker or struggling retiree. Ever since his becoming president workers and retirees have suffered from his misguided horrific concessions.
Never before in the history of the UAW have past top retired UAW officials come out against a residing UAW president. This, however, is precisely what is now happening all around the nation….
Issued September 26, 2007 by Former UAW International Executive Board Members: Paul Schrade - Warren Davis - Jerry Tucker
We regret the decision by the UAW negotiators to tentatively agree to place the future health care protection of hundreds of thousands of UAW retired members under a union run Voluntary Employee Beneficiary Association, or VEBA. We believe it irresponsible by the parties to this negotiation to shift the burden of risk to the retired workers and their families and release General Motors from its commitment to the full and perpetual coverage of healthcare for the workers who built the wealth of the corporation in the first place.
We have previously noted the lack of any real discussion or debate among the members and secondary leadership of the union prior to the negotiations on the VEBA. Springing a new and potentially hazardous economic concept on an unsuspecting membership, either active or retired, is alien to the democratic principles in our governing constitution.
That a VEBA can be dangerous is well documented. UAW retired members covered by a VEBA at Caterpillar can painfully vouch for that. Their VEBA went bust and they now have thousands of dollars in unanticipated out-of-pocket costs per year for reduced health care protection.
In a recent letter to International President Gettelfinger, a prominent Detroit area local union’s leaders stated: “Most VEBA’s allow the companies to wash their hands of retiree health care. If things don’t go according to ‘plan’, it will be our own union telling retirees to drain their life savings to pay for medical care. That’s unacceptable because it goes against everything our union stands for.” And even former UAW President Douglas Fraser expressed his reservations about a VEBA when he said; “God help us if we get into a depression or recession and the value of the fund plummets and the UAW is sitting there with this huge liability.”
The Big 3 clamor to relieve themselves of the cost of retiree health care may be applauded by Wall Street and the investor class, but unions have a different responsibility and a different constituency. By going the VEBA route the parties will have missed a historic opportunity to inject their significant political clout in the growing push for a national health care system in this country patterned after the Canadian ‘Medicare for All’ system. That’s a system that each company acknowledges has leveled the competitiveness playing field for them there.
>From the start, this round of negotiations was projected by the media to be about what autoworkers could do—meaning give up—to help the domestic auto manufacturers out of the ‘competitiveness’ hole they’d dug themselves into. Yet GM showed a profit last quarter of $891 million as reported July 31, 2007 in Market Watch and their stock is soaring. There are a number of worker concessions in the tentative agreement which unfairly penalize workers and their families for management’s design failures.
We respectfully recommend that the GM UAW membership vote ‘NO’ and that the leadership instruct the workers to remain at work while they rejoin the negotiations to correct the VEBA mistake and other unjust concessions currently in the tentative agreement.
Fraternally,
Former UAW Directors:
Paul Schrade Region 6
Warren Davis Region 2
Jerry Tucker Region 5
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