The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.63/No.10           March 15, 1999 
 
 
Detroit: Hundreds Of Jeep Workers Protest Speed Up  

BY JOHN SARGE
DETROIT - Hundreds of workers on the Wrangler body shop line refused overtime to protest job cuts and speed up at DaimlerChrysler's sprawling Jeep assembly plant in Toledo, Ohio. In an interview, Alan Epstein, a body shop worker with 15 years in the plant who works on the Cherokee line, described the February 18 and 19 actions as a "spontaneous revolt."

The workers, members of United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 12, refused demands by the company to work an hour overtime each day, a demand that auto bosses regularly make. Earlier in the week these same workers were sent home after less than eight hours because of production bottlenecks. By trying to force overtime management was attempting to avoid paying the workers the short workweek prevision outlined in the contract when workers do not get eight hours a day each day of the week.

The plant workforce has been cut by 150 since January 1, without cutting line speed. "When jobs were assigned line speed was 390 a day. Now they want 408 while they are laying people off," Epstein said. DaimlerChrysler has announced plans to cut the workforce from 5,600 to 4,900 by the year 2001 when the automaker opens a new factory here.

By February 24 workers in the plant reported that it seemed like the bosses had backed off, canceled some overtime, and dropped charges against some union officials relating to the protest. Then Ken Dudley, the acting chairman of the union bargaining committee in the plant, was suspended indefinitely. The company accused Dudley of leading the protests. Company spokesman Davis Barnas told the press from corporate headquarters in Auburn Hills, Michigan, "We reserve the right to implement disciplinary action for unauthorized work stoppages, which are strictly against the collective bargaining agreement."

Dudley told the Toledo Blade that plant officials accused him of leading the work stoppage. He denied the allegations and reported that at the time of the walkout he was in a meeting with the present plant manager and a former manager who had been brought in to try and defuse tensions in the factory.

The regularly scheduled union meeting February 26 turned into a protest of company actions and a rally in support of the body shop workers and the victimized union official. Epstein described it as the largest union meeting since the mid-1980s.

Worker after worker described the worsening conditions in the factory. A Trim Department worker reported seeing co- workers collapsing into cars because of the speed up on that line. Workers feel that since the merger of Chrysler and Mercedes last year, "DaimlerChrysler has been pushing us, now they have pushed too far," declared Epstein.

While most UAW members employed by the U.S. big three - General Motors, Ford and DaimlerChrysler - will negotiate new contracts this year, Jeep workers in Toledo are working under a six-year contract that does not expire until 2003. Jeep was acquired by Chrysler in 1987 as part of its purchase of American Motors, but the Toledo workers have never been covered by the UAW-Chrysler contract.

John Sarge is a member of UAW Local 900 in Wayne, Michigan.

 
 
 
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