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 Norwood Jewell, nominated to serve as one of three vice presidents
when the union meets next June to ratify its new leaders, said on
Monday that the UAW wants to dump the two-tier scale that pays
entry-level hires at slightly more than half the rate of veteran
workers.
"The international executive board hates two-tiers," he told
reporters at a General Motors Co plant in Flint, Michigan. Jewell is
currently director of the region that includes the GM plant.
"We didn't do two tiers because it's a wonderful thing," he added,
saying they were a "financial unfortunate" caused by the weak
industry in 2007. "We hate them. We intend to eliminate them over
time."
The UAW will negotiate its next labor contract with the U.S.
automakers, GM, Ford Motor Co and Chrysler Group, which is
controlled by Italy's Fiat, in 2015. Strong profits at the U.S.
automakers, combined with the UAW's distaste for two-tier wages and
the fact that veteran workers have not received a pay raise in a
decade, point to difficult labor talks.
The American automakers have said they need the entry-level wage
scale to compete on labor costs with Japanese, South Korean and
German automakers that have U.S. plants.
Pay of hourly workers at the entry level starts at just under $16 an
hour and rises over time to more than $19. Veteran workers are paid
just more than $28 an hour.
About 16 percent of GM's 51,500 hourly U.S. employees are
second-tier workers, while 19 percent of Ford's 46,500 hourly
workers are paid at that level. About a quarter of Chrysler's 32,000
hourly workers are entry-level.
Jewell said key to eliminating the second-tier wages will be the UAW
successfully organizing non-union plants in the U.S. South. "If we
don't organize them and bring them up to our standard, we're never
going be able to totally eliminate the second tier," he said.
The UAW has been negotiating to organize Volkswagen AG's assembly
plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, through a German-style labor
council.
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Asked whether the union expects to recoup some of the givebacks it
made in the last round of talks in 2011 with the now-profitable U.S.
automakers, Jewell said a strong economy would help the union's case
in the next contract negotiations.
Jewell also said he expects the union's strong relations with GM to
continue even as the No. 1 U.S. automaker transitions to a new chief
executive next month. Last week, GM said CEO Dan Akerson would be
replaