Sterling Heights — As historic contract negotiations gear up to begin this week with Detroit’s three automakers, United Auto Workers members on Wednesday expressed frustrations to union leaders about treatment inside workplaces and the need for cost-of-living allowances, higher wages and a secure retirement.
Bright and early Wednesday morning, wearing bright red polo shirts, some of the UAW’s top leaders, including President Shawn Fain and Secretary-Treasurer Margaret Mock, shook hands with workers as they were leaving their shifts at Stellantis NV’s Sterling Heights Assembly Plant. They pledged to fight for them and get workers what they’re owed.
For Corrie Merrow of Flushing, financial security after retirement is a big concern.
“I’m not going to be in a position to work when I retire,” said Merrow, 39, a UAW member for 6 1/2 years. She works full-time at the Sterling Heights Assembly Plant, where she and other workers build the Ram 1500 pickup trucks. Merrow wishes she had a pension like her seniority colleagues. “It’s $200 in gas to drive here every week. I just had surgery on my wrist. (The work) is a lot on my body. We need some more.”
UAW bargaining committees will approach their counterparts at the automakers starting Thursday, first at Stellantis, followed by Ford Motor Co. on Friday and General Motors Co. on Tuesday. They’ll do so without the traditional ceremonial handshakes.
Instead, Fain, Mock, the three vice presidents and other executive board members and international staff met with members outside three Detroit-area plants Wednesday in preparation for the historic talks beginning. They planned to be at GM’s Factory Zero Detroit-Hamtramck Plant and Ford’s Michigan Assembly Plant in Wayne later Wednesday.
Gathering during the 6 a.m. shift change outside one of the entrance gates at SHAP, Fain promised to fight to earn workers what he says they are owed after previous contracts failed to return workers to the previous benefits they had received prior to the Great Recession and bankruptcies at GM and the former Chrysler LLC.
Fain also emphasized the precedent these negotiations would have for electric-vehicle autoworkers, particularly at the joint-venture battery manufacturing plants being built by the Detroit automakers and their partners.
“The companies took 20 to 25 years of things they tried to take away from us,” he said. “They did it all at once right there, and they used the government to do it.
“I don’t view it as getting all this stuff at once. I view it as they didn’t take care of people in the last 10 years when they were highly profitable, so I don’t think we’re asking for a lot. They’ve had 14 years.”
Fain pushed back against the idea that workers’ compensation contributed to the bankruptcies.
“That is complete fabrication,” he said. “Workers were not the reason these companies went through bankruptcy. Our compensation wasn’t the reason they went through bankruptcy. They went through bankruptcy because of a bad economy. What’s going on now is that the few are benefitting and taking everything, and then everybody else is left with with little and fighting over scraps. That’s got to change.”
In 2022, GM, Stellantis and Ford reported adjusted operating income in North America, respectively, of $13 billion, $15.2 billion and $9.2 billion. Stellantis’ profit-sharing checks were the highest at $14,760, followed by GM workers receiving $12,750 and Ford’s, $9,176.
Wage increases, COLA and pensions are among the UAW’s priorities during negotiations, but Fain emphasized job security, allocation and the elimination of different compensation levels based on years of experience and hire date as particularly key issues for members. It’ll ultimately be up to the bargaining committee members what they will be willing to bring to the membership, though.
“Our temps are working seven days a week, 12 hours a day and at most of our plants,” Fain said. “That’s not temporary work. That’s full-time work. It’s the way the company abuses the workforce and abuses the workers, and it’s got to stop.”
UAW Vice President Rich Boyer says he doesn’t foresee bringing a tentative agreement to members without eliminating tiers so everyone is paid the same and employees have a secured future. Since he was elected, the indefinitely idled Belvidere Assembly Plant in Illinois where Stellantis previously built the Jeep Cherokee crossover has been a priority to save. Analysts forecast the the next generation of that vehicle will be built in Mexico.
“They had a good attendance, they had a good quality, they had a great workforce, and they still moved that project,” Boyer said. “The labor cost isn’t that much of the cost of the vehicle. It’s clean, simple corporate greed.”
He declined to detail further details on solutions discussed for Belvidere, but noted: “It’s in the best interest of the company to put product there.”
Chennel McGraw, 46, of Detroit, a full-time hourly worker at SHAP and UAW member of 24 years, is thankful to be working at a plant where a popular pickup is being made. But with the move to zero-emission autos, she hopes to see new models allocated to her workplace.
“If there’s no product,” McGraw said, “there’s no plant.”
Fain and Boyer said the first contract with Ultium Cells LLC, the joint venture between GM and LG Energy Solution that operates a battery manufacturing facility in Warren, Ohio, will set the precedent for workers in that sector. Workers at the plant, the only battery production facility involving the Detroit Three automakers that’s currently operating, start at $16.50 per hour.
“They’re taking those taxpayer dollars from from our working-class people,” Fain said about the billions of dollars in incentives and subsidies being provided by governments to build EV and battery plants and produce them domestically. “And they’re financing these people to form these joint ventures and screw the workers, so it’s got to stop.”
Fain has said all three companies are targets, and it will depend how the talks go for whether or when a lead employer will be chosen. Traditionally, this has been done around Labor Day. All three contracts expire on Sept. 14.
The response the union receives from the automakers also will determine whether it could take more aggressive action like a strike, Fain said. In 2019, a 40-day national strike cost GM $3.6 billion.
The UAW’s strike and defense fund sits around $825 million, Mock told The Detroit News. In September 2019, the value was $721 million-plus, but since then, the union has increased weekly strike pay to $500, double the stipend at which it began during the 2019 strike.
“We feel good about where it is at,” Mock said about the strike fund. “We are going strong into negotiations in the event of a potential strike. We feel good about being able to take care of members’ needs.”
Workers said they would support their union and the actions it takes during the talks and expressed hope that with leaders coming out to hear their concerns that their voices would be heard at the negotiating table.
Lence Ristovski, 44, of Macomb, who works in the paint shop at SHAP, held a “United for a strong contract” sign and became emotional as she spoke about co-workers losing their homes. She started part-time in 2001 for the automaker and then rolled over in 2010 to full-time. Because of the renegotiated contract during the bankruptcy, though, becoming full-time put her at a different wage scale.
“I’m working all week to make what I was making three days a week,” she said. “I couldn’t contribute to a 401(k) while I was part-time. I want back what we lost.”
bnoble@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @BreanaCNoble