American Axle workers face big pay cuts with new contract

Labor UpFront newsletter:

Vol. 1, Issue 9
The goal of Labor Upfront is to provide members and friends with news, information, and general ways to stay connected with the on-going struggles of workers. You can also visit our blog, http://laborupfront.blogspot.com/, for further information on the stories in this newsletter and much more! Please feel free to forward this to anyone you feel may benefit, and if you received this from a friend, e-mail cp-labor-join@cpusa.org to join the list.

Scott Marshall, Labor Commission Chair
Melissa O’Rourke, Labor Commission Coordinator, Labor Upfront editor

In This Newsletter:
American Axle workers face big pay cuts
Action Alerts: Chinese workers; Working Woman Survey
Zimbabwe Labor Leaders Arrested
Indian Workers hunger strike enters second week
Clean Car Wash Campaign
Jobs with Justice Conference
Crandall Canyon Cover-up
Election 2008: McCain Revealed kicks into high gear, new endorsements
Union Jobs (still more needed!)


American Axle workers face big pay cuts with new contract
After three months out on the picket line, the workers at American Axle finally have a contract to vote on. CEO Dick Dauch made known from the start that he wanted severe pay and benefit cuts in order to “remain competitive,” and that the workers would suffer for it. Even though he got a 9% raise this year and over the past decade has received over $257 million in compensation, and the company made a profit of $37 million last year, the workers are expected to ratify a contract that cuts their wages by over 33% and increases their health care costs. The deal also will shut down both the Detroit and Tonawanda Forges and offer buyouts and buydowns. Below is the average pay breakdown for production workers for both their current and new contracts:

Currently New Contract
$28/hr $18.50/hr
$1120/wk $740/wk
$58,240/yr $38,480/yr

This means a pay cut of $380 a week, $1647 a month and $19,760 a year. The saddest part is that the UAW had to fight to keep the cuts at this level, rather than the over 50% cuts American Axle demanded. New production hires will be paid $11.50 per hour, twice a year they’ll get an extra $.50 an hour raise, until after 10 years they might make what their co-workers make. For some people $18.50 may seem like great money, but when that pay rate is $1650 a month less than what you’ve been living on, based your mortgage, car payments, kids college tuition, and all your other living expenses on, it’s devastating. At a time when foreclosure rates, personal debt, and the cost of living are skyrocketing, the last thing workers need is a drastic cut in pay. Does anyone really wonder why Michigan has the highest foreclosure and crime rates, along with the fastest growing population of residents receiving food stamps?

According to Wall Street, the labor costs are still too high. Financial firm Lehman Brothers projects that 1,200 of the 3,650 striking employees will opt for buyouts or early retirements. Those employees will "not be replaced in the U.S. but in Mexico," wrote analyst Brian Johnson in a note to investors. Earlier this week Dauch announced plans to expand in India and Thailand; perhaps they should change their name to “Asian Axle” as they abandon their workers in the U.S.

"It's not a good agreement, but at this juncture it's the best we could do," said UAW President Ron Gettelfinger. After weeks at the negotiating table, he said he didn't think that more negotiations would net a better contract, so the contract goes to membership and will now be up to the workers to decide their fates. After 11 weeks on the strike line, during which American Axle shifted work to Mexico, many seem glad to still have a job.


Action Alerts
Chinese workers assistance and show of solidarity
We received this note from a friend of ours in Florida and thought the idea was so great we needed to share it.

Hi Labor UpFront,
It seems now would be a good time to push for more of a bridge between US labor and Chinese labor. We could ask them if there is a way we can help. The city of Dujiangyan was under a different name when I was 6 years old, and I did not realize for a couple of days in this crisis, that in the news I was seeing the town we lived in for 2 1/2 years, mid-'48 to beginning of '51. (I was gone much of that time to a boarding school for missionary kids, but still have some memories of what used to be called Guan Xian.)
We do not have any more meetings of our local this school year, but I am going to take it up with officers and our delegation to the NEA, which meets in DC July 1-6. I am not a delegate to the AFT which meets a couple of weeks later in Chicago, but I will try to see if someone in the AFT will raise it. I am interested in hearing other labor folks thoughts on this. Not only is this important worker to worker help but it can help us build workers of the world unite – badly needed in this time of corporate globalization.
In solidarity,
John Streater
Florida

Working Woman Survey
Working America and the AFL-CIO are conducting a nationwide survey on what it's like to be a working woman. If you’re a working woman, your opinion matters greatly. Please take a moment to complete the Ask a Working Woman survey and share your thoughts and experiences.

