The UAW is considering staying on strike against General Motors until rank-and-file members approve a tentative agreement, a process that could add more than a week to the length of the work stoppage, the Free Press has learned.
No deal has been reached yet. Negotiations continued Sunday as the strike reached its seventh day.
Three people familiar with the union’s thinking said the UAW GM council voted on Sept. 15, when it called the strike, that workers would remain out until the council of local leaders voted to end the nationwide work stoppage. But two UAW local leaders who are on that council told the Free Press it is likely that even after that council vote, workers could remain on strike until membership ratification. A third person affirmed that.
Usually, strikers return to work once a tentative agreement is reached and the vote on ratification in the next couple weeks.
A source close to GM bargainers expressed concern at the possibility, saying a prolonged strike is bad for the company and for the workers. Analysts have said the production stoppage alone is costing GM $50 million-$100 million a day.
Likewise, strikers will earn just $250 in strike wages each week and will have to have medical expenses reimbursed through COBRA. In addition, thousands of workers with GM suppliers have been temporarily laid off because of the strike, and GM’s Oshawa, Ontario, plant has been idled, with some 4,000 workers temporarily laid off due to a parts shortage from the strike.
Remaining on strike until a tentative agreement is approved is not unprecedented, said two labor experts, who recalled workers staying on strike in 1970 until the entire rank-and-file approved the new contract.
As of Sunday morning one of the main sticking points in talks was GM’s refusal to allow temporary workers to receive profit sharing payouts and to create a pathway for them to become permanent workers. Two people familiar with the talks said that is one of about five key issues the parties remain stuck on.
More: Sources: GM offers 2% raises to UAW; company ends strikers’ health care
More: How GM’s profit sharing offer to UAW workers missed the mark
Elizabeth Warren visit
On the picket lines at Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly Plant, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, whose presidential campaign has seen a boost in recent polling, grabbed a “UAW on Strike” sign and joined picketers Sunday during a visit to Detroit.
Hundreds of union members and supporters came to catch a glimpse of the Massachusetts Democrat as she marched with strikers and sounded a strongly pro-union message.
She blasted GM, saying the company’s announcement last year that it would “unallocate” five plants in North America shows it has no loyalty to the workers or the people of America. She said that if the company could “save a nickel” by moving jobs to Mexico or elsewhere, it does so. Warren said it’s good to be with UAW workers who want to hold the company accountable.
“They want a contract here that keeps these jobs in America,” she said. “They want a fair wage. They want benefits. They want what it takes to be part of America’s middle class and they want the same for themselves and for temporary workers. Everybody deserves a living wage in this country. When unions win, all American workers win.
“Let’s be clear, unions built America’s middle class, and unions will rebuild America’s middle class,” Warren said, sparking chants of “UAW” from the crowd.
GM said it would not comment “regarding any specific commentary by the politicians today … except to say that our goal remains to reach a tentative agreement that builds a stronger future for our employees and our company.”
Warren was asked about a new Iowa Poll showing her in first place among the crowded Democratic field, but she said, “I don’t do polls. We are still months away from the Iowa caucuses and the first primary elections.”
Dennis J. Laubernds was among those who came to see Warren. He carried a sign, reading “Temp Lives Matter,” that noted his position as a GM temporary worker since 2013. The St. Clair Shores man works at the Orion Assembly plant on the line.
While he said the people with whom he works at Orion are nice, the 64-year-old noted that working as a temporary worker means less pay and fewer benefits. Before being laid off with the rest of his shift at Warren Transmission in 2017, he was making $21 per hour. When he came back to work this April at Orion, his pay was $15.78 per hour. He said GM is “making out like a fat cat” paying him at that rate.
Expedited ratification
Besides the people who described the union’s thinking on the idea of waiting until ratification to end the strike, picketing workers and some other local leaders said they had heard of the possibility.
Tommy Wolikow, a UAW worker at GM’s Flint Assembly, said he has heard that he and other strikers would remain on the picket line until the entire membership approved a deal and that makes sense to him. If members did not ratify it, it would be difficult to walk off the job again to go back on strike.
“Until the membership approves the agreement, I was told we’re not going back to work,” said a UAW worker at GM’s plant in Bedford, Indiana, who asked to not be named.
When the UAW’s National Council reconvenes in Detroit to vote on a tentative agreement, whenever it comes, it will likely also vote to either end the strike or stay on strike until GM’s 46,000 workers across its 55 facilities in the United States approve the deal, say those familiar with the process.
If the council does vote for the strikers to stay off the job until the entire membership votes, the UAW leaders can expedite the ratification process beyond the typical two weeks it takes under normal circumstances, said Marick Masters, business professor at Wayne State University who specializes in labor.
Masters said the tactic makes sense from the union’s standpoint.
“One of the worst things they could have happen is to send the workers back to work and then they do not ratify,” said Masters. “Then where would their bargaining leverage be?”
It also is a show that UAW leadership is including its members in the contract negotiation process and meeting rank-and-file demands.
“It’s my understanding that they’ve been engaging the rank and file through their subcommittee negotiations to make sure that whatever tentative agreement they come up with, they can say it is percolating from the membership, not being dictated by the leadership.”
