It’s been nearly three months since the 2019 National Agreement between the UAW and General Motors was ratified by the membership, and yet, numerous Locals at the company are still without updated Local contracts. Many Locals at Ford and FCA find themselves in similar situations as well.
At some of these Locals, such as Local 246 (GM Arlington Assembly), Local 863 (Ford Sharonville Transmission), and Local 1250 (Ford Engine Plant 1 in Ohio), agreements with their respective companies haven’t been reached for years.
“Local agreements are where you get into the details of things like Alternative Work Schedules (AWS), and small gains within the plant,” one UAW worker from Local 1250 told us. “These contracts also affect the way overtime is scheduled and changed at each Local. AWS are all negotiated and agreed to at the Local level.”
Arlington Assembly worked through the entire 2015 contract without an updated Local agreement despite the fact that they should have had considerable leverage given how lucrative of a plant they have been for the company. However, without the backing of the International UAW, General Motors felt no need to come to an agreement that was fair for the workers.
Former Local 246 Shop Chairman John Cox stated that leading up to the 2015 negotiations, International Representatives informed him they would be using Arlington as a potential strike target against General Motors. However, Cox said that as soon as a National Agreement with the corporation was reached, “they (International Reps) jumped on a plane back to Detroit” without helping secure a Local contract for the membership.
Cox stated that he asked his Regional Director at the time for a strike letter in December of 2015, but was denied. His Regional Director at the time? Gary Jones.
Many Locals have what are called “living agreements,” in which the contract can be reopened at any time if both the company and UAW officers are willing to do so. Aspects of the contract can then be modified — without the approval of the membership at those particular Locals.
The membership is the highest authority in our union (as stated in the UAW Constitution), and thus, the membership should have a vote on any potential changes that would be made to their respective agreements.
The fact that our International leadership is not doing everything in their power to help Locals reach agreements with the corporations before National Agreements are reached undermines the union principle of “an injury to one is an injury to all.”
What incentive does any of the Detroit Three have to come to an agreement with individual Locals without the backing of the International — unless those Local agreements are highly favorable to the companies? Without the support of the IUAW, the corporations are able to whipsaw the most vulnerable plants against one another in the hopes of securing future product.
The reality being that even the Local that “wins” the product allocation actually loses in the end via concessions, job cuts, speed-up, etc. In addition, the companies will then attempt to impose these concessions upon other Locals within the union in a never-ending process of continual concessions.
This practice by the IUAW of leaving Locals on an island by themselves to negotiate with multi-billion dollar, transnational corporations actually violates the UAW Constitution.
Article 19, Section 6 states that, “the International Executive Board shall protect all Local Unions who have succeeded in establishing higher wages and favorable conditions and have superior agreements, so that no infringement by Local Unions with inferior agreements in workplaces doing similar work may be committed against the Local Union with advanced agreements.
This particular article within our Constitution was adopted specifically to stop whipsawing, yet our International leadership appears to be content letting it continue to happen.
Every UAW auto worker should be asking “Why?”
Note: At the time of this newsletter’s publication, the following UAW Locals had not come to contract agreements with Ford ,FCA, or GM at the Local level. There are likely more Locals without newly negotiated contracts. These are the Locals that we could confirm.
Local 7, Local 12, Local 14, Local 22, Local 31, Local 160, Local 163, Local 167, Local 174, Local 211, Local 228, Local 276, Local 292, Local 431, Local 440, Local 509, Local 551, Local 598, Local 600, Local 602, Local 651, Local 652, Local 653, Local 659, Local 685, Local 686, Local 710, Local 723, Local 774, Local 862, Local 863, Local 869, Local 900, Local 901, Local 977, Local 997, Local 1005, Local 1166, Local 1248, Local 1250, Local 1264, Local 1268, Local 1435, Local 1700, Local 2005, Local 2114, Local 2162, Local 2164, Local 2209, Local 2250, Local 2402, Local 2406, Local 3000, Local 5960, Local 6645