Twelve-hour shifts for seven days in a row rotating with seven days off won’t be the regular schedule for skilled trades workers at one of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles’ busiest plants.
That schedule had been expected in coming weeks at Sterling Heights Assembly Plant, but it’s now off the table.
Concerns about how such a schedule would affect employee benefits prompted a reconsideration, according to the UAW.
That particular schedule had proven divisive among the hundreds of skilled trades workers at the plant where the popular Ram 1500 pickup is made, prompting a petition threatening the possibility some workers might withhold union dues.
But the issue of a nontraditional schedule isn’t dead.
Those workers, a fraction of the 7,200 at the plant, are expected to get a look at a couple of other potential schedule patterns, but any changes are likely now to wait until some time in the new year.
While the notion of an alternating seven-days-on, seven-days-off work schedule might sound dramatic, the idea of an “alternative work schedule,” where workers pull longer shifts or rotate days off in different configurations, is not a new concept, even at FCA. The difference here was that the UAW contract negotiated in 2019 allowed for skilled trades workers, which can include positions such as electricians, millwrights and others, at FCA’s high-volume plants to start working these shifts.
Sterling Heights, or SHAP, would be the first.
Glenn Shagena, FCA vice president and head of employee relations, in one part of the contract offers an explanation for the change. His note to UAW Vice President Cindy Estrada said that during negotiations “the parties discussed the importance of skilled trades alternative work schedules (AWS) to meet changing customer demand, maximize the utilization of our facilities and ensure we have the flexibility to respond quickly to market fluctuations. Alternative work schedules allow the company to increase competitiveness, provide greater job security for our employees, improve work-life balance and efficiently utilize assets.”
The company’s response, when asked by the Free Press about the possible alternative work schedule at SHAP, said any such change would be allowable..
“In answer to your question, during 2019 bargaining, FCA and the UAW agreed to a series of alternative work schedules for skilled trades to ensure the plants have the appropriate levels of coverage across all production shifts,” according to an email from spokeswoman Jodi Tinson.
The Free Press received about 30 responses and comments from different workers about the issue in recent months, and the World Socialist Web Site has reported on the anger exposed by the possible change. Workers have declined to be identified, with many indicating concerns about keeping their jobs. Not all were opposed to the schedule change, but the positive comments represented just a couple of those received.
The concerns about the planned alternative work schedule varied from worries about how to manage a personal life of missed family meals and other activities, to long shifts and workweeks that would be physically draining and potentially dangerous, to a schedule that might deprive workers of overtime and mean a pay cut, although the union, saying the FCA process was patterned after Ford, said it believed workers would still be able to work as much overtime as they want. Workers noted that it would take days to recover after each workweek. A worker who was happy about the possible change was excited about having more time off.
Other workers said the very concept of such a long day represents a major step back for labor rights in the United States. Workers who were opposed were angry at both the company for pushing such a schedule and the union for allowing it.
The union has noted that members voted on the contract and there was a vote related to the schedule. The Free Press requested the tally but has not received it.
Estrada, who heads the union’s FCA department, spoke with the Free Press on Dec. 16, describing a balancing act at play.
The union wants to preserve jobs and stop the company from outsourcing work, but the data provided by the company shows a lack of coverage by skilled trades at SHAP on the weekends, a point disputed by some workers.
“We don’t want to have outside contractors coming in, doing the work that our skilled trades can do,” she said.
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The better answer, according to Estrada, is for FCA to hire more skilled trades workers and apprentices.
“Someone should be questioning them about work-life balance because that’s a fight we’re taking on,” Estrada said, referencing the company. “Why is it acceptable for them that our workers work seven days a week, 12 hours a day? Why? Because they don’t want to hire more skilled trades because they’d rather do it at a lesser rate rather (than) hire more skilled trades.”
Estrada said the union still supports the eight-hour workday, but she said the willingness of workers to work overtime, in addition to the company’s interest in longer shifts, can make that a challenge.
Automakers without unions only add to the pressure in the industry, she said.
“I say we have not abandoned it. We are constantly fighting these companies, right? And the workers, by the way, who want all the overtime … one way to fix overtime is workers turn it down,” she said. “So we are constantly fighting that fight.”
Estrada said she hopes workers wouldn’t withhold their dues over such an issue because the union remains the most powerful tool available to the workers.
A summary the union released prior to FCA workers ratifying the 2019 contract addresses alternative work schedules in a couple of sections, one dealing with the skilled trades issue and the other related to membership concerns about them and the hardships such schedules create. Shift schedules planned for new model launches at two plants in Detroit would be changed, based on negotiations, the summary said, to a traditional three-shift, eight-hour operation. The company also agreed to a joint review at other locations.
Estrada said the concerns referenced in the summary were related to schedules where workers are rotating back and forth from day to night, which she called insane. It’s been a major push for the union, she said, to end that type of scheduling, which can lead to sleep deprivation and have a negative impact on health.
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But other schedules, like a seven-day workweek or one with 12-hour shifts, can also be disruptive. Kristin Dziczek, vice president of the Industry, Labor & Economics Group at the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, said that although such a schedule might give someone 26 weeks off, not counting actual vacation, arranging a life around it could be challenging, especially if your spouse is on a different schedule or child care is involved.
“Twelve-hour days don’t fit neatly into most people’s lives,” she said.
Other kinds of workers are regularly called on to work 12-hour shifts, Dziczek said, noting her sister’s experience as a nightshift nurse. There was more time for family when she wasn’t working, but it was very hard during those workdays.
Dziczek said that the impact of the coronavirus is one reason an automaker might be pushing for different work schedules at the moment.
“We’re in the middle of a pandemic. Not having good coverage on the weekends is a challenge. Having a lot of people out for COVID exposure is a challenge,” she said. “To think of unique ways to getting back to where they were … this has got to be part of that.”
Marick Masters, a Wayne State University business professor who specializes in labor issues, said the thing that is key is communication. It’s important for the company and the union to explain clearly why a new type of schedule is needed and how it might actually benefit the workers as well. That could be job security in a competitive environment, profitability that leads to more profit-sharing or higher wages down the road.
“It requires a great deal of education and work with the rank and file, both by the union and by the company and both of those parties together, to assuage whatever concerns they have and to make them realize it’s in their best interests to go along with this type of a schedule,” Masters said.
The communications should take into consideration the worker’s concerns and try to make any necessary adjustments, he said.
Longer workdays when people are experiencing physical pain can be a real problem, too.
“If eight hours is painful, then 12 hours is going to be excruciatingly painful,” he said.
One issue is a matter of trust.
“You can’t separate the fact that there’s been a scandal brewing, and it’s tainted the image of the union and the rank and file have to be somewhat troubled by all that’s gone on,” Masters said.
The UAW and U.S. Attorney’s Office just wrapped up a settlement agreement that ends the criminal investigation of the union, which was a focus of the federal government’s lengthy corruption probe.
However, although U.S. Attorney Matthew Schneider has praised the reform efforts overseen by current UAW President Rory Gamble, the scandal has affected the perception of the union for many workers. Fifteen people, including two former UAW presidents and the onetime lead labor negotiator for FCA, have been convicted. Prosecutors said that, among other things, worker training funds were misused in an effort to corrupt the bargaining process.
Contact Eric D. Lawrence: elawrence@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter: @_ericdlawrence. Become a subscriber.