UAW lays plans for new contract with automakers

DETROIT -- The United Auto workers kicked off a two-day convention here this morning, aimed at conveying local union concerns to UAW's top officials as they lay plans to bargain with the Detroit Three automakers later this year.

The UAW also will bargain with implement maker John Deere and the state of Michigan.

Workers at those five employers comprise about 43% of the UAW's 400,000 or so members.

The two-day meeting is the UAW Special Convention on Collective Bargaining, which occurs every four years as a forum for rank-and-file members to provide input into the union's negotiating agenda.

"Eliminating two-tier and multi-tier pay structures is our number one priority," a newsletter distributed by Autoworkers Caravan, an activist group within the UAW, said in in advance of the convention. "Equal pay for equal work" is a basic civil and human right....Two-tier fosters an 'us and them' mentality on the plant floor."

Conversely, executives from Detroit's automakers will argue against any raises that make their U.S. labor costs uncompetitive against Asian and German automakers with local plants and lower-paid workers.

Auto sales have increased steadily since General Motors and Chrysler Group bankruptcy reorganizations in 2009. That growth made job creation promises possible in the 2011 contract. Ford created so many new jobs -- more than 14,000 -- during the current contract that the company hit its ceiling of allowable entry-level workers and started bumping the most senior second-tier workers to the top-tier wage.

But analysts expect U.S. auto sales to slow or level off next year, so promises of more job growth could be hard to make and keep.

"Nobody is projecting the growth trends to continue," said Kristin Dziczek, director of the labor and industry group for the Center for Automotive Research. During contract talks, "I think we will be seeing the automakers paying close attention to what happens if there is a downturn."

Arthur Wheaton, professor of labor at Cornell University, said the bargaining convention is similar to the conventions that the Democratic and Republican parties hold when they nominate presidential candidates.

Just as political parties sit in sections by state, UAW delegates sit in sections arranged by region and by their local units. And, just as political parties develop party platforms delegates at the UAW convention will vote on resolutions and a set of collective bargaining principles.

The convention also provides UAW President Dennis Williams and his leadership team an opportunity to lay out their vision of the union's future and its bargaining strategy.

Williams is expected to lead a more businesslike, toned-down convention than his predecessor, Bob King, led in 2011.

Four years ago the convention included speeches by actor and activist Danny Glover, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten and political commentator and MSNBC host Ed Schultz. It ended with a protest in front of a Bank of America branch that shut down the bank for a half-hour.

This year, NAACP President and CEO Cornell William Brooks and U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez will both speak. There will be fewer guest speakers, in part because the convention is two days compared with a 3-day event in 2011.

"Union members read financial news -- especially financial news about the company they work for," said Dziczek. "Pushing restraint and frugality is going to be difficult" because executives received robust pay packages and car companies are earning healthy profits.

In 2011, the UAW won raises for entry level or second-tier workers. Starting pay went from $14.50 to $15.78 per hour with a top wage of $19.28 an hour. But autoworkers hired before 2007, who earn about $28 per hour on average, haven't received a base wage increase for 10 years and are urging UAW leaders to demand raises this year.

This year, the UAW can authorize a strike at General Motors and Chrysler for the first time since 2007. The union agreed to a "no-strike" clause as part of contract modifications adopted during the 2009 bankruptcies of GM and Chrysler.

Williams, who declined to comment for this story, has said that a strike is an absolute last resort.

"If you look at our track record, 98% of all of our contracts are settled without a dispute," Williams said. "Striking is a failure on both parties' part and we don't plan on failing, but we will be prepared."

This is a busy year for the UAW. Some key dates:

• Today and Wednesday -- Two-day special bargaining convention.

• July/August -- Contract talks begin with Detroit Three automakers.

• Sept. 7, Labor Day -- Always a big day for the UAW and, in a contract year, can be the day the union picks a lead automaker for contract talks.

• Sept. 14: Four-year contract with GM, Ford and FCA US (formerly Chrysler Group) expires for about 140,000 hourly autoworkers.

• Oct. 1, 2015: Six-year contract with John Deere expires for 11,000 workers.

• Dec. 31, 2015: Contract with state of Michigan expires for about 22,000 workers.