The Real Highlights of the UAW/GM Tentative Agreement

Certain details of the tentative agreement between the UAW and GM are starting to come out and it appears that the corporate media butchered the job yet again!

The Detroit News printed that workers would “give up” cost of living adjustments; WRONG. The formula for cost of living will remain UNCHANGED.

The Detroit News also printed that 4,100 temporary workers would be made permanent at a lower rate of pay; WRONG. Besides the fact that the Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press couldn’t decide whether the number of temp’s was 4,100 (News) or 4,000 (Free Press) the real number is 3,000 and they will not be made permanent employees at the lower rate of pay. According to the UAW highlighter “temporary workers who were on the rolls prior to the effective date, and are subsequently converted to permanent status, are not considered entry-level employees and will receive traditional wages.”

Both of them got it wrong yet again on the wages as well. The Free Press uses the WILDLY out of line figure of $73 per hour for current workers and $27 per hour for second tier pay. The News uses the figures of between $12 to $15 an hour. Both are… wait for it… WRONG! Again. The UAW highlighter shows the new rates of pay being $14 an hour to $16.23.

The coverage from the corporate media misses on many, many more marks but in my opinion one of the most egregious omissions was the details of the guarantees towards job security. GM has agreed to a “TOTAL MORATORIUM ON OUTSOURCING”! Unbelievable! They have also agreed to “insource more than 3,000 UAW jobs”. The highlighter also features a list of “product commitments at GM facilities” that feature both the Lansing Delta Township Plant and the Lansing Grand River Plant. The Delta Plant has a commitment through 2011 with its current product and then GM has given a commitment for a new product one starting in 2011 and another in 2012. Lansing Grand River has similar commitments with new products in 2009 and 2011.

I will continue to go over the details of the highlighter and will probably write on this topic further after attending the informational meetings that are being put on by the union.

I never realized just how bad the corporate media’s coverage was until I started working at GM. From the ridiculous figure of $73 an hour to the details of the contract that had just about the entire plant talking about how bad the details of the contract looked. I am thankful that upon looking over the actual details things seem to be much better and the membership will no doubt have a much easier time digesting the new agreement.

Walking the Line

Just got back from a long day at the union hall and on the picket line. The hall was alive with constant traffic of union members signing up for picket duty and just to fellowship with their brothers and sisters. The picket line was energetic and thick with volunteers all day long. It is great to see the outpouring of support that we are receiving from the community; from people whom aren’t even union members stopping by to wish us well to business donating both food and water for the picketers.

THANK YOU LANSING!!

There has been some interest in joining the picket line as a sign of solidarity for striking workers; I spoke with an international rep. tonight on the picket line and he said “anyone who stands with labor is welcome on our picket line!” Retirees, community members, family members will all have to check in with the strike captains upon arrival but are welcome to join the picket line and support your friends, family and neighbors. Here are directions and addresses for the plant and my local union hall. (The plant is the Davis Hwy address and the hall the Michigan Ave address)

A quick story before I go pass out from exhaustion.

In early 2006 some of the leadership at UAW local 602 (my local) was made aware of an ongoing strike at a small shop in Grass Lake, MI. UAW local 660 had been on strike for months over the company’s refusal to fulfill its obligations to retirees regarding health care. For a small unit like 660 it was hard to get any media attention or even support from the community. Several of my local leaders took it upon themselves to start driving themselves and carloads of volunteers an hour each way to walk the picket line in solidarity for our fellow UAW brothers and sisters. The gratitude that this small group of people showed was unbelievable! I will never forget watching one of the retirees weeping openly while giving out hugs to the strangers that showed up to lend a hand. I will remember that feeling until the day I die!
Tonight, as I was walking the picket line I overheard someone say, “hey, that guy drove all the way from Grass Lake!” A smile came over my face and I immediately got teary eyed knowing that local 660 was in Lansing to show their solidarity to local 602. I greeted the brother and his young son, whom I had walked the picket line with before, and had a little extra yell in my voice and a little more bounce in my step the rest of the night. You can read more about UAW local 660 here.

I hope to see some of you walking the line.

UAW Sets Deadline

The deadline has been set.

11 a.m. Monday Sept. 24th. After 20 straight days of negotiations, the United Auto Workers union said it would strike General Motors Corp. Monday morning if a new contract agreement isn't reached, citing the automaker's failure to address job security and other concerns according to an article in the Detroit News.

According to a source I happen to trust (the UAW):

“The company’s disregard for our members has forced our bargaining committee to take this course of action,” said UAW VP Cal Rapson. “Unless UAW members hear otherwise between now and the deadline, we will be on a national strike against GM at 11 a.m. EDT on Monday, Sept. 24th.”

Here is the entire release.

Obviously thousands across Michigan and the country will wait anxiously for news and hope that an agreement can be made. I am well aware that many outside the ranks of the UAW stand with us in solidarity and your support is very much appreciated!

Update regarding Michigan Liberal

After receiving responses from some of the people at Michigan Liberal I have heard the reasoning behind allowing an anti-union ad to be part of their site. Simply put; I don’t agree with the reasoning. Reasonable minds can have a legitimate difference of opinion.

Rather than slam a site that has and will continue to be a source for left wing causes for years to come I thought the far more constructive thing to do is highlight something positive that came from this episode.

In the comments section of my brief explanation of why the Michigan Liberal link was removed you might have noticed that Christine Barry, from both christinebarry.com and Blogging for Michigan, left a comment stating that she:

“will never run an anti-labor ad, or any other conservative ad” and then added “the 3 member board of BFM has unanimously agreed that bloggingformichigan.com would not run that "New Union Label" ad … We stand united with labor as they work through these difficult negotiations, in this challenging economy.”

When you go to Blogging for Michigan, and you should, you will immediatley notice at the top of the front page is a UAW wheel as big as the sites logo! The caption reads “we are with you”. That kind of solidarity from a group of people who aren’t even unioin members is moving! THANK YOU BLOGGING FOR MICHIGAN!! As you can see you are now at the top of the link list!

The Michigan Liberal link will NOT be restored as long as there is and ad promoting an anti-union agenda on their site.

Regarding Michigan Liberal

Some of you may have noticed that the link to Michigan Liberal has been removed. Michigan Liberal has chosen to accept $50 to run an ad by a viciously anti-union organization. I will not go into the thought process behind the decision because to me there is no excuse for these actions especially at such an important time for the UAW and its members.

I am awaiting a response from one of the people who run the blog regarding the ad. In the past I have supported and praised the blog for their work and union friendly contributions from many of the bloggers; that is why I have chosen not to “flamethrow” or attack them regarding this issue. I am deeply disappointed by their decision and it saddens me to see this blog take these actions. I hope to receive a response soon and will hopefully be able to restore the link.

Who's Got Our Back?

With contract negotiations still going on and work continuing across the country in many UAW represented factories via hour to hour contract extensions thousands of American workers got a slap to the face from our own federal government.

The Dept. of Health and Human Services (HHS) released a memo last month encouraging federal employees to buy foreign vehicles. The letter listed 12 vehicles and then included the line: “When shopping for vehicles, consider these models.” Of the listed vehicles NONE were from an American automaker! Here is the memo.

The fates of hundreds of thousands of American jobs hang in the balance and our federal government is giving foreign competitors a free ad on the federal dime; thanks a lot! So I started looking over one of the links provided in the letter from the HHS and found that one of the lists not mentioned (subcompact) features 8 American nameplates out of the top 12, curiously leaving out a class (subcompact) that you would believe worth mentioning in any legitimate discussion of fuel efficiency and shopping for fuel efficient cars.

At least our Michigan House of Rep. delegation got their two cents in! a response from a group representing foreign dealerships was disturbing!

Over at the American International Automobile Dealers Association, which
represents overseas nameplate vehicle franchises in the U.S., an official said
politicians and labor leaders are the only people who care what the name brand
on a car is.

I hope they are wrong!

Still Waiting

Sometimes it seems like the rumors don’t stop. As the third day without a contract begins many of my co-workers crowd me and quietly ask “what’s the latest?” I wish I knew.

Friday night was a mix of sitting by the phone and watching local news for information, even the baby seemed tense. Three days later tidbits from many sources are painting a patchwork of optimism for UAW members. The corporate media has various reports about negotiations going well and continuing along and it seems there is a general consensus that we have a tentative agreement by Monday morning. That would be great! The days are long and anxious when you are waiting to here whether or not you are going on strike. I hope that there won’t be a strike but in the event that a strike happens I know many of my fellow bloggers would support the 73,000 (nation-wide active GM employees) workers on strike with well wishes and maybe even a little picket line walking!

Locally our unions are getting a lot of press over the contract talks. This Free Press story features a quote from UAW local 652 president “tiny” Sherwood and this story from the AP features my local president Doug Rademacher. These stories speak of a bigger picture but the quotes from both of these local presidents should tell you that these negotiations affect thousands of people in and around Lansing.

Don't Follow the Leader

October 1st is the deadline for the state legislature to finish the budget to avoid possible shutdown of state governmental agencies. In case you haven’t heard the state senates’ clueless majority leader Mike Bishop (R-Nice Hair!) decided that he needed to cut short the negotiations so he could make his tee time! I am not kidding; check out Liberal Lucy’s take on Bishop. Many have been critical of Speaker Dillon for appearing to side with Bishop over the Governor, from the quote here it appears that Bishop had made some sort of deal with both the Governor and the Speaker that included the increased revenues the state so desperately needs. But true to form the Republican put party interest (golf outing fund raiser) before the state of Michigan.

Bishop is only emulating what he sees from party leadership. Saul Anuzis has become such an obvious shill for the concerns of the national party that he has completely lost sight of what is important for his state. The Republican Party chair puts out a daily e-mail to party members and activists that fall in line with the Grover Norquist mantra of “drown the government in the bathtub” or cut taxes for the rich and let the poor, old and young die. Anuzis’ own party has become annoyed with his rhetoric;

A GOP legislative staffer, who asked to remain anonymous, said Republican
lawmakers frequently grumble behind closed doors that they realize they'll
eventually have to vote for a tax hike and that Anuzis' diatribes are making
their jobs tougher and a resolution more elusive.

Rep. Lorence Wenke, a Republican, has become so annoyed with Anuzis dictating policy to legislators that he was quoted as saying this:

"It's a gray area at best, but it's indicative of the partisanship that exists
in Lansing that keeps us from getting work done in a statesman-like manner, Is
Saul Anuzis breaking some new ground here? It seems he is setting the new low
standard."

More Republican lawmakers weighed in:

One Republican lawmaker, who asked not to be named because of concerns about
crossing swords with party leaders, said: "The last thing we need is somebody
who is not an elected official publicly hammering on us. He's not the one who
has to put his name on the line and vote for or against this. I've never seen
this before, and I've been in the party a lot of years, where a party chair is
dictating policy. It's inappropriate and a growing number of us are sick and
tired of it."

Even more surprising is that these quotes came out of an article in the right-wing rag the Detroit News; read the full article, complete with more trashing of Anuzis, here.

Finally I have had mixed feelings about some of Jack Lessenberry essays but I think he nailed this one on the head.

The Little Drummer Boy

Mike Rogers continues his rubber stamp of the Bush administration by beating war drums towards Iran.

Rogers has sunk to a new low with his fear-mongering to appease the president and carry his message to the people of this state. In an op-ed for the Detroit Free Press Rogers calls the intelligence community out for delivering only parts of the picture regarding Iran. It is my belief that what Rogers is really doing is taking a shot at them for not giving him what both he and the Bush administration want, a reason to go to war with Iran.

Most Americans will never forget the picture the Bush administration painted about Iraq pre-invasion, using only intelligence that fit their purpose. Rogers was right alongside the administration fanning the flames of fear, cherry picking intelligence and helping the administration convince Americans to go to war. I wonder what makes him believe that he has any credibility left to be the one casting stones. Certainly Rogers had the opportunity to use intelligence, which now we know existed then, to refute the false claims of the Bush administration. It seems disingenuous to now be claiming that the intelligence community hasn’t done their job when Rogers helped lead the charge to war with an abundance of information pointing to exactly what would happen in Iraq and the non-existence of WMD’s, which he chose to ignore.

I remember being shocked when in late 2005 I received a response to a letter I had sent to Rogers’s office. I was not only shocked that Rogers responded but I was floored when I read Rogers detailing how he believed that the U.S. had found the “weapons of mass destruction” that the Bush administration, along with complicit lapdogs like Rogers, had long stirred fear into the American public with. To me this is just another sad chapter in Rogers’ pitiful legislative career, he will no doubt be remembered as a partisan hack and Bush apologist.

Smithfield

For a proud son of a long-time member of the UFCW this situation is quite irritating. I thought it deserved the attention of some labor friends back home.

As discussed recently in the Raleigh News & Observer, the workers at a Smithfield meat packing plant here in North Carolina have been attempting to unionize for over a decade. The company has been successful up to this point in defeating the efforts of labor to organize. This article will shed a bit more light on the situation, http://www.newsobserver.com/print/thursday/business/story/686814.html

North Carolina is consistently ranked among the bottom of states in union activity. A group down here is running TV ads critical of the UFCW and the efforts workers have undertaken to fight for decent pay and benefits. It's time people who do the work Upton Sinclair exposed a century ago got some decent protections. For more info about the conditions at the Tar Heel, North Carolina plant, check out this site: http://www.ufcw.org/working_america/case_against_smithfield/case_against_smthfld.cfm

On this Labor Day let's remember the people who fought for the dignity of work. The wealthy will always be able to find the sycophants (see Michigan's 8th District Representative) necessary to take their money and give them what they want. Good and decent people, let the Smithfield workers know you support them. http://www.smithfieldjustice.com/ will show you what you can do.

