Surprise settlements
I'm still a bit stunned by the unprecedented
early settlements
between the Canadian Auto Workers and Ford, GM and Chrysler. The September
contract expirations have been hanging over our heads ever since the Americans
ratified their contracts last fall. And we were all expecting the worst. A few
months ago anyone who said we would have agreements by the middle of May would
have been thought crazy.
While I admired Buzz Hargrove's refusal to accept
the two-tier wage system, where new hires in the US are forever stuck at half
the wage rates of older workers, I didn't think it was possible without a
strike, and doubtful even then. But he, and the bargaining committees, pulled
it off. Instead the C.A.W. agreed to freeze all wage rates, and suspend cost of
living increases for the next year, for both active workers and
retirees.
The C.O.L.A. suspension is going to cost me, as a retiree, about $600 a year. Changes to the prescription benefit will end up costing almost $300 a year by the end of the contract in 2011. The other major concession for our local was the outsourcing of the janitors department. The minivan plant was the last remaining operation in Chrysler to have kept that work in house.
Hargrove got a standing ovation at the ratification meeting last Saturday. He's retiring next year, and these were his last major negotiations as C.A.W. president. I wouldn't be surprised to see him run for parliament after he steps down. For the Liberals of course. The NDP expelled him over tactical voting, and I can see him getting revenge by running against them.
Despite this welcome respite from doom and gloom, auto workers remain an endangered species. The Windsor GM workers ended up ratifying a close out agreement for the transmission plant. 1400 workers will lose their jobs and Local 1973 will cease to exist in two years. There are more Chrysler retirees, 5,000, in local 444 than there are workers, 4,900, at the Chrysler minivan plant. Hargrove predicts that, without government intervention, at least one of the Big 3 manufacturers is going to go bankrupt in the next three years.
Whatever is still to come, this past long weekend there was an extra reason to celebrate. We've been reprieved.
The C.O.L.A. suspension is going to cost me, as a retiree, about $600 a year. Changes to the prescription benefit will end up costing almost $300 a year by the end of the contract in 2011. The other major concession for our local was the outsourcing of the janitors department. The minivan plant was the last remaining operation in Chrysler to have kept that work in house.
Hargrove got a standing ovation at the ratification meeting last Saturday. He's retiring next year, and these were his last major negotiations as C.A.W. president. I wouldn't be surprised to see him run for parliament after he steps down. For the Liberals of course. The NDP expelled him over tactical voting, and I can see him getting revenge by running against them.
Despite this welcome respite from doom and gloom, auto workers remain an endangered species. The Windsor GM workers ended up ratifying a close out agreement for the transmission plant. 1400 workers will lose their jobs and Local 1973 will cease to exist in two years. There are more Chrysler retirees, 5,000, in local 444 than there are workers, 4,900, at the Chrysler minivan plant. Hargrove predicts that, without government intervention, at least one of the Big 3 manufacturers is going to go bankrupt in the next three years.
Whatever is still to come, this past long weekend there was an extra reason to celebrate. We've been reprieved.
Posted: Tue - May 20, 2008 at 02:21 PM
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Published On: May 20, 2008 02:45 PM
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Published On: May 20, 2008 02:45 PM