UAW member Kenneth Mefford has a vivid memory of the 2015 contract negotiations. He almost walked off the assembly line onto a picket line.þþIt was one minute before midnight on the expiration date of the union's contract. Workers had heard nothing on whether a new tentative deal had been struck.þþÿEverything stopped. We all stopped working,ÿ said Mefford, who works at Fiat Chrysler Automobiles' Warren Truck Assembly plant in Warren. ÿWe were looking around at each other as to what do we do?ÿþþSo Mefford and his co-workers started walking off the job, he said. Then, in what he describes as ÿa scene in a movie,ÿ a team leader came running in the plant. She yelled: 'Don’t walk out! Don’t walk out! Don’t walk off the line! They got a tentative contract!' ÿþþÿThere was a minute to go,ÿ Mefford said. ÿThey had the signs printed and what the times were for us to report for a strike. They literally signed a deal a minute before we were ready to walk off.”þþMefford and other veteran UAW members suspect the rank-and-file will face acute anxiety again this year at 11:59 p.m. Saturday because if, by midnight, there's no tentative deal or an extension of the current one, workers could walk.þþÿThey’re going right up to the wire,ÿ said Harley Shaiken, professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who specializes in labor issues. ÿWhat truly focuses the mind on both sides of these talks is the possibility of a strike.ÿþþThe UAW workers who've gone through this process, including past strikes, say the experience is angst-riddled, yet powerful. þþThe UAW, which represents nearly 150,000 hourly workers at Ford Motor Co., General Motors and FCA, has chosen to negotiate a new contract first with GM. That deal will serve as a template for the UAW's later talks with the other two. In 2015, the UAW led with FCA. The union negotiates a new contract with the automakers every four years.þþIf the UAW leadership believes it must strike, members at all three companies have voted to authorize one. That doesn't mean the union will strike, but no one really knows until the 11th hour.þþÿAt one minute before midnight, if there's not something negotiated, the union will call for an extension or a work stoppage,ÿ said Tommy Wolikow, who works at GM's Flint Assembly plant. ÿI am definitely stressed out about it. The last thing anybody wants is a strike. But sometimes that's what needs to happen, and the membership is ready to do that.ÿþþTo prepare to live on the $250 weekly strike pay, Wolikow, 37, has been working as much overtime as he can and reducing any discretionary spending. He just sold his house near Lordstown, Ohio, where GM indefinitely idled its plant. Wolikow had worked at Lordstown for nearly 12 years.þþBesides Lordstown, GM plans to close three other U.S. plants: Detroit-Hamtramck and transmission plants in Warren and Baltimore. GM said those closures and cutting about 4,000 white-collar jobs will save it at least $2 billion this year. But the plant closures have embittered many UAW members.þþÿI want nothing more than to hear that Lordstown is getting a new product,ÿ said Wolikow. ÿI'd love to go home. My 11-year-old daughter lives in that area and I want to be close to her.ÿþþFCA's Mefford said he wants to avoid a strike too. At 57, Mefford has worked for FCA and its Chrysler predecessor for 26 years and said the idea of going on strike is ÿkind of scary. I’m thinking of buying a house and retirement so it’s kind of scary.ÿþþMefford makes about $31 an hour, he said, but his paycheck has fluctuated so he has not been able to save much. The strike wage would be a strain on him, he said.þþÿThe only thing saving me is I’m a Gulf War vet so I get a small pension,ÿ Mefford said.þþWorking class powerþþIf anyone knows the hardship and sacrifice that accompanies a strike it's the old-timers such as Gary Walkowicz and Claire McClinton.þþWalkowicz, 70, is a local union representative on the bargaining committee at Ford Dearborn truck plant. He has worked for Ford for 45 years. In 1976, he participated in a 28-day walkout.þþÿA strike is certainly a hardship for the workers,ÿ said Walkowicz. ÿIt’s difficult to make ends meet and pay your bills. It’s not a thing people should take lightly.ÿþþBut the unified act of fighting for better benefits, wages or job security can also be inspiring, Walkowicz said. þþÿOne thing that the workers feel is their collective strength and power when they do go on strike,ÿ said Walkowicz. ÿBy withholding our labor, we have some negotiating power over the companies.ÿþþThe issues at stake in 1976 are a blur to Walkowicz now and he's hard-pressed to say whether the strike was a victory for union members or not.þþÿI was very new at that time and I wasn’t aware of the issues, so it’s hard to look back and judge it,ÿ Walkowicz said. ÿBut I understand now what unions are all about and the power of the working class. Sometimes it’s necessary for the workers to strike.”þþMcClinton, also 70, said walking off the job to strike is one of her most compelling memories of her 30-year career at GM.þþIn June 1998, McClinton and about 9,000 UAW members at two parts plants in Flint walked out over what they believed were poor working conditions. This was part of local negotiations, not national contract talks, but these parts plants fed integral car components to other GM assembly plants. The 54-day strike at the two factories shut down all GM production and the carmaker's sales plummeted.þþ“It was very intense when we walked out, but it was very invigorating because the working conditions had gotten so poor in the plant that we were motivated to walk out when we did,ÿ said McClinton, who retired from GM's Flint Metal Center in 2009.þþEven though McClinton and her co-workers were mentally ready for a strike, they faced the uncertainty of not knowing how long it could last. McClinton said she squeaked by on the strike wage. But she remembers how many others struggled.þþÿIt was tough on a lot of families, but the union had organized where we did get strike pay and they were able to set up help for people who got behind on rents and work with the landlords,ÿ said McClinton. ÿSome of the banks were lenient on home payments because General Motors was a key employer in Flint. But in rare cases, people were confronted with foreclosures.”þþThe union held strong, she said, with a motto: ÿWe would last one day longer than General Motors.ÿþþMcClinton said the hardship of the strike was worth it. The working conditions improved and the UAW gained job security. But since she retired, she said UAW members have given up a lot of benefits to help the automakers during the Great Recession, including tying her retiree health care to a trust fund instead of the company.þþÿIt could be depleted and a lot of it is tied to the market, so the market could go down and the trust fund goes down. We’re at the mercy that the health care trust will last over our lifetime,ÿ McClinton said. ÿSo we’re really looking forward to some victories in these upcoming round of negotiations.ÿ
Source: www.freep.com
