GM Seeks to Cut Wages in Half at Indianapolis Stamping Plant

GM stamping plant workers in Indianapolis have told the company they won’t cut their wages in half, even when threatened with a shutdown. A prospective buyer of the 650-worker factory has indicated he wants United Auto Workers members to drop from $29 an hour to $14.65.

“If they were to succeed in cutting our wages here,” said shop chair Greg Clark, “they could easily just bring stamping work here, whipsaw us against the other facilities, and before you know it, the whole stamping division would be under siege.” Other GM stamping plants are in Parma, Ohio; Marion, Indiana; and Flint, Michigan.

Although UAW Local 23 members voted 384-22 in May against opening the contract, the UAW International is strongly backing the cuts, indicating that it may go around the local to talk to the prospective buyer, JD Norman Industries of Illinois. But Clark says, “If you need a wage cut before you even begin, this is not the business you need to be in. Maybe you should try something else.”

Many of the Indianapolis workers are “GM gypsies” who have been forced to transfer from plant to plant during their careers. Clark, for example, is on his fifth factory and third plant closing. The union contract gives workers the right to “follow their work,” so if the plant closes next year as threatened, workers could likely find GM jobs in other towns.

The mood is uncertain as workers wait to see what the UAW International will do. Machine repairman Kenneth Craig said some high-seniority workers want to see the plant bought, as long as they can retire and then return to work at half pay. “They don’t care what it will do to the rest of the union,” Craig said.

Clark, who says he thinks members voted for him as shop chair 10 months ago because “they were tired of being pushed around,” said, “You do have some individuals who think it’s just about self. It’s bigger than that.”

REVOTE IN SAGINAW

Meanwhile, 2,200 GM parts workers in Saginaw, Michigan, revoted on steep concessions June 29 and this time said yes. As in Indianapolis, they also had been pressured by International and local UAW officials who said the wage cuts would help GM sell the plant.

Production workers in Saginaw, most with less than four years’ seniority, were already working at second-tier wages of $14.50 to $18.50 an hour. They were offered voluntary “buydowns”: a worker making $18.50 will get a lump sum of $30,000 if he agrees to work for $14.50, or $40,000 if he goes down to a starting wage of $12. Wages will be frozen for five years, except for small raises for the $12 workers in years four and five.

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Skilled trades workers were given no option: they must take a wage cut, from $37 to $29, in exchange for a $50,000 lump sum. Skilled new hires will come in at $24, apprentices at $20.

All workers will get a signing bonus of $5,000. Other concessions are to cut shift premiums in half: third shift drops to 5 percent and second to 2.5 percent. Time-and-a-half for overtime won’t be paid till after the 40th hour of work in a week, rather than eight hours in a day.

EAGER TO BUY DOWN

“People are inquiring daily, how soon can I buy down?” said Saladin Parm, a district committeeperson. He predicted that 85 to 90 percent of the workforce will buy down their wages: “They think ‘maybe in two to three years I’m not going to be here.’” It would take a worker who accepted a $6.50 wage cut for $40,000 about three years to start falling behind, if taxes and overtime aren’t taken into account.

“We have a younger group that will take the money and do other things with their lives,” Parm said. Another segment are in their late 50s. “The corporation is trying to get toward a transient workforce. It’s not like the old days where you worked 30 years.”

With planned high turnover and a continuous stream of new workers, GM or its successor can enjoy the $12 an hour wage indefinitely.

Immediately after the 3-1 vote against concessions June 17, GM laid off 50 skilled tradespeople and some production workers. The company then added family health insurance to its offer. Before, bought-down workers would have gotten insurance only for themselves. The second time, they voted yes 3 to 1.