BY JEAN LUC DUVAL AND DOUGLAS DOUTHAT
DETROIT - After nearly a month on the picket line, members of United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 51 at Chrysler's Mound Road Engine Plant returned to work May 10 after ratifying a new contract.

At a May 9 ratification meeting, strikers were given a one-page list of highlights of the proposed settlement and 2 pages of a letter of understanding as they walked in. Voting began while presentations were being made on the settlement, and many of the workers had left before the meeting's end. The contract was approved by a vote of 1,009 to 182.

The UAW highlights emphasized Chrysler's promised to invest $75 million in the plant over the next three years, including setting up a engine new block line. Also, Chrysler agreed that Mound Road workers can transfer with full seniority to the new Mack Avenue Engine Plant currently under construction. The settlement allows Chrysler to outsource drive shaft work to the Dana Corp., with a promise that the work will return the work to Mound Road Engine in five years.

"We got a lot of issues settled," said Robert Lile, a worker at Mound Road Engine Plant, after voting on the contract. "We helped stop outsourcing. Once you lose those jobs you never get them back."

General Motors, Chrysler, and Ford are all pushing to increase the use of outsourcing - sending parts work to lower- cost manufacturers - as a way to cut costs and increase profits.

Dana Corporation, a Toledo-based maker of drivetrain, engine, and chassis components, is the sixth largest auto parts supplier in North America. Dana has about 30,000 employees in North America. Only about 30 percent of its factories have union representation. A UAW organizing drive at a plant in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, was defeated last September. The union charged that management threatened to close the plant if the union won the election.

The 1,800 members of UAW Local 51 went on strike April 10. As a result of the strike, Chrysler shut down 19 plants and laid off nearly 25,000 workers in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. In the last week of the strike, Chrysler filed petitions in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Ohio trying to block unemployment benefits to laid off workers, seeking to undermine solidarity for the strike. According to Saloman Brothers, Inc. of New York, the strike has cost Chrysler $430 million through the lost production of 95,000 vehicles. The 29-day walkout was the longest at Chrysler in 30 years.

"It was worth striking, said LaMont Troupe of the Mound Road Engine Plant. "We took a stand here and hopefully it will encourage others to take a stand."

Jean Luc Duval and Douglas Douthat are members of UAW Local 235 in Detroit.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home