Jeanne Whalen
Thu, August 31, 2023
Demonstrators during a United Auto Workers practice picket outside the Stellantis Mack Assembly Plant in Detroit on Aug. 23.
(Jeff Kowalsky/Bloomberg News)
TOLEDO, Ohio - Crystal Foutner earns $17.53 an hour assembling Jeep Wranglers on the night shift. Many of her colleagues doing the same earn nearly twice as much.
So when she finished work at 3:30 a.m. last week, she joined hundreds of her co-workers in a caravan to their union hall to support a vote taking them one step closer to striking. That vote, which passed with 97 percent support last week, gives leaders of the United Auto Workers permission to call a strike after workers' current contract expires on Sept. 14 - a development many in the industry say is increasingly likely.
One of the biggest changes most workers say they want is an end to a tiered employment system that puts newer workers on lower pay scales with worse benefits. So-called supplemental employees like Foutner, also known as SEs or temps, are on the lowest rung.
"I want all of us to be equal because you can't split full time and SE," Foutner said from the union hall's late-night parking lot, where hundreds of workers broke out drinks and charcoal grills to celebrate their vote. "We do exactly everything that full-timers do. We just don't get none of the benefits."
A UAW strike against one or all of the Big Three automakers - General Motors, Ford and Stellantis, the parent company of Jeep and Chrysler - would destabilize an industry that makes up about 3 percent of the nation's gross domestic product (GDP). UAW workers produce nearly half of the light vehicles manufactured in the United States, according to GlobalData.
Eliminating tiered employment is a top priority for the UAW's new president, Shawn Fain, who has also demanded a 40 percent pay hike over four years, regular cost-of-living adjustments to wages and more paid time off.
During an update to members on Facebook Live last week, Fain said temps were "living paycheck to paycheck, scraping to get by, while they're working seven days a week for 12 hours a day in some places with no commitment to the future."
Ending employment tiers has been a big focus of other unions lately, too. Last week, UPS workers and their union, the Teamsters, approved a new contract that contained significant wage increases for part-time employees and ended a tiered wage system that paid newer part-time employees less.
The Big Three automakers have said they are aiming to negotiate a fair contract but have cautioned that their U.S. labor costs are already higher than those of non-unionized rivals such as Tesla.
In an emailed statement, Stellantis said the Toledo factory, where Foutner builds Jeeps, has a larger temp workforce than its other factories "due to the plant's operating pattern that allows full-time employees to choose how many hours each week they want to work."
Supplemental employees allow the factory "to operate efficiently while providing full-time employees with this flexibility," the company said.
The tier structure was solidified in the 2007 contract that the union signed with the Big Three, when the auto industry was struggling on the eve of the Great Recession. Anyone hired after that contract was ratified became part of a "second tier" of full-time workers with lower wages and benefits. They lost company-financed health care in retirement, and instead of defined benefit pensions, they got 401(k) retirement accounts with a company contribution equaling 6.4 percent of workers' wages.
Temps are essentially on a worse, third tier. Automakers have long used them to keep labor costs down, particularly when they are meeting temporary surges of demand, but workers complain that they are left in temp status for too long.
In their 2019 contracts with the UAW, Ford and GM agreed to convert temps to permanent roles after two years. Stellantis agreed only to give temps preferential treatment when filling full-time jobs, leaving some workers in temp status for five years or more.
Ford says only 3 percent of its hourly employees are temps. GM says 5 percent to 10 percent of its UAW-represented manufacturing workers are temps, depending on the plant and time of year. Stellantis declined to give a percentage. All three companies say they have converted thousands of temps to permanent positions during the current four-year contract.
Many full-time UAW workers say eliminating tiers - and especially what they see as the poor treatment of temp workers - is the change they most want to see in the new contract.
"They work side by side with me, make half the money, get half the benefits, don't get any of the bonuses," said Phil Reiter, who makes $31.77 an hour after 10 years as a full-timer at the Toledo factory. "My belief is, this contract needs to finally be fair for everybody."
Benjamin Hinsey, who makes $29 an hour hauling parts around the factory, said tiers are the "biggest issue" for him because they erode worker solidarity. "If we didn't have that, we could fight for a lot of other things," he said. "It just creates a divide."
