The burn barrel was cold and deck chairs overturned Tuesday morning where UAW picketers for a dozen weeks had struck the giant American Axle plant in Hamtramck.
In theory, picketers are still standing watch at the gates on Holbrook near I-75, but most workers were home or hanging out in morose clusters outside the United Auto Workers Local 235 office a stone’s throw from the plant in the shadow of a Kowalski sausage plant. They’re awaiting the outcome of voting on a contract offer most thinks stinks.
The big question for American Axle workers Tuesday was whether to vote yes or no on a contract laced with concessions to management. Some workers already have voted.
“Right now, the big bad wolf got us,” a worker said. “If you can’t beat it, you gotta join em.”
The worker, who like most wouldn’t give his name, called the contract a bad deal, but one he couldn’t afford to reject.
He predicted a majority of union members would approve the agreement. “If you vote it down, it’s still gonna pass.”
“We’re all in shock right now. We gotta eat their crumbs right now.”
But down the street, people were circulating fliers calling for rejection of the contract, which they called “economic terrorism”.
It’s not just the concessionary contract that troubled the workers on Holbrook Street. A dearth of other jobs and rising fuel and food prices have workers worried, too.
“You used to have twenty dollars in your pocket and you could say, ‘I can get through the rest of the week. You need fifty or sixty dollars now,” one worker said.
Adam, an American Axle worker from Howell, said he drives 120 miles back and forth between home and his job at the plant. The contract cuts his pay by $10 an hour, from $28 to $18. “At eighteen dollars an hour, with four-dollars-a-gallon gas, I work two hours a day just to pay for my gas.”
Adam and three buddies hanging out across from the burn barrel said they all had at least 10 years seniority and are eligible for a $140,000 buyout. The big question for them is whether to give up their jobs for a pile of money that could dwindle before they find other work.
People with less than 10 years on the job could take $85,000 buyouts, though some close to 10 years are bitter they aren’t getting the bigger sum.
Adam and his buddies Karl and Frank (none would give last names) said they don’t expect the big plant to be open when it’s time to bargain another contract in four years.
“It’s ugly,” Adam described workers’ mood. “They’re pissed.”
“There’s a lot of talk of leaving, but we’ll see,” said Karl. “There’s nothing out there” in the way of alternative jobs.
“That’s what people are looking at,” said Frank. “I’m 33 years old. I’ve got a wife and two kids. I’ve got to look at security for them. If you can get out, get out. But if you can’t, you end up going to the next contract, and we don’t know if this place will be around in four years.”
Still, the company is offering money to cover tuition for training in other fields. Something to think about, they agreed.
It’s clear, the men said, the plant’s forge unit will be closed. That work will be done in Mexico or more likely in a non-union facility in Ohio where pay ranges between $10-13 an hour but the company has much more control over the workplace.
“It’s cheaper — they don’t have to deal with the union,” said Frank.
Some of the fault lies with General Motors, which sold this plant and four others in 1994 allowing formation of American Axle. GM kept producing its highly profitable $50,000 SUVs even as gas prices climbed and the public began demanding vehicles with better fuel efficiency. Bad judgment, in hindsight.
“They’re fantastic vehicles, but you’re looking at eighty-five to a hundred ten dollar fillups,” said Frank.
At the UAW Local 235 office, former local president Wendy Thompson was handing out yellow fliers headlined, “Is This the Best We Can Do?”
According to the flier, “After striking for 12 weeks, Local 235 members are being asked to vote on a tentative agreement. Thirty GM plants are down, GM dealers are crying over the problems they are having — just last week the Detroit News cararied a story about how one dealer had to take an axle out of a brand new $58,000 vehicle in order to make a repair.”
The flier, which Thompson was handing out to anyone who stepped into the Local building Tuesday morning, continued: American Axle CEO “Dick Dauch is a good poker player, but he ‘s playing with lives not cards. He has threatened to take production to Mexico and China, but as much s he’d like to do that, he can’t. Axles are too big and subject to damage to truck from Mexico or ship from China!
“We have sacrificed over the last 12 weeks. Now that we have reduced GM’s inventory, let’s not stop putting the pressure on, but accelerate to preserve our wages and benefits! Let’s remember solidarity crosses the generations of workers — we have what others struggled for. We can only keep what we are willing to fight for, and pass it on to the next generation of workers. The solidarity we have deepened over the last three months on the picket lines makes us strong — let’s stay strong and reject Dauch’s economic terrorism.
“No, this tentative contract is not the best we can do. Send the negotiators back to the table! We demand justice and a decent livelihood!”
The flier is signed “Shifting gears, Newsletter by and for the UAW/AAM Rank and File.”