Labor Day: A Look Back.

Another Labor day is upon us and I thought it would be appropriate to reflect on what significance this day has to me. No doubt there will be many an article discussing the birth of the UAW and the historic sit down strike in Flint, an event that needs to be discussed more by the corporate controlled media! I, however, would like to go back further and look at what started the labor movement and the conditions from which it rose.

The labor movement in this country can be traced all the way back to the birth of the United States, but it gained real momentum in the late 1800’s with the growth of railroads and the start of industrialization.

In 1867 the organization called the Grange was formed to protect the interests of farmers. In 1866 the National Labor Union (NLU) was formed; at their peak they had 600,000 members from various craft unions. One of the more famous themes of the NLU was an 8 hr. work day. The Knights of Labor were formed in 1869 and they were one of the only labor organizations to survive an economic downturn in 1873. The Knights of Labor were by far the most inclusive of these early labor organizations they allowed in their ranks men and women, black and white, farmers and factory workers, the self-employed and the wage earners.

In the presidential election of 1876 there was a dispute over the election returns. The Democrat (Samuel Tilden) won the popular vote but neither candidate had the electoral votes to win the election because the vote totals in three states were in question. Yes Florida’s vote totals were being questioned, shocking! Congress formed a fifteen member committee and the committee voted along party lines, eight to seven, for the Republican (Rutherford Hayes). Who would have thought such a thing could ever happen!

In may of 1886 things took a dramatic turn for the Knights of Labor when during a protest of the murder of 2 strikers in Chicago’s Haymarket Square a bomb went off killing a police officer and wounding 7 others (who later died). The identity of the bomber was never made but 8 immigrants were tried and convicted for the crime even though many of them weren’t even at the rally. 3 were hanged and 1 “committed suicide” in his cell, the other were all pardoned years later. The impression that was left for most of America was that the labor movement was full of bomb wielding radicals and the once mighty Knights of Labor’s numbers fell rapidly.

Eight years later the American Railway Union (ARU), inspired by Eugene V. Debs, struck the Pullman Palace Car Co. the company literally owned the town where its workers lived, the stores where employees shopped and had just cut all workers wages by one third without adjusting rent for company housing or prices at company stores. The strike of the ARU’s 150,000 members crippled the railway system of the entire country. A former attorney for the railway who had been appointed U.S. Attorney General lobbied then President Cleveland on the company’s behalf; before long Cleveland issued an injunction that forced workers to return to work. The reasoning behind the injunction was the strike interfered with the postal service. This was the first time the federal government had stepped in on behalf of corporate America against working class America and it was the start of a frightening trend. Eugene Debs and many of the ARU leaders were ordered to return to work; refusing many of them were jailed and many of the workers were fired.

The combination of the Haymarket bombing, the fall of the Knights of Labor and the horrible outcome of the Pullman strike was a huge blow to labor. These hard times were only made worse when the Supreme court ruled in favor of big business over small farmers and workers in both U.S. vs. E.C. Knight and Pollock vs. Farmers Loan and Trust Co. the mood of the country was shifting and many were standing and taking notice that all branches of the federal government were stacked with pro-business appointments and were clearly favoring the wealthy with legislation and actions.

The subsequent years brought bitter losses to the labor movement and things got much worse for working people across the country. Social Darwinism, the Triangle Shirtwaist Company fire and the conditions highlighted in the book the Jungle by Upton Sinclair are only a small list of the problems that labor and the country dealt with before its great uprising decades later.

Obviously there are many chapters in the story of organized labor that I am missing. I have picked these particular stories to emphasize a point. The sections that have been italicized should sound strangely familiar to you. It seems that history is repeating itself, but there were silver linings to these stories.

Eugene V. Debs would go on to run for president 4 times (once he got nearly a million votes from his jail cell). He ended up being a labor activist that was second to none.

The Haymarket bombing saw Albert Parsons tried and hanged. His wife Lucia Parsons remained active and became a founding member of I.W.W.

The two Supreme Court decisions were a part of the reason the populist movement started and subsequently was usurped by the Democratic party.

All in all we will read many pieces on Labor Day in which organized labor will be eulogized. It would be wise to remember the conditions from which labor rose and endured to become what it is today. We would also be wise to remember the words of Victor Reuther:

“Often, when the younger generation in the union wants to learn about the 30’s,
they’re always left with the impression that all the exciting and great battles
are behind us. But it will be said of you that you performed an equally historic
function, in helping the membership reclaim its great union.”

Happy Labor Day! In Solidarity Farleftfield.