The temporary workers at the Jeep plant start at $15.78 an hour and max out at $19.28 after four years, when they stop qualifying for raises.
Foutner has been a temp for almost three years, working 10 hours a day, six days a week. Even with that 60-hour schedule, she says she still lives paycheck to paycheck.
"Everything went up. Rent went up. Groceries definitely went up," she said. The low starting wages are less than what some fast-food restaurants pay, she added. "Our cars start at $50,000 and we're making $15.78."
Temps also miss out on annual profit-sharing checks and other bonuses that full-time UAW workers earn. Over the past four years, amid high profits at the Big Three, those bonuses have amounted to tens of thousands of dollars per worker.
Jay Kania, who has been a temp at the Jeep factory for almost five years, figures he has missed about $100,000 in profit-sharing and raises over that time. "I've just been waiting and waiting and watching and waiting," he said after voting to support the strike authorization.
Long working hours and little paid time off are another frustration. Kania works a 10-hour night shift, often as much as six days a week. The mandatory 50- or 60-hour week leaves him little time to see his two children, he said. "The time away from them is horrible. Like, I have a 2-year-old that's in the prime of his life growing up, and I'm here 50, 60 hours a week."
Stellantis said temps get two paid days and one unpaid day off after 120 days of service, and one week of paid time off after one year.
The company added that it converts temps to full-time status when positions open up. But Stellantis's decision to shut down a plant in Belvidere, Ill., this year has made those conversions rarer. Full-timers from Belvidere must be offered jobs at other Stellantis factories, under the union contract, leaving fewer openings for the temps.
C'ne Bailey, who has been a temp for 4 1/2 years, said she's even had to train some of the full-timers coming from Belvidere. She has been moved around the plant so much that she knows many of the jobs, she said.
"I'm working 10 to 12 hours a day - how come I'm not getting bonuses? How come I'm not getting profit-sharing? I'm working more than the full-timers," she said. Sometimes, when her 5 p.m.-to-3:30 a.m. shift is wrapping up, managers walk around and tell the temps that they need to stay an extra two hours, for a 12-hour shift, Bailey said.
"When they call two hours over, the full-timers are leaving. They're not staying," Bailey said. "So then we're there from 5 in the evening to 5:30 in the morning. Forced. And my daughter's got to be on the bus at 7:15."
TOLEDO, Ohio - Crystal Foutner earns $17.53 an hour assembling Jeep Wranglers on the night shift. Many of her colleagues doing the same earn nearly twice as much.
So when she finished work at 3:30 a.m. last week, she joined hundreds of her co-workers in a caravan to their union hall to support a vote taking them one step closer to striking. That vote, which passed with 97 percent support last week, gives leaders of the United Auto Workers permission to call a strike after workers' current contract expires on Sept. 14 - a development many in the industry say is increasingly likely.
One of the biggest changes most workers say they want is an end to a tiered employment system that puts newer workers on lower pay scales with worse benefits. So-called supplemental employees like Foutner, also known as SEs or temps, are on the lowest rung.
"I want all of us to be equal because you can't split full time and SE," Foutner said from the union hall's late-night parking lot, where hundreds of workers broke out drinks and charcoal grills to celebrate their vote. "We do exactly everything that full-timers do. We just don't get none of the benefits."
A UAW strike against one or all of the Big Three automakers - General Motors, Ford and Stellantis, the parent company of Jeep and Chrysler - would destabilize an industry that makes up about 3 percent of the nation's gross domestic product (GDP). UAW workers produce nearly half of the light vehicles manufactured in the United States, according to GlobalData.
Eliminating tiered employment is a top priority for the UAW's new president, Shawn Fain, who has also demanded a 40 percent pay hike over four years, regular cost-of-living adjustments to wages and more paid time off.
During an update to members on Facebook Live last week, Fain said temps were "living paycheck to paycheck, scraping to get by, while they're working seven days a week for 12 hours a day in some places with no commitment to the future."
Ending employment tiers has been a big focus of other unions lately, too. Last week, UPS workers and their union, the Teamsters, approved a new contract that contained significant wage increases for part-time employees and ended a tiered wage system that paid newer part-time employees less.
The Big Three automakers have said they are aiming to negotiate a fair contract but have cautioned that their U.S. labor costs are already higher than those of non-unionized rivals such as Tesla.
