Main Street

American Axle: A Year After the Strike

Welcome to the world that has become the United States Labor market.

It’s filled with companies that pay CEO’s hundreds of thousands of dollars and into the multimillions of dollars.

From the American Red Cross’ Multi-Billion dollar Blood Business to Wal-Mart’s sticking it to folks like Debbie Shank (and yes, they were well within their legal right to do so), but what Dick E Dauch did and continues to do, well, it just kind of makes me ill, to the nth degree.

Why you might ask, well, I think the Detroit News kind of figured that one out:

Since American Axle was spun off from General Motors and reconstituted in 1994, the union negotiates with American Axle, not GM, and does not get the sweetheart deal other UAW workers will get. In fact, Local 235 went on strike for three months last year and lost. It was a cold, bitter dispute, complete with fires in the oil drums. The unionized workers, numbering nearly 2,000 at the time, gave in to deep wage cuts, in some cases from $28 an hour to $14, in exchange for keeping their jobs. Apparently it was not enough. Fewer than 300 union members were working in the plant Monday.

In the meantime, Dick Dauch, the CEO and chairman of American Axle, was given an $8.5 million bonus by his board of directors after the strike and gave assurances to the workers and the city of Hamtramck that he would keep production here.

Yes, emphasis is mine.

I followed the strike. I was a bit obsessive about it.

I posted pictures like that of a 60 year old woman in an officer’s chokehold. Or how Republican staffers who were meeting with UAW members about the bridge loans to the auto industry had NEVER heard of American Axle or their 11 week strike.

I followed one of my favorite workers Jerd0708, and cross referenced worker pay and executive pay, an issue that resinates with workers from Wal-Mart to the American Red Cross to the guys and gals on the docks. It’s the Entitlement Mentality of the highest levels of executives that seals the fate of so many of us who simply want to work. Folks who just want to put in an honest day of work for an honest day of pay.

More than ever, I believe in the power of unions, but we need stronger labor laws to make it possible for union workers to rebuild the middle class. We need to pass the Employee Free Choice Act to make it possible for more workers to sign a union card and join a union. Together, maybe we can start holding boards of directors, CEOs and other executives accountable for their actions when they give an $8.5 million bonus to Dick E Dauch (I said BONUS here) just for the hell of it.

One other thing:

We as a nation need to do a better job of ensuring that companies can’t just flee one jurisdiction to go to another because somewhere, down the road, doing so might be cheaper (think of what American Axle is doing in moving jobs to Mexico or Kongsberg Automotive moving production into Poland) in terms of labor costs and environmental costs. Again, from the Detroit News:

Chris Son, the director of communications at American Axle, called late Wednesday to say that the layoffs are “fallout from the GM and Chrysler shutdowns.” He also confirmed that the Mexicans will continue to work as the Americans are out on the street.

“For logistical reasons, a level of production will continue in Mexico,” said Son. “At the same time, there will be lower production requirements in Detroit. Other than that, I have no further comment on that matter.”

Logistical reasons, right.

Chris and Dick, if American workers can’t buy cars produced with your parts, what’s the point in moving to Brazil, Poland or continuing operations in Mexico? If we can’t buy these cars, who will? Oh wait, I know the answer, guys like you, right?

Tags: Detroit, union

Video: Martha on the importance of a union

Marth on the importance of the option of having a union.

Tags: jobs, union

Video: Marcus on Jobs

Marcus talks about jobs, with and without the benefits of a union.

Tags: jobs, union

Dad Died at Pennsylvania Steel Company

by Kara Kukovich—Pennsylvania

I was canvassing in Bethlehem when I came across a woman sittin on her porch. When I told her who I was, she got excited and eager to sign on. She said she always signs anything in support of the AFL-CIO because her (deceased) father was such a big supporter and member of the union. She began telling me the story of how her dad worked at a local steel company and was killed in August of 1984 when the roofing rafters fell through - something the union had been trying to get fixed because of the imposing danger. Her family got paid $200-400 for her dad’s death.

Tags: , union

Unions - yes!

by Rose Bonesso—Pennsylvania

As the office manager in Pittsburgh, I rarely get the opportunity to talk to the people whose lives’ are being affected daily by a struggling economy and inadequate health care the way our Organizers do. Last week; however, I answered the phone and spoke to a woman who had been canvassed the prior evening. She said that she spent most of her adult life thinking that Unions were the “problem”, but after talking with one of our Organizers, she felt differently. She opened about her own workplace where she had always made a good living in commission sales, but now, the corporation was demanding more and more and offering less and less in terms of pay, benefits and incentives. She said she was about 10 years away from retirement, and wanted to try and organize a Union!!
She went from being anti-Union to establishing herself as a Union organizer!
It’s always amazing to me the real, tangible difference that our organizers are making out in the field every single day.

Tags: economy, health care, union

The old man

by Bill St.Onge—Michigan

The streets were completely dark, but the rain had stopped.

From where I stood next to the mailbox, I could see up the long flight of steps that disappeared into the trees atop the hill. There had to be sixty steps, and my legs were already aching from a long day of walking. Above, I could see the glow of a porch light between the pine boughs. Someone was home. Resigned, I grabbed the iron railing and started to pull myself up.

It was a small house. In the clearing around the house, I could see dozens of handmade birdhouses hung in the trees.

I rang the bell and saw a shadow inside make it’s way towards me.

I’’m not little, but this guy towered over me. He was shirtless, barrel-chested, tattooed, and his hands would have fit around a basketball had they not been so gnarled from arthritis. He was at least ninety years old, but as he walked into the light all I could see was his smile and his bright eyes.

I finished my rap and then we sat out under the porch light talking. He had done it all. He had been in work camps under Roosevelt, and spent time in a steel mill in Gary. In California, he drove a truck, and in Washington state he worked an apple picker up near Yakima. He had spent his life at hard labor, and lived alone now in this little house atop the hill.

When we were done, he went inside and came back with three wadded up dollar bills as a contribution ““for the union, brother,”” and then shook my hand.

It’’s funny. We go into the community to affect others, and end up being affected by them. All I know is that I was a better person when I came down those steps than I was when I went up.

Tags: membership, union