Many observers say the ongoing federal corruption investigation of the union, which has reached top leadership with a search of UAW President Gary Jones’ home, erodes trust of leadership and could complicate ratification.
The minute they withdraw the leverage a strike gives the union, the harder it is to return to the bargaining table if the UAW needs to sweeten the deal. For example, in 2015, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles workers rejected a tentative agreement.
“The rejection was unexpected, but when it happened, UAW’s then-President Dennis Williams (who also is implicated in the corruption scandal) went back to Chrysler and they sweetened it slightly and then it was approved,” said Harley Shaiken, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley who studies labor.
This strike is much longer, going on a full week, and it’s a bit of unchartered territory, Shaiken said.
“There are a significant number of workers hired post-2007 who have never been out on a real strike, but you’ve got a real strike right now,” said Shaiken. “I think the union wants to be sure there’s a buy-in before everybody goes back to work.”
Blocking an agreement
There five to six key sticking points in negotiations, according to two people familiar with the talks.
“They made some gains, but GM is saying a hard no to a few things,” said a UAW local chairman familiar with the talks and who asked to not be identified because he is not authorized to speak for the union.
Earlier in the week, one of those issues was the fate of GM’s idled-plant in Lordstown, Ohio. The plant made the Chevrolet Cruze compact car until March when GM “unallocated” product to it and stopped the line. GM has said three other U.S. plants will be indefinitely idled including Detroit-Hamtramck and Warren and Baltimore transmission plants.
The union wants more details on how a promised $7 billion in GM investments over a four-year contract would be allocated to solve Lordstown’s fate. GM has indicated a battery cell manufacturer could go there. And GM is still in talks with a group headed by electric-truck maker Workhorse, to buy another part of the plant.
But some close to the talks said the battery cell manufacturer could be a joint-venture and offer a separate UAW contract for workers, likely at lower pay rate than the GM contract. This is problematic, said three people familiar with the UAW’s thinking, because in a decade or so, if battery cells replace traditional engines, gone are those higher-paying UAW jobs, replaced by the lower-paid jobs in the separate contract.
Then, as of Sunday morning, a big sticking point was temporary workers. The UAW wants to have a path for the temps to become permanent employees and share in GM’s profit sharing.
Also, GM is reluctant to reduce the number of years a lower tier wage person, known as “in-progress” worker, has to work to reach the higher wage scale. It’s currently eight years.
“GM’s stubborn about the temps – they still get no profit sharing in the last proposal GM made,” said the chairman. “They still don’t want the temps to have the piece of it and they want to keep the temps language in there meaning, GM can keep them temps as long as they want.”
A GM spokesman declined to comment on the status of the talks or sticking points, other than to say, “Talks continue.”
Here are some key differences between temporary workers, “in-progression” workers and permanent workers, according to the UAW:
- Temporary workers wages: $15-$19.
- A newly hired permanent production worker, called “in progression,” makes about $17 an hour, and can rise to $28 an hour after eight years.
- A legacy worker earns $28 to $33 an hour.
- A skilled trades worker, about 15% of the Detroit Three’s workforce, is closer to $35 to $36 an hour. They often get heavy overtime.
- Profit Sharing: Temps get none
- Inferior health care coverage for temps
- No supplemental pay during layoffs and plant retooling
- Less paid time off
- No retirement pay
- No Seniority rights
Permanently temporary
Shaiken said GM’s reluctance to make its temporary workers permanent and give them profit sharing is not surprising.
“It has little to do with flexibility and everything to do with a rock-bottom wage that will reduce GM’s costs,” said Shaiken.
But like many temporary workers and the union argue, it’s hard to accept still being classified as a temporary worker if a person has worked in that job for several years.
“Those are workers who have no track to get better, they’re simply working hard, at rock bottom wages. That flies in the face of the very soul of the UAW.” said Shaiken. “What this indicates right now is that these rock-bottom wage workers are not a temporary moment to get through a crisis, this is a way of doing business.”
But it’s no secret that changing the workplace composition, which includes the ratio of temps to permanent workers, has been a GM priority. Currently about 7% of GM’s U.S. hourly workforce are temporary employees and GM would like to increase that. One person close to the talks said, “If health care remains the same, then something has to give to make this piece of the pie work.”
In its initial offer to the UAW, GM had proposed workers pay 15% of the costs for health care. The union rejected it and GM backed down, leaving it at the current 3% to 4%.
“If GM has given everything back on health care, clearly they’ve retreated on how much the workers pay from 15% to 3%,” said Shaiken, making it likely GM is not going to bend on the issue of temporary workers. Which means a settlement could be a bit off because of that critical issue.
“The temp language would be very hard for the union to swallow in part because GM wants to expand the percentage of temps. They averaged 7% this year, that’s considerable,” said Shaiken. “You have rename this group permanent temporary workers because that’s what they are. This could be a far larger hang-up than GM supposed.”
Contact Jamie L. LaReau at 313-222-2149 or jlareau@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @jlareauan. Read more on General Motors and sign up for our autos newsletter. Eric D. Lawrence contributed to this report.
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