In an emailed statement, Stellantis said the Toledo factory, where Foutner builds Jeeps, has a larger temp workforce than its other factories "due to the plant's operating pattern that allows full-time employees to choose how many hours each week they want to work."
Supplemental employees allow the factory "to operate efficiently while providing full-time employees with this flexibility," the company said.
The tier structure was solidified in the 2007 contract that the union signed with the Big Three, when the auto industry was struggling on the eve of the Great Recession. Anyone hired after that contract was ratified became part of a "second tier" of full-time workers with lower wages and benefits. They lost company-financed health care in retirement, and instead of defined benefit pensions, they got 401(k) retirement accounts with a company contribution equaling 6.4 percent of workers' wages.
Temps are essentially on a worse, third tier. Automakers have long used them to keep labor costs down, particularly when they are meeting temporary surges of demand, but workers complain that they are left in temp status for too long.
In their 2019 contracts with the UAW, Ford and GM agreed to convert temps to permanent roles after two years. Stellantis agreed only to give temps preferential treatment when filling full-time jobs, leaving some workers in temp status for five years or more.
Ford says only 3 percent of its hourly employees are temps. GM says 5 percent to 10 percent of its UAW-represented manufacturing workers are temps, depending on the plant and time of year. Stellantis declined to give a percentage. All three companies say they have converted thousands of temps to permanent positions during the current four-year contract.
Many full-time UAW workers say eliminating tiers - and especially what they see as the poor treatment of temp workers - is the change they most want to see in the new contract.
"They work side by side with me, make half the money, get half the benefits, don't get any of the bonuses," said Phil Reiter, who makes $31.77 an hour after 10 years as a full-timer at the Toledo factory. "My belief is, this contract needs to finally be fair for everybody."
Benjamin Hinsey, who makes $29 an hour hauling parts around the factory, said tiers are the "biggest issue" for him because they erode worker solidarity. "If we didn't have that, we could fight for a lot of other things," he said. "It just creates a divide."
The temporary workers at the Jeep plant start at $15.78 an hour and max out at $19.28 after four years, when they stop qualifying for raises.
Foutner has been a temp for almost three years, working 10 hours a day, six days a week. Even with that 60-hour schedule, she says she still lives paycheck to paycheck.
"Everything went up. Rent went up. Groceries definitely went up," she said. The low starting wages are less than what some fast-food restaurants pay, she added. "Our cars start at $50,000 and we're making $15.78."
Temps also miss out on annual profit-sharing checks and other bonuses that full-time UAW workers earn. Over the past four years, amid high profits at the Big Three, those bonuses have amounted to tens of thousands of dollars per worker.
Jay Kania, who has been a temp at the Jeep factory for almost five years, figures he has missed about $100,000 in profit-sharing and raises over that time. "I've just been waiting and waiting and watching and waiting," he said after voting to support the strike authorization.
Long working hours and little paid time off are another frustration. Kania works a 10-hour night shift, often as much as six days a week. The mandatory 50- or 60-hour week leaves him little time to see his two children, he said. "The time away from them is horrible. Like, I have a 2-year-old that's in the prime of his life growing up, and I'm here 50, 60 hours a week."
Stellantis said temps get two paid days and one unpaid day off after 120 days of service, and one week of paid time off after one year.
The company added that it converts temps to full-time status when positions open up. But Stellantis's decision to shut down a plant in Belvidere, Ill., this year has made those conversions rarer. Full-timers from Belvidere must be offered jobs at other Stellantis factories, under the union contract, leaving fewer openings for the temps.
C'ne Bailey, who has been a temp for 4 1/2 years, said she's even had to train some of the full-timers coming from Belvidere. She has been moved around the plant so much that she knows many of the jobs, she said.
"I'm working 10 to 12 hours a day - how come I'm not getting bonuses? How come I'm not getting profit-sharing? I'm working more than the full-timers," she said. Sometimes, when her 5 p.m.-to-3:30 a.m. shift is wrapping up, managers walk around and tell the temps that they need to stay an extra two hours, for a 12-hour shift, Bailey said.
"When they call two hours over, the full-timers are leaving. They're not staying," Bailey said. "So then we're there from 5 in the evening to 5:30 in the morning. Forced. And my daughter's got to be on the bus at 7:15."
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