Autoworker Caravan Demonstration at the Detroit Autoshow
by Dianne Feeley
Autoworker
Caravan held two demonstrations outside of the 2013 North American Auto Show.
The opening of the annual auto show attracts national and international press
as well as media from the Detroit area. We have demonstrated for several years
as the press comes into town in order to tell the story of how workers are
faring under the supposedly revitalized industry. This year we focused on how
working conditions continue to deteriorate as the difference in wages and
benefits between workers creates disunity among workers and extra profits for
the 1%. Stiff absentee policies and the expansions of alternative work
schedules create an ever more repressive work environment.
Solidarity Fundraiser for Injured Columbian Autoworkers
"Salsa Night" Solidarity Fundraiser
for JORGE
PARRA* & GM auto workers and their families fighting for justice in Colombia
* President, Assoc. of
Injured Workers & Ex-Workers of GM Colmotores
Chrysler Chief, Marchionne, Labeled a “Union Buster” in Italy
by George Windau
While “CBS 60 Minutes” suggests that Sergio Merchionne of
FIAT was some kind of genius for saving Chrysler in the USA, in Italy workers
consider Marchonne a “union buster.” I say this based upon an interview with
Adriano Alessandria, a member of the Federation of Italian Metal and Office
Workers (FIOM). I conducted the interview with the help of Stella Pavnosetti,
in interpreter, on May 20, 2012 while I was at an autoworkers conference in
Munich, Germany.
The 3-2-120 monster
Martha Grevatt describes Chrysler's 3-2-120 process what it means operationally from the perspective of a given worker.
by Martha Grevatt
The 3-2-120 is one of three “Flexible Operating Patterns”(FOPs) in the Chrysler contract. Ford and GM contracts have their own non-traditional work patterns with their own names, but they are fairly similar. The 3-2-120 FOP means three crews, two shifts, 120 hours. It is a scheme to lower the cost of a 120 hour work week. Under a traditional two-shift schedule, to get 120 hours of labor would require each of the two shifts to work 60 hours per week in some combination of hours. It could be six 10-hour days, five 12-hour days, five 11-hour days and five hours on Saturday, or whatever. However the company works it, under the current language (and law) requiring time and ½ after 40 hours in a workweek, the last 20 hours on each shift would be time and ½.
Free Legal Clinic for People Facing Foreclosure - UAW Local 160
If you need help keeping your house or know someone else facing possible foreclosure, here's a group that can help.
UAW Local 160's Civil and Human Rights Committee in partnership with other UAW locals, Southeast Michigan Jobs with Justice and Moratorium Now! are offering a free legal clinic and a group discussion about how to fight foreclosures.
UAW Local 160's Civil and Human Rights Committee in partnership with other UAW locals, Southeast Michigan Jobs with Justice and Moratorium Now! are offering a free legal clinic and a group discussion about how to fight foreclosures.
Where: UAW Local 160 at 28504 Lorna, Warren, MI 48092. (near E. 12 Mile and Van Dyke Roads). http://goo.gl/maps/Gkaeh
When: Saturday October 6, 2012.
Time: Informative speakers from 10:00 am to 12:00 pm and a free legal clinic from 12:00 pm to 2:00 pm or later.
Ex-GM Colombia Workers Lift Hunger Strike
Dear Friends,
Thank you to all the people who have supported our struggle and who have shown it to us through your actions of help and solidarity. We respectfully wish to inform you that we have made the decision to lift our hunger strike as a show of our commitment to a definitive solution to our demands, and to demonstrate our will to talk and our hope for a prompt, just and final mediation.
Thank you to all the people who have supported our struggle and who have shown it to us through your actions of help and solidarity. We respectfully wish to inform you that we have made the decision to lift our hunger strike as a show of our commitment to a definitive solution to our demands, and to demonstrate our will to talk and our hope for a prompt, just and final mediation.
Chrysler Trades Appeal Update
by Martha Grevatt & Frank Hammer
Adding Insult to Injury
The UAW International Executive Board has stalled for over ten months without replying to an international appeal filed last November by Chrysler skilled trades members. The appellants-George Windau (Local 12), Alex Wassell and Martha Grevatt (both Local 869), and over 300 co-signers - charged that the IEB violated their seperate ratification rights defined in the UAW Constitution. These rights guarantee that ratification by production (the majority), doesn't impose bad skilled trades agreements on skilled trades (the minority). The majority of Chrysler tadespeople voted down the national agreement in October, but less than 24 hours after the final ballot was cast the IEB declared the entire contract ratitified.
An Open Letter to President Bob King
Brother King,
We, the undersigned UAW members and retirees, are writing to urge you to lend the immediate and full support of our union on behalf of fired GM autoworkers currently engaged in a hunger strike at the site of the U.S. embassy in Bogota, Colombia.
No "equality" -we make the sacrifice!
by Scott Houldieson
Did You Really Expect It Back Without A Fight?
When you give away the farm do you think the one you gave it to will just hand it back? Sorry, but that’s not the way corporate greed works.
When the time comes, let’s not forget this.
by Gary Walkowicz
It’s outrageous that the arbitrator could rule against us in the Equity of Sacrifice grievance.In the February, 2009 contract modifications, the highlights talked about Equity of Sacrifice and referred to sacrifices by all Ford stakeholders “including executives, directors, management and salaried personnel”.
Greetings from UAW Local 3000
by Jeff “Spike” Brown
I work at AUTOALLIANCE PLANT (AAI) in Flat Rock, Michigan. AAI opened in 1987 as the Mazda plant. We are a joint venture between Ford Motor Company and Mazda. This will be coming to an end this August as Mazda will move production of the Mazda 6 back to Japan. Once they have, the plant will be renamed Flat Rock Assembly and re-tooled to make the Ford Fusion along with the Ford Mustang, which we have been producing since 2004.
Colombian GM workers demand justice
Those of us who recently attended the Labor Notes conference
in Chicago met Jorge Parra, a GM worker from Columbia and president of
ASOTRECOL, was in the United States to publicize the situation at their plant.
You can find/friend them on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/groups/116719295080402/,
contact them by email at asotrecol@hotmail.com,
or contact Parra directly at jjorgeaalberto@hotmail.com.
We are reprinting an article by Jessica Hayssen, who was in Columbia last fall
on a Witness for Peace delegation. – The Editors
You know it is a bad contract...
by Alex Wassell
When a flyer by the “Local 869 Leadership” includes the punch line but we did not lose anything else. Yes, your membership dues paid union representatives were out in force beating the bushes and trying to sell this dog of a deal to the good folks on the shop floor.
Does Bob King have a Political Agenda?
by Nick Waun
On Friday, President Obama along with the South Korean President Lee Myung-bak visited GM’s Lake Orion Assembly. They announced the signing of the Korean-U.S. Free Trade Agreement, also known as (K.O.R.U.S). UAW President Bob King attended and openly endorsed the deal in a commentary letter to the Detroit Free Press.Shared Sacrifice Requires Shared Gain As Well
by Scott Houldieson
Brothers and sisters, we have a tentative agreement between Ford Motor Company and the International UAW. Look it over carefully. Does it meet your expectations? Does it meet your needs? What are the tradeoffs?
I laid out my expectations in a letter to you last month. I also made sure that your International Union Leadership understood the importance of those expectations to the membership. Virtually none of those expectations were met.
