Workers for GM Subsystems, who aren't under the same contract as other GM workers but work alongside them in the plants.

Workers at four Components Holding plants, who progress over eight years from $16.25 to a max of $22.50.

Workers in parts warehouses (CCA) hired after November 2015, who top out at $25 an hour after eight years, compared to $32.32 for Tier 1.

Workers in parts warehouses (CCA) hired before November 2015.

I count 10 tiers in the new proposal, and I am undoubtedly missing some:

They will make the same $16.67 wage the entire time they remain in that status. The new proposal changes that-temps will no longer get any pay hikes at all. I met workers who'd been laid off multiple times over the years, as temps-and each time, they would start over again at the hire-in wage of less than $16 an hour. Temps can now become permanent if they work three years without a break in service (the three years will be lowered to two in 2021).īut this is the auto industry. The Tier 2 workers will now eventually make the same pay as Tier 1, by the end of this four-year contract, but they will never get a pension or retiree health care. Some of today's temps will be hired into the second tier-but new ones will be hired to take their place, at lower wages than before. The same tiers that existed in the old contract will exist in the new one. If this was a strike to establish equality and end the many-tiered wage scheme, it did not accomplish that. Most workers I interviewed over eight visits to the line said their top priority was “make everyone equal” or “hire the temps.” They talked about “a fair wage for everyone, everything fair and equal to all families.” They repeatedly said, “They're working just as hard as we are.” When I visited the picket line at Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly on the first day, workers couldn't tell me what they were going out for.īut remarkably, a consensus soon emerged. The strike was declared suddenly, with no guidance from top bargainers on its goals. Comparison with non-union workers is another way to say, “You should feel lucky you have a job.” THEY KNEW WHAT THEY WANTED The 93 percent of private sector workers who don't have a union would surely appreciate a guaranteed wage increase, and this four-year contract contains two of them.īut if you are comparing this contract to what GM could afford to pay, or to what auto workers deserve, or to what they thought they were striking for, then it falls short.Įxcuse me, but I thought this was why we had unions, and strikes-so that we could win conditions better that what employers are willing to give without a union. “They have locked-in pay increases and bonuses, which very few people can count on,” said University of Michigan professor Erik Gordon. It seems your attitude toward this contract depends on whether you're comparing what GM workers have to what everyone else has-that is, the vast majority of nonunion workers who have no rights at all.

Said Adriana Jaime, a 21-year worker at Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly, “For the weeks we've been walking here, it's not enough.” The contract does not come close to recouping all the concessions made since the 2007 contract brought in half-pay for new hires and since GM's 2009 bankruptcy forced even more givebacks.

No rank-and-file Auto Workers member was quoted.īut plenty of workers are unhappy with the deal, as they vote this week. A labor studies professor predicted that workers would think this was the best they could get, so striking longer would not be worth it. A business professor cited said the deal was bad for GM.

“UAW got a good deal from GM, labor leaders, experts say,” read the headline. The Detroit Free Press did its bit Friday toward convincing GM workers to vote yes on their proposed contract.

Detroit free press gm contract