‘The Last Truck’: HBO Looks at Plant Closing Through Workers’ Eyes
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Just two days before Christmas 2008, workers at the General Motors assembly plant in Moraine, Ohio, watched their livelihood and the lifeblood of their town dry up as their plant shut its doors for good. A new HBO documentary, “The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant,” which first airs on Labor Day, offers poignant personal testimony about the impact of the decline of American auto manufacturing on this tight-knit Ohio community.
While the layoffs of the 2,500 workers and 200 management staff was bad enough, thousands more of their friends, neighbors and family would lose their jobs as businesses that serviced the plant—suppliers, restaurants, retail stores—were forced to close for lack of business.
In the documentary, “Popeye,” a toolmaker, simply states what the decline of manufacturing means to him and to the American Dream:
My grandson will have a worse life than I had.
HBO’s press release about the documentary points out the real extent of the damage from the closing:
…the GM workers lost much more than jobs, including the pride they share in their work and the camaraderie built through the years. To the natives of Moraine and the greater Dayton area, General Motors wasn’t just a car company—it was the lifeblood of the community.
Retirees Were Promised Health Care—GM Deal Breaks the Promise
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Workers and retirees have suspected for years that companies often use bankruptcy as an excuse to cheat retirees out of their promised benefits. Now, three unions say that’s exactly what the U.S. Treasury Department is doing to tens of thousands of General Motors (GM) retirees.
The IUE-CWA, United Steelworkers (USW) and the Operating Engineers (IUOE) plan to appeal a bankruptcy judge’s approval late last week of a plan to allow the new GM, which now is owned primarily by the taxpayers, to take away health coverage from 55,000 retirees at some GM and GM Delphi plants.
In a series of newspaper ads, the unions urge workers to call the White House at 202-456-1414 or send an e-mail to www.whitehouse.gov and ask President Obama to restore the GM retirees’ health care benefits. Click here to learn more about IUE-CWA’s campaign to save the retirees’ benefits.
The ads feature retirees like Debra Turner (see ad above), a GM retiree who suffers from multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis. At 51, she’s not eligible for Medicare. Until now, her GM health care paid for most of the $3,400 a month in medicines she has to take.
550,000 NYC Workers Win Pact to Save Jobs, and More Bargaining News
More than 550,000 New York City active and retired workers reached an agreement that will delay and reduce layoffs, and more updates from the “Bargaining Digest Weekly.” The AFL-CIO Collective Bargaining Department delivers daily, bargaining-related news and research resources to more than 900 subscribers. Union leaders can register for this service through our website, Bargaining@Work.
SETTLEMENTS
Multiple Unions, New York City: More than 550,000 New York City active and retired workers, represented by unions in the Municipal Labor Committee, including AFSCME, AFT and many other unions, reached an agreement for city workers to contribute more to their health care in exchange for delayed and reduced layoffs.
UAW, General Motors: UAW locals nationwide ratified a new agreement with General Motors and the U.S. government. ”UAW members have once again stepped up to make necessary and painful sacrifices to preserve U.S. manufacturing jobs,” said UAW President Ron Gettelfinger. The agreement laid the groundwork for GM to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in court. The federal government takes a 60 percent ownership stake in the company during its restructuring, and UAW will emerge with a 17.5 percent ownership through shares of the new GM held by the retiree medical VEBA trust. UAW agrees not to strike until 2015 in the new agreement.
UAW, Volvo Mack Trucks: UAW members ratified a master agreement with Volvo Mack Trucks, which includes the establishment of an independent VEBA trust that will assume responsibility for providing health care to retired workers. The trust must be approved by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, a process that can take up to 12 months.
IUE-CWA, GE: Some 2,000 General Electric workers at Appliance Park in Louisville, Ky., represented by IUE-CWA Local 761, voted to accept a pay freeze until the current agreement expires in June 2011. In exchange, GE will add some 100 jobs at the Louisville complex. “Hopefully, this gets the ball rolling and starts bringing in these jobs by the end of the year,” said local President Jerry Carney.
AFSCME, Manatee County, Fla.: Manatee County, Fla., School District bus drivers, cafeteria workers and other school support workers with 21 years of seniority, represented by AFSCME, will see a 1 percent pay increase next year under terms of a new agreement.
IBEW, Boston Globe: Technical services workers at the Boston Globe, represented by the Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 103, ratified an agreement to help the financially struggling newspaper company. Members of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) are set to vote on similar proposals.
IATSE, Eugene, Ore.: Eugene, Ore., city workers, represented by International Association of Theatrical and Stage Employees (IATSE) Local 675, agreed to a three-year contract with no pay raise in the first year starting in July, with a 2.5 percent pay increase in the following fiscal year. In the third year, either the union or the city will be able to reopen talks on wages and benefits.
WORK STOPPAGES AND JOB ACTIONS
HPAE-AFT, Englewood Hospital: In New Jersey, 700 nurses, represented by the Union of Health Professionals and Allied Employees (HPAE-AFT), launched pickets outside of the Englewood Hospital and Medical Center after management locked out workers and hired replacements. HPAE-AFT offered to rescind their strike notice, but management said they had to honor their contract with the company, US Nursing, supplying the replacement workers.
NEGOTIATIONS
USW, MeadWestvaco: Workers represented by the United Steelworkers (USW) at MeadWestvaco’s paper mill in Covington, Ky., are set to resume negotiations after a two-year hiatus in bargaining talks.
Disclaimer: This information is being provided for your information only. As it is compiled from published news reports, not from individual unions, we cannot vouch for either its completeness or accuracy; readers who desire further information should directly contact the union involved.