The results of this survey have never been more important. Women’s rights and labor organizations will use the results to advocate for women across the country over the next two years. Your voice matters. We want to hear from you (or the women in your life).

And if you’re not a working woman, forward this link to your sister, your mother, your co-workers and your friends to make sure their voices are heard.

International Labor News
Zimbabwe Labor Leaders Arrested
From the IUF: In the ongoing post-election repression of the democracy movement and workers and trade unionists in particular, Lovemore Motombo and Wellington Chibebe, respectively President and General Secretary of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), were arrested on May 8 and charged with "inciting people to rise against the government and reporting falsehoods about people being killed" for speaking out on May Day about the country's political crisis and the growing repression of the opposition to Mugabe.

The IUF and unions internationally are calling for messages to the government of Zimbabwe demanding their immediate and unconditional release. In view of the extreme violence which has been frequently inflicted on union leaders and activists, the IUF considers the government responsible for the physical safety and well being of the arrested ZCTU leaders.

You can take action by following suggestions from the IUF here, or through Amnesty International’s campaign here.


Indian Workers enter their second week of hunger strike
From DC Metro Council's Union City: More Indian workers joined a hunger strike - now in its seventh day - at a noontime rally held earlier today near the Capitol Reflecting Pool to demand that Congress hold hearings on abuses of workers under the guest worker program. The rally also marked the launch of solidarity fasts in DC and India by supporters of the workers' struggle. Following the rally, a delegation of workers and supporters delivered letters asking House and Senate representatives to pressure the Department of Justice to protect the workers during an ongoing criminal anti-trafficking investigation against their former employer Signal International, a marine construction company.

The workers walked off the job in March and began a truth-action tour to protest and expose Signal’s human trafficking violations and worker abuse through President Bush's H2B visa guest worker program. In late 2006, the workers mortgaged their futures – and $20,000 – on false promises of fortune and green cards by recruiters from Signal. But when the workers arrived in the US to work on post-Katrina reconstruction, they only received guestworker visas and were forced to pay Signal $1,050 a month to live in a trailer with 23 other workers. “At a time when 30 percent of New Orleans workers were looking for work, the government suspended a law that made it illegal to hire undocumented workers,” says NOWCRJ Organizer Saket Soni. “The guestworker program is designed to control labor. It sanctions forced labor by migrants and further disenfranchises the most vulnerable American workers.” The hunger strike will specifically call on the Department of Justice to prosecute Signal International and for Congress to hold hearings on the guest worker program in the post-Katrina Gulf Coast.

Click here to urge your Representatives in Congress to sign onto a letter calling for them to remain in the U.S. and to hold hearings on Signal International.
Click here for other ways to support the workers' struggle.


U.S. Labor News
Clean Car Wash Campaign
With some 18,000 “carwasheros” in Southern California making $50 a day or less, the United Steelworkers (USW), the AFL-CIO and a coalition of community organizations have teamed up to launch a campaign to “clean up” Los Angeles’ multimillion dollar carwash industry. The Community-Labor-Environmental Action Network (CLEAN) is supporting the union organizing efforts of the Carwash Workers Organizing Committee of the United Steelworkers (CWOC).

María Elena Durazo, Executive Secretary-Treasurer of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, said, “For too long, carwash owners have operated in the shadows, violating labor and health and safety laws with impunity. This coalition is going to do some spring cleaning of a dirty industry, and bring these injustices out into the open.”

The CWOC released a report entitled “Cleaning Up the Car Wash Industry: Empowering Workers and Protecting Communities,” which confirms that Los Angeles carwash owners are often operating below the radar of labor, health and safety, and environmental laws.

For more information, check out the USW campaign site here.


