United Auto Workers at Chrysler-Fiat recently rejected their union’s recommended new contract with the company 2-1. Listen to my Alternative Visions show of October 16 and interview with long time UAW activist leader, Gregg Shotwell, as he and I discuss the current state of contract negotiations and whether it portends a ‘turnaround’ of union collective bargaining in the US after decades of concessions and defeats. How the auto industry is indicative of the crisis of American unions and collective bargaining or a harbinger of things to come.
To listen to the hour long show, go to:
http://prn.fm/category/archives/alternative-visions/
or to:
http://alternativevisions.podbean.com
SHOW ANNOUNCEMENT
Jack Rasmus welcomes long time UAW auto worker rank and file activist, Gregg Shotwell, to discuss the current negotiations between UAW and Chrysler Fiat. Gregg explains why the first proposed contract was recently rejected 2 to 1 by Chrysler auto workers, and gives a ‘heads up’ on the issues remaining with the pending re-vote on a second proposal. Gregg explains the importance of the fight to end two tier second class worker citizenship in Auto, where 45% of the workers at Chrysler today are temp and receive half pay without retirement or health benefits. Key issues are discussed, including ending two tier pay rates, getting a raise for workers for the first time after 10 years without having had any, demands for overtime pay after 8 hr. work, ending alternative work scheduling, preventing management from passing costs of the coming ‘Cadillac’ health care tax (required by Obamacare) onto workers, and other issues in the first rejected contract which, despite the onerous terms, was recommended by UAE ‘concession caucus’ leaders. Gregg reveals how Chrysler was bought by Fiat without paying anything for it, paid for by US taxpayers, and how managers, salaried employees and stockholders have gotten big payoffs the past decade while workers have been frozen in pay and benefits, with a 24% wage cut since 2007, despite Chrysler sitting on a $4 billion cash hoard. The second contract proposal about to come up for another vote is described in part by Gregg. Both Jack and Gregg discuss the potential significance of the Chrysler contract for reversing trends that have devastated auto and other workers in the US for decades and decimated US unions and collective bargaining. As Shotwell sums up succinctly: US workers everywhere have been “working longer, harder and for less money”, not just in auto. Can Chrysler workers begin a ‘march back’ for US workers and US unions? Listen to the discussion by long time rank and filer, Shotwell, with decades and a lifetime of deep roots in the UAW and the industry.
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