Employee Free Choice Key to Redressing Economic Hits Against People of Color
Nothing beats getting out of a think tank long enough to find out what’s really going on. Seth Freed Wessler, a researcher at the Applied Research Center, did just that, traveling to Michigan where he talked with workers for ARC’s “Race and Recession” report.
The title of his blog today at Huffington Post sums up what he found: GM Bankruptcy Hurts People of Color Hardest. Workers Desperately Need Employee Free Choice.
Wessler reminds us that “across the labor market, workers of color are overrepresented in occupations with high unemployment rates.” The loss of auto industry jobs strikes a massive blow to the ability of workers, especially black workers, to earn middle-class incomes. Workers like those Wessler talked with across Michigan.
UAW Members Ratify GM Agreement
Members of the UAW overwhelmingly ratified an agreement with General Motors (GM) Corp. UAW President Ron Gettelfinger told a Detroit press conference today that 74 percent of GM’s U.S. production and skilled-trade workers voted in favor of the deal.
Under the agreement, the union-run retiree health care trust will gain 17.5 percent ownership of a post-bankruptcy GM, with an option to buy another 2.5 percent.
“UAW members have once again stepped up to make necessary and painful sacrifices to preserve U.S. manufacturing jobs,” Gettelfinger said.
This settlement agreement will give GM a chance to survive the worldwide collapse of industry sales and return as a viable company once the economy recovers and consumers begin purchasing vehicles again.
UAW, GM Reach Tentative Deal
The UAW announced today it has reached a tentative understanding with the U.S. Treasury Department and General Motors Corp. on changes to the 2007 UAW/GM bargaining agreement. The union says the tentative agreement also contains modifications to the independent Voluntary Employee Beneficiary Association (VEBA) trust that funds retiree health care.
Details are not available until after ratification meetings for UAW members at GM, which are now being scheduled.
A pact between GM and the UAW was one of the key obstacles for the automaker to clear before a June 1 deadline for the company to restructure its debt as part of a process widely expected to include a bankruptcy filing.
In April, UAW members ratified a similar agreement with Chrysler, Fiat and the Treasury Department.
Tell the President: GM Can’t Use Taxpayer Money to Ship U.S. Jobs Overseas
General Motors Corp.—which has received some $15.6 billion in federal bailout funds and is asking for another $11.6 billion—plans to use some of that taxpayer money to close 16 U.S. manufacturing plants and increase the number of vehicles made in Mexico, China, Korea and Japan for sale in the United States.
The UAW is asking its members and supporters to send a message to President Obama and to the auto task force that will have to approve GM’s restructuring plan, asking both to
stand up for the interests of American workers and retirees.
GM has until the end of May to submit its restructuring plans and is in negotiations with the UAW, the auto task force, bond holders, lenders and others with a stake in the company’s future.
Tell the President: Stand up for Autoworkers
The UAW is calling on all working people to stand up for active and retired U.S. autoworkers. The Obama administration has established tight deadlines for the restructuring of Chrysler and General Motors (GM). For the federal government to provide additional assistance to the automakers, the restructuring of Chrysler must be completed by the end of April, and the General Motors restructuring must be completed by the end of May.
The Chrysler and GM workers need President Obama and his auto task force to stand up for the interests of workers and retirees in these restructuring negotiations.
You can call President Obama at 202-456-1414, or send him an e-mail at: www.whitehouse.gov/contact. The UAW urges allies to tell him that workers and retirees must be treated in a fair and equitable manner in any restructuring plans.
Contracts Can’t Be Broken—Unless They Involve Union Workers
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Contracts can’t be broken. We learned that lesson well over the past few days when AIG honchos swore that despite being bailed out by $173 billion in taxpayer funds, they couldn’t break the sacrosanct contractual bond that guaranteed billions in bonuses to the same top executives who brought the insurance giant to its knees.
But we also were taught another lesson in these months of financial chaos: Contacts can’t be changed—unless they involve unionized autoworkers.
Tim Rutten at the Los Angeles Times really hits the mark today when he writes:
What we’re essentially being asked to believe is that employment contracts involving hardworking men and women on Detroit’s assembly lines are somehow less legally binding—less “sacred” in the current rhetorical argot—than those protecting a bunch of cowboy securities traders living in Connecticut. [snip]
For years, the smart guys on Wall Street have convinced a growing number of Americans that organized labor is an impediment to economic progress, an unacceptable “cost” in a globalized system of production, a quaint social fossil from the era of mills and smokestacks. If there’s a lesson to be gleaned from the current crisis, however, it’s that when the chips are down, organized labor is a far more responsible social actor than the snatch-and-run characters who fancy themselves financiers.
UAW Members at Ford Reach Agreement on Retiree Health, and More Bargaining News
UAW members at Ford reach agreement on retiree health care and more updates here from the “Bargaining Digest Weekly.” The AFL-CIO Collective Bargaining Department delivers daily, bargaining-related news and research resources to more than 900 subscribers. Union leaders can register for this service through our website, Bargaining@Work.
SETTLEMENTS
UAW, Ford: The UAW reached an agreement with Ford on modifications to its Voluntary Employee Beneficiary Association (VEBA), which is a retiree health care trust fund. The union and Ford previously announced a tentative agreement to modify other aspects of its 2007 labor contract, but Ford had said all agreements were contingent on reaching an agreement to the VEBA.
AFSCME, Ohio: Some 35,000 Ohio state workers, who are represented by the Ohio Civil Service Employees Association (OCSEA-AFSCME), reached a tentative agreement in which workers will maintain their salaries but take 10 days of unpaid leave annually.
