GM Workers Root for American Axle Strikers

DETROIT _ Fight on, brothers and sisters.

That’s the sentiment from many GM workers as the strike at supplier American Axle & Manufacturing Inc. begins its third week Tuesday.

Despite the fact that the strike forced General Motors Corp. to shut down or cut production at 29 plants nationwide, several GM workers and their family members said they are glad American Axle workers are standing up for themselves and the working class.

“I was surprised _ but pleasantly surprised _ that” American Axle workers “actually decided to resist the proposed contract,” said Stacey Kemp, 49, a retired GM worker whose husband is temporarily laid off from GM by the American Axle strike. “I was hoping GM” workers “would do the same thing.”

Perhaps if the UAW had stood up against GM’s proposals in the fall, Kemp said, American Axle workers wouldn’t need to be on strike.

She and others said that the labor contracts that the UAW negotiated with the Detroit automakers last summer have led to the wage and benefits cuts that Axle is seeking, while also serving as a cautionary tale for workers at Detroit’s auto suppliers about what can follow such a contract.

The support comes as negotiations appeared to stumble Monday. A company spokeswoman, however, said the two sides are still in touch and expect to hold meetings later this week.

American Axle workers walked onto picket lines early Feb. 26, protesting the company’s proposals to cut wages, raise health care costs and freeze pension benefits.

The company’s proposed wage, $11.50 and $14.50 an hour, is close to what Delphi Corp. now pays and to the second-tier wage agreed upon at the Detroit automakers last fall.

After a two-day strike in September, GM and the UAW reached a labor agreement that allows GM to compensate a second tier of newly hired workers with a lesser benefits plan and wages of $14 to $16.23 per hour, or about half the hourly rate of current assembly workers.

In that contract negotiation, the UAW won some U.S. job commitments from GM and promised to hire some temporary workers and in-source some jobs that have been done by suppliers.

But shortly after ratification, layoffs were announced and temporary workers were let go, leading some workers to feel that they’d been duped. GM workers said they believe workers at suppliers have learned from those events to get stronger commitments before agreeing to a contract that contains concessions.

“I commend the American Axle workers for walking the picket line,” said Kathy Ray, a GM worker at Powertrain Toledo in Ohio, where the strike has resulted in layoffs. “We should have been out on the line like that. … Once the suppliers saw the UAW buckle at GM, Ford and Chrysler, these little companies said: `Well, we’ve got to cut, too.’”

Sam Williams, 45, who works at GM’s Lansing, Mich., Delta Township plant, which is still producing crossovers, said he hopes American Axle workers can protect their wages and win job guarantees that will carry over to how other auto suppliers operate .

“The middle class cannot take any more beating,” he said. “People cannot live on these wages.”

Several people familiar with the talks said that negotiations appeared to break down Monday. The company, these people said, wouldn’t budge on its proposal to cut wages by half.

But American Axle spokeswoman Renee Rogers said talks did not break down. And UAW spokesman Roger Kerson said, “We’re still working to get a good agreement.”

GM, American Axle’s former parent and largest customer, reported no additional production cuts or shutdowns Monday beyond the 29 plants, which employ more than 37,000 hourly workers and 4,600 salaried workers.

Chrysler LLC, American Axle’s second-largest customer, said it can continue to operate SUV and pickup plants in Newark, Del., and Saltillo, Mexico, for about another week. The plants have continued running, in part because American Axle has moved work to a plant in Mexico, said Chrysler spokeswoman Michele Tinson.

Meanwhile, the National Labor Relations Board is investigating the UAW’s complaint that the company has withheld information during negotiations, said Stephen Glasser, director of the NLRB’s regional office in Detroit. The company has said it gave the union all required information.

___

(c) 2008, Detroit Free Press.

Visit the Freep, the World Wide Web site of the Detroit Free Press, at http://www.freep.com.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.