UAW Chief Pledges to Narrow 2-Tier Wage Gap

DETROIT – UAW union President Dennis Williams confirms that restructuring the 2-tier compensation agreement with Detroit automakers will be a top priority for the union when contract negations begin next summer.

“We are aware of the need to balance wages,” Williams tells journalists during an interview earlier today at the UAW’s Solidarity House here.

Williams claims the lower level of the 2-tier compensation structure, where newly hired employees earned roughly $20 an hour compared with $27 for a veteran worker, does not provide a working-class wage. He characterizes it as “a starting point” bargainers from the UAW and Chrysler, Ford and General Motors arrived at during a time of crisis.

“We did not know if we would be successful,” he recalls of talks meant to rescue the automakers in 2007. “We had no idea. We had to take drastic measures and we had to have a starting point.”

Although Chrysler and GM eventually fell into bankruptcy, the pay scale brought down the labor costs of all three companies and made them more competitive with non-UAW work forces of foreign automakers such as Toyota and Nissan.

Chrysler, GM and Ford were able to turn the savings into manufacturing investments, which added jobs, and their finances are humming again.

“(The 2-tier scale) is not acceptable now,” Williams adds, saying it is time for his membership to have “a reward” in the next 4-year agreement.

Lower-level UAW wages are up about $4 an hour since the 2-tier wage was enacted, but the compensation of veteran workers has been frozen. “A general wage increase is important to our members,” he says, declining to share what he considers working-class income.

Williams does not seem convinced complete wage parity will occur, either, as he talks about “bridging” the gap between the two levels and stresses the automakers must continue to be successful. UAW members look down on the pay structure, claiming it creates divisiveness on the shop floor.

“It is difficult to bargain and keep the pay the same,” he warns.

Williams, previously secretary-treasurer for the labor group before taking over for the retiring Bob King in June, also says the use of temporary workers will be a key bargaining point next year. He expects to use it as motivation for workers to organize at non-union manufacturing sites, such as the Nissan assembly plant in Smyrna, TN, as well.

“You’ll be hearing a lot about that, and not just at Nissan,” says Williams, who estimates the Japanese automaker’s facility employs 40%-50% so-called “permanent temporary” workers.

“They are in constant fear of losing their jobs,” the onetime salvage welder says. “They are employed by another company. It is a shell game.”

Look for the UAW to take a more active role in workers’-rights issues outside the auto industry, too, Williams says. He says he supports fast-food industry workers seeking $15 an hour and union representation. Thousands walked off the job earlier this month in protest of rock-bottom pay.

“I’ll pay a quarter more for a damn hamburger,” he quips. “I’m excited about the movement.”

Williams is not entirely enthusiastic about fast-track adoption of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a decade-old trade agreement among Asian countries the U.S. has resisted over fair access to the Japanese market. The UAW boss says too many of the member countries have poor human-rights and labor-rights records, and giving President Obama authority to pass the trade act without a thorough vetting by Congress would be wrong.

“I’m not against TPP, I’m against fast-track,” he says.

Expect the union to work more closely with colleagues at the labor groups IG Metall in Europe, the Japanese Auto Workers union and Unifor in Canada, he adds.

“If we are not unified, we are not doing justice in the labor movement,” Williams says.

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