BY JOHN SARGE
PLYMOUTH, Michigan - Workers here and in Oberlin, Ohio, scored a victory after 25 days on strike against the auto parts giant Johnson Controls Inc. (JCI). The 300 workers in Michigan and 200 in Ohio, who are members of the United Auto Workers (UAW), ratified their first union contracts February 21.

The 500 UAW members struck January 28 after JCI, which had negotiated with the union since last summer, still refused to offer the same pay and benefits that workers at other unionized seat suppliers - or even at other nonunion JCI plants - have. The struck plants make auto seats for Ford Motor Co., the second-largest U.S. automaker. Ford surprised JCI management when they refused to accept seats made by salaried personnel and scabs, which the company had organized to have in place as the strike began. Ford made its decision to avoid conflicts with UAW members in its assembly plants that use the seats. Ford workers built the seats now supplied by JCI until the spring of 1996.

Low-seniority members of UAW Local 174 in Plymouth, who made $9.50 before the strike, will earn $12.66 by the third year of the agreement. More senior production workers earning $10.50 in January will see their hourly rate climb to $14.00 over the same period. Members of Local 996 in Oberlin will see production wages top out at $12.35 in February 1999.

The strikers won improvements in their medical benefits. In addition, the company will set up a defined pension plan for the first time, not a 401K individual savings plan as was in place in Plymouth, and workers will receive more paid holidays. Press reports indicate that with these improvements workers at the two JCI plants will have wages and benefits close to the unionized workforce at JCI's major competitor, Lear Seating. Workers at both seat makers are paid substantially less than UAW members at Ford. Employees with three years' seniority at the auto giant make over $19 an hour today and are projected to earn $21.60 in September 1999. The Big Three contracts - between the UAW and Ford, Chrysler, and General Motors - include a cost-of-living clause, which the JCI workers don't have.

Local 174 members here approved their contract by an 82 percent majority. UAW strikers in Ohio voted 86 percent in favor of the agreement.

Press reports indicate that the union was demanding a "neutrality" clause in the contracts. The clause would have limited the antiunion campaigns that JCI has run at plants that the UAW has tried to organize. The union did not get it included in the contracts, but there are reports that the company has informally agreed not to oppose organizing efforts in seat plants that will supply Ford assembly plants in Minneapolis and Edison, New Jersey. Ford is planning to outsource seat assembly work now done by UAW members in these assembly plants.

This strike, although involving a small number of workers, has been closely watched by others suppliers, the big-business press, and workers in the Detroit area. The strike was a regular feature on TV and radio news broadcasts, as well as covered by newspapers.

The auto parts supplier industry has seen a massive consolidation over the last decade. In 1988 there were 30,000 auto parts suppliers worldwide; by 1998 this number will shrink to 8,000. In 1994 and 1995 there were more than 320 acquisitions or mergers in the auto parts industry. A decade ago there were no companies that could be considered global auto suppliers, today the number approaches 100. An example of the consolidation is that Lear and JCI control 72 percent of the world market for auto seats and expect to control more in the future.

Increase in nonunion auto parts plants
As the parts giants have developed, the unionized component of the industry in the U.S. has shrunk from 50 percent in the early 1980s to less than 20 percent today. Alongside this shift, wages and working conditions have worsened.

Ford was quickly effected by the walkout at Johnson Controls. Because of the "just in time" production system, where parts reach the plants just hours and in some cases minutes before they are needed on the assembly line, three assembly plants were shut down after building thousands of seatless trucks. Ford's Michigan Truck Plant (MTP) was closed for five days before Ford set up an alternate seat supply system. Even then, it was only installing seats in half of its highly profitable sport utility vehicles. Ford now has more than 13,000 vehicles spread around southeast Michigan that will have to be retrofitted with seats.

The company also closed parts of two assembly plants in Ohio on February 7 and only began to reopen them after the JCI workers approved their contracts. Some 6,800 UAW members at Ford were laid off because of the strike. The strike is expected to reduce the number-two auto makers' income by $25 million. There will be other costs, as Ford pays UAW members from MTP overtime to put seats in the parked trucks.

According to an article in the February 21 Wall Street Journal, the strike was watched closely because the Big Three automakers have put auto suppliers "under relentless pressure" to cut costs. Other sources report that Ford demanded that JCI cut costs by 5 percent a year to get contracts.

David Cole, head of the University of Michigan transportation research institute, told the Detroit Sunday Journal that the new JCI contract could help GM by raising parts costs for Ford and Chrysler. GM has been on a drive to lower its parts costs. The company's campaign has included selling some of its parts plants and using a strike at two brake plants in Dayton, Ohio, last year to organize a lockout of most of their assembly workers in the United States.

The victory at Johnson Controls has been watched by other unionists as they prepare for contract fights with the auto giants, as well as by unorganized workers who make up the big majority of auto parts workers, toiling for low wages with few benefits or rights.

John Sarge is a member of UAW Local 900 at Ford's MTP. Brad Downs, a UAW member in Cleveland, contributed to this article.  
 
 
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