{"id":1492039,"date":"2024-02-09T16:05:01","date_gmt":"2024-02-09T16:05:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jacobin.com\/2024\/02\/indianapolis-uaw-workers-strike-tiers\/"},"modified":"2024-02-09T16:32:54","modified_gmt":"2024-02-09T16:32:54","slug":"indianapolis-uaw-workers-got-rid-of-tiers-with-a-strike-threat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2024\/02\/09\/indianapolis-uaw-workers-got-rid-of-tiers-with-a-strike-threat\/","title":{"rendered":"Indianapolis UAW Workers Got Rid of Tiers With a Strike Threat"},"content":{"rendered":"\n \n\n\n\n

At Allison Transmission in Indianapolis, autoworkers with the UAW leveraged a credible strike threat to eliminate wage and benefit tiers. It\u2019s a sign of growing militancy among the United Auto Workers.<\/h3>\n\n\n
\n \n
\n UAW members working at Allison Transmission in Indianapolis threatened to strike to get rid of tiers. (Jeff Kowalsky \/ AFP via Getty Images)\n <\/figcaption> \n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n \n

Fifteen hundred autoworkers in Indianapolis made their New Year\u2019s resolution public: unless Allison Transmission agreed to eliminate tiers in wages, benefits, shift premiums, and holidays, they would hit the bricks.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fight plan throughout negotiations was ending tiers,\u201d said Phil Shupe, a ten-year assembler on tier two and bargaining committee member. \u201cWe weren’t going to accept anything from the company that had any more division. We stood firm that we all needed to be equal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Workers at Allison make commercial heavy-duty automatic transmissions for fire trucks, school buses, and tanks, as well as hybrid propulsion systems.<\/p>\n

United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 933 members there hadn\u2019t struck since the 1970s. But in December, they rejected Allison\u2019s offer by 96 percent.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe company realized this time around that we weren’t joking,\u201d said Darrin Nelson, an eighteen-year employee and a shop committeeperson in skilled trades. \u201cWe were walking \u2014 making it very clear it was either put up or shut up.\u201d<\/p>\n

The company put up a four-year contract, compared to the last six-year contract term. Workers clinched a contract in the nick of time \u2014 by presenting a clear picture of what would happen if they walked.<\/p>\n

Allison could have lost millions a day in revenue, taken a reputational hit, and lost customers, said Shupe. And even if it tried bringing in scabs, the truck drivers who deliver transmissions to customers wouldn\u2019t cross the picket line. Some were Teamsters; others at Ryder Logistics were fellow UAW Local 933 members.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe let them know we meant business,\u201d said Shupe.<\/p>\n

Workers ratified their\u00a0new contract<\/a>\u00a0by 82 percent on January 16. It hikes starting wages from $14.72 to $20 an hour and increases some workers\u2019 earnings by 150 percent, and eliminates most aspects of the tiers (see box for details).<\/p>\n\n \n\n \n \n \n

Do Away With Tiers<\/h2>\n \n

Allison\u2019s customers include the Pentagon, Volkswagen\u2019s subsidiary Traton SE, Mercedes-Benz Group AG, and Paccar, a large manufacturer of commercial trucks. These contracts have made big profits for Allison\u2019s shareholders.<\/p>\n

Coming off the UAW\u2019s lucrative contract wins at the Big Three automakers, Allison workers thought it was their turn. They wanted to seize the momentum and win their share of the pie, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe saw that if our CEO was making what their CEOs were making even at a smaller company, we needed to demand more money,\u201d said Monica Nelson, a seventeen-year job setter, a person who checks the measurements on the machines making sure everything is up to spec. \u201cThey [the Big Three] did away with the tiers, we needed to do away with the tiers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Allison Transmission had raked in $6 billion in profits in the last decade, and more than half a billion in the first three quarters of 2023,\u00a0according<\/a>\u00a0to the UAW. CEO David Graziosi made $9.3 million in 2022, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filings.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, company managers were stingy about replacing broken microwaves.<\/p>\n

Ahead of the contract expiration, managers started hauling workers into captive-audience meetings to surface any complaints. At one of these meetings, a worker raised the issue of a broken microwave in the break room.<\/p>\n

The manager\u2019s answer was, \u201cI’ll have somebody go out there and look at it, but we are not replacing any broken microwave,\u201d recalled Local 933 vice president Andy Davis, who works on the assembly line. \u201cA billion-dollar company is going to be that petty! We work long hours. So you’re talking about somebody not even being able to microwave a lunch.\u201d<\/p>\n

Davis, with fourteen years on the job, didn\u2019t expect any better from company honchos. \u201cBut I was really happy to see my union brothers and sisters hear the manager\u2019s response,\u201d he said, \u201cso they could see who we\u2019re dealing with.\u201d<\/p>\n\n \n \n \n

