BY JOHN SARGE
DAYTON, Ohio - "We said we would win and we did," was how Rodney Davis put it March 22 as he left a meeting where members of United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 696 voted overwhelming to return to work at two General Motors (GM) brake plants here. They had been on strike for 17 days.
Davis was one of 3,000 unionists who struck GM March 5 over the corporation's plans to cut the number of unionized jobs in Dayton by sending work to a nonunion supplier. This process, known as outsourcing in the auto industry, is part of the drive to restructure U.S. industry and make it more profitable by slashing wages and working conditions. Workers at the South Carolina plant where GM plans to outsource some of its production make on average $5 an hour less in wages than UAW members in Dayton.
Strikers were also responding to massive overtime - including seven day work weeks. "You could work doubles all week if you want it," explained John, a janitor with 23 years at GM, describing the work pace at the plant. Numerous health and safety violations were also at issue for many workers.
GM closed 26 out of 29 North American assembly plants by the end of the Dayton strike, laying off nearly 180,000 GM workers in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The company then attempted to persuade state governments to cut off unemployment insurance payments for the affected workers. Most states eventually agreed to pay unemployment benefits, but Texas denied them. Tens of thousands of other auto parts workers were also idled.
An article by Keith Bradshaw in the New York Times at the end of the walkout noted, "It was management, not labor, that was on the offensive during much of the strike. GM resisted bargaining with the UAW for the first week of the confrontation, which lasted 17 days." GM's stock rose $1.12 over the length of the strike.
Many workers this reporter talked to shared Davis's view that the strike had been successful, but one woman leaving the March 22 union meeting pointed out that "We got a little bit of job security if GM lives up to their word. We'll see."
According to union officials, GM agreed to bring enough new work into the two struck plants to replace the 125 jobs lost to the planned outsourcing to the Robert Bosch plant in South Carolina. The union dropped its challenge to GM contracting out work there.
There was also an agreement to hire 200 production workers to reduce overtime levels, which have been averaging over 12 hours a week. Another 117 skilled trades workers are to be added over the next three years as well.
In addition, because of the company's failure to live up to agreements in 1994 and 1995 - this was the third strike over similar issues in the last decade - GM's vice chairman of the board of directors signed a special letter promising to abide by this agreement. The auto maker agreed to cash payments for violations of earlier contract language on outsourcing. Nowell Padgett, a GM worker with 35 years seniority, said as he left the meeting "It's costing GM over $11 million to settle for not doing what they said they would do."
Big issues still to be settled
Some commentators in the big-business press have described
this strike as a critical battle leading up to the national
negotiations between the UAW and the Big Three, which will
open this summer. The national contracts expire September 14.
They point out that GM, which produces a higher percentage of
its own parts in unionized plants than its competitors, is
counting on increased outsourcing to compete with other auto
makers.
The U.S. auto titans recorded earnings of more than $13 billion in 1995. According to a February 16 report by the UAW, "General Motors Corp. led the profit parade" with $6.9 billion, its largest annual profit ever. Ford Motor Co. raked in $4.1 billion, while Chrysler's profit for 1995 was $2 billion - a decline compared to 1994 for both companies. GM's chief financial officer Mike Losh said the profits were "the kind of good progress we need to make, but still there's a ways to go."
The Dayton workers were able to slow down the job slashing plans of the auto giant, but none of the big issues have been settled. "One thing is clear about last week's strike settlement in Dayton, Ohio," noted an article in the March 25 Wall Street Journal. "It was only the end of the beginning."
One thing other auto workers can expect as they head into new rounds with the auto giants is what Local 696 members found: when you fight you get support. David Brockman, a worker in Dayton, explained, "We got support from all over. Auto workers came down from Canada, Michigan, Illinois, we had a bus from New York. We even had Ford workers come down to show their support."
John Sarge is a member of UAW Local 900 in Detroit. Val Libby and Bobbi Sacks from Cincinnati contributed to this article.