Workers at Indiana FCA Complex Authorize Strike

Employees at the FCA US manufacturing complex in Kokomo, IN, approve a strike even as the automaker goes through a major transition after the sudden departure of CEO Sergio Marchionne.

UAW Local 685, which represents 3,000 workers at five separate Kokomo plants that build virtually all the transmissions used in FCA vehicles built in North America, authorize the strike after bargainers reached what amounted to an impasse over a number of health and safety issues across the complex. Under the 2015 contract, local health and safety concerns are the only permissible grounds for a strike.

The company already has agreed to sit down and discuss the issues with the union, FCA spokeswoman Jodi Tinson says in an email. “We are meeting to address their concerns,” she says.

While a strike seems unlikely at this point, the concerns appear to reach beyond health and safety grievances that could serve as the pretext for a work stoppage. Local 685 members appear concerned over thorny contractual issues that have developed, such as overtime by temporary part-time workers, who are widely used but are not supposed to work extra hours under the terms of the national master agreement between FCA and the UAW.

The dispute in Kokomo is developing during a sensitive period in relations between FCA and the UAW in the wake of a scandal revolving around the misuse of joint UAW-FCA training funds. Three FCA officials, including Alphons Iacobelli, former FCA vice president-labor, and five UAW officials have been indicted on federal criminal charges.

Iacobelli has admitted in court that FCA used training funds to purchase the cooperation of union representatives responsible for administering the UAW’s contracts with FCA. Monica Morgan, the widow of the late General Holiefield, who headed the UAW’s FCA Dept. from 2006 to 2014, recently was sentenced to 18 months in prison on tax-evasion charges uncovered during the federal probe.

Nancy Adams Johnson, a former top official in the union’s FCA Dept., also has pleaded guilty to federal charges even as the UAW prepares to sit down for discussions with FCA’s new management team led by Marchionne's replacement, Michael Manley.

“UAW FCA members look forward to working and bargaining with Mike Manley and his team as we head into the 2019 negotiations. Mr. Manley inherits a proud workforce that is known for its quality work and is committed to building the best products in the industry,” says Gary Jones (left), who was elected UAW president in June.

Jones has insisted the scandal was a result of the failings of individuals, not the institution.

At the same time, however, the union is under pressure to take a tougher stand with FCA in the wake of the scandal.

The union dug in its heels earlier this year when FCA attempted to lay off more than 80 drivers represented by UAW Local 12 in Toledo, OH. The drivers ferry components from plants in Detroit and Kokomo to Jeep assembly plants in Toledo.

FCA claimed it had negotiated the right to eliminate the drivers’ jobs, but the automaker agreed to discuss the planned cuts. Ultimately, the company and union agreed to a plan that kept more than 70 of the driver positions, according to Local 12 officials.

The UAW’s FCA Dept. now has a new director, Vice President Cindy Estrada, and new regional directors in Region 1 in metropolitan Detroit, which has a large concentration of FCA plants, and Region 2, which covers Ohio and Indiana and the critical FCA plants in Toledo and Kokomo.