Chairs Removed<\/h2>\n \n

The company had proposed a wage opener mid-contract last February. In a tight labor market, it was having a hard time hiring at $14.72. \u201cPeople could earn better money at a car wash,\u201d said Davis.<\/p>\n

But workers rejected the reopener, near the end of a six-year contract. \u201cIf the contract is no longer viable, then let\u2019s start negotiations now,\u201d said Davis. \u201cWe\u2019ve got nine months till the contract runs out anyways. Instead of just picking and choosing what you want to do as a company, why don\u2019t we sit down and have an honest discussion about what could benefit everyone?\u201d<\/p>\n

Apparently in retaliation, though on the pretext of safety, the company went around the factory floor removing all the chairs \u2014 a salve to workers\u2019 sore feet from standing for ten to twelve hours.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter we rejected the wage proposal by vote, the supervisors formed a pack,\u201d said Davis. \u201cThey moved from department to department, grabbing all of our chairs, putting them on a fork truck and taking them out \u2014 laughing and being jerks about it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n \n \n \n

Red T-Shirt Wednesday<\/h2>\n \n

As the November contract expiration neared, workers began organizing across divisions \u2014 electing a new shop committee, more representative of the various tiers.<\/p>\n

George Freeman, bargaining chair, joked when sitting across from company negotiators that they\u2019d bring in hard-charging, Indiana-native UAW president Shawn Fain. The threat threw management off-balance. \u201cThey want us to know they are in charge \u2014 master and servant,\u201d said Freeman.<\/p>\n

But their savior wasn\u2019t Fain, even though workers credited the international for providing legal and communications support. The organization that they built across the plant was the key to their success.<\/p>\n

Workers started holding gate meetings to update members on the progress in negotiations, answer questions, and make sure people were united behind the demand to end tiers.<\/p>\n

In the last round of negotiations, the company had thrown money around in a signing bonus just before the holidays to entice workers into voting yes for a six-year contract. Monica Nelson wanted to make sure her coworkers didn\u2019t fall for that old trick again.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re offering you $10,000 up front, but you\u2019re locking in on this six-year contract,\u201d she said about the company\u2019s past sign-on bonus. \u201cYou need to vote it down and ask for more money on the hour. Because if you get more money on the hour, you can make that $10,000 they gave you in two months.\u201d<\/p>\n

The big task was building solidarity after the company had successfully used solidarity-wrecking tiers to keep workers divided. \u201cWe had to get everybody on board,\u201d said Nelson. \u201cWe had to start getting people to be more unified. If they throw out four people, you don’t need to take the overtime. Because if you’re taking the overtime, you’re basically proving we don’t need those four people that they threw out whose jobs were protected by contract language.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nelson had these conversations on the floor because she was a floater. But one person couldn\u2019t reach everybody. Monica Nelson and Davis began organizing the meetings outside the plant gates on \u201cred T-shirt Wednesdays,\u201d once every two weeks. The instructions were simple: \u201cWednesday, 5 p.m. break, front gate, bring your questions, write them down, and we\u2019ll answer them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt started with five to seven people, then it turned into thirty people,\u201d Nelson said. \u201cAnd when it got to forty people, the shop committee would come out, with the chairman.\u201d Eventually, they expanded the meetings to a second shift and different plants in the factory complex. They also handed out flyers with charts showing the CEO pay.<\/p>\n\n \n \n \n

New Direction<\/h2>\n \n

For Darrin Nelson, the change was long overdue. He had attended the UAW convention in 2014 as an alternate delegate and concluded it was a big con.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought to myself, \u2018This is all for show, because everything\u2019s already predetermined,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cNobody has a chance to run for any of these positions, because the convention was set up for the caucus that\u2019s in power to always win.\u201d<\/p>\n

So when reformers organized for<\/a> one-member, one-vote elections in 2021, Nelson threw himself into the project. \u201cThe direction that we\u2019ve been going the last fifteen, twenty years has been absolutely brutal for the membership,\u201d he said. \u201cThe only way that things are going to change, from the top down to the local levels, is if we get one-member, one-vote to pass and let the membership as a whole decide on who they want as their elected officials.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the day, it\u2019s the results. If you make gains and go in the right direction, you show the membership that things are possible. We got a new leadership who says, \u2018Enough is enough, we’re gonna walk.\u2019 Because that’s the only tool that you have to get them to the table to get the things that you deserve.\u201d<\/p>\n\n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n\n\n

This post was originally published on Jacobin<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fifteen hundred autoworkers in Indianapolis made their New Year\u2019s resolution public: unless Allison Transmission agreed to eliminate tiers in wages, benefits, shift premiums, and holidays, they would hit the bricks. \u201cThe fight plan throughout negotiations was ending tiers,\u201d said Phil Shupe, a ten-year assembler on tier two and bargaining committee member. \u201cWe weren\u2019t going to [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":737,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1492039"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/737"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1492039"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1492039\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1492113,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1492039\/revisions\/1492113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1492039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1492039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1492039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}