Jobs with Justice Conference
From May 2-4, nearly 1,000 Jobs with Justice activists came together in Providence, RI, including rank-and-file union members, students, international delegates, and members of community and faith-based organizations, as well as workers’ centers. In total, the Conference hosted representatives from 32 local JwJ coalitions and organizing committees, 34 states and the District of Columbia, 44 organizations, and several countries: Brazil, Colombia, France, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia and South Korea.

It was refreshing to hear the optimism in the voices of all the participants, and the level of the use of the term “working class,” and not in the twisted and divisive way the media’s using it right now. This conference was not about debating or simply talking about issues, it was about mobilizing to fight. It was about building a movement to take us in the direction of real change, to strengthen support for real legislation for working people in this country and around the world.

The plenaries focused on celebrating victories and exploring new trends; building power for social and economic justice; and an international dialogue on the labor movement as a political force and social movement. Some of the focal points of workshops and half-day issue forums were organizing for support for the Employee Free Choice Act and increased labor organizing; immigration and trade; health care; and community and coalition building.

The conference was also host to a strategy session addressing the needs and issues of young workers, and how to fill the national void that exists in young worker organizing. Young workers, organized and unorganized, discussed the relationship between the younger generations and the labor movement, how to bridge the gap, and the need to build and strengthen youth leadership within labor. Read more about it here.

Reps cite criminal cover-up in deadly Utah mine blasts
By John Wojcik
WASHINGTON--Top company officials at the Crandall Canyon Mine in Huntington, Utah, where nine miners perished in August 2007, concealed facts that would have prevented the deaths and should be criminally charged, according to a Congressional report released May 8. The report also charged that the company should never have asked the government for permission to remove coal from the area of the mine collapse and federal officials should never have approved the request.

House Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller (D-Calif.) formally asked the Justice Department, in an April 29 letter attached to the report, to investigate the two blasts at the mine. The first trapped and killed six miners and the second killed three rescuers, including a Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) inspector.

The letter from Miller urges the Justice Department to determine whether the mine manager, Laine W. Adair, on his own or in collusion with the owner, Murray Energy Corp., made intentionally false statements to government officials about the condition of the mine before the August disaster. The report issued by Miller’s committee says the false statements were indeed made by company reps. Article continues here.

Election '08
McCain Revealed kicks into high gear, door-to-door mobilization
From the AFL-CIO weblog:
Hundreds of union members launched the biggest union mobilization yet in the 2008 political season with the first round of door-to-door walks, part of the AFL-CIO Labor 2008 political mobilization program.

Union volunteers in more than 20 states shared information on key working family issues, like health care and the economy, reaching thousands of union members in states such as Indiana, New Hampshire, Colorado, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Ohio. The walks will continue in coming months as millions of union members mobilize to elect a working family-friendly president and Congress.

Above Photo: As John McCain comes to town to speak at the convention center, union members in Chicago greet him to give a reminder that working Americans demand real health care solutions and job creation. Photo credit: Scott Marshall

Endorsements Update:
Over the past few weeks the Obama campaign received even more boosts with the endorsement announcements of former Presidential candidate and Senator John Edwards, and labor unions American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), the United Steelworkers (USW), and today’s endorsement of the United Mineworkers of America (UMWA).

Union Jobs (We need more listings!)
We've gotten an increasing number of responses in the call for union job listings, more than we can list anymore. For the sake of space and ease, we'll list cities and industries, and for further information please contact me, morourke@cpusa.org.
Chicago: IBEW: further info is available at www.ejatt.com
Chicago Education-to-Careers: http://www.cisco.org/etc/apprec.htm
Dallas: Jobs at IBT and UAW represented facilities

There is also a website, http://www.unionjobs.com/ that lists union jobs, including staff, trades and apprenticeships, by state.

Keep them coming!!!! In an effort to assist young workers in finding decent-paying union jobs, I’m requesting that anyone who knows of job openings or apprenticeships, in all fields and across the country, please forward that information to laborupfront@cpusa.org.

We welcome questions, comments and stories for our next newsletter. Send them to us at laborupfront@cpusa.org or call (773) 446-9920, ext. 212.