Indianapolis GM Workers Resist Company, Union Pressure to Cut Pay

[IndianaGreen]

Indianapolis GM Workers Resist Company, Union Pressure to Cut Pay

by Dianne Feeley | Fri, 09/03/2010 - 10:45am

The CEO of JD Norman Industries, which makes metal components, placed a full-page ad in the Indianapolis Star two days after GM workers booed his buddies off the stage. They wanted no part of Norman’s offer to buy the Indianapolis Metal Fab plant GM has slated to close. But Norman is desperate to buy the plant—if workers will cut their wages in half.

Norman called for a meeting in a local stadium last Sunday—but only 50-60 workers and their family members showed up, out of a workforce of 630. He offered lump-sum payments of $25,000-$35,000 over a two-year period for those willing to work at $15.50 per hour (with almost all contract rules over working conditions eliminated, replaced by “management rights”). But a six-year-old company with little expertise in the auto industry doesn’t offer much security.

As members left the meeting some told reporters that they had listened but Norman had nothing to offer. UAW Local 23 shop chair Greg Clark, who has led the fight against wage cuts, filed a complaint against Norman with the National Labor Relations Board, saying he had tried to circumvent the union.

The members of United Auto Workers Local 23 had already voted 384-22 not to reopen their contract, back in May. They knew that its successor clause means that any company buying a closed plant has to honor the GM-UAW contract. The majority of members have worked for GM for years, earning a good wage and decent health care and pensions. Many are GM “gypsies” who have been forced to relocate from plant to plant as shutdowns spread like dominoes. A shutdown in Indianapolis would mean one more transfer, a sacrifice they prefer to a gutted contract.

Norman needs a yes vote in order to buy the plant and void the successor clause. Not only does he need workers’ skill in operating the plant, he doesn't want to run the plant non-union because the contract prohibits GM from outsourcing the work to a non-union business. He needs a union contract—no matter how substandard—in order to sell his stampings to GM. It’s not just the physical plant Norman needs, but the business and its workers.

http://labornotes.org/blogs/2010/09/indianapolis-gm-workers-resist-company-union-pressure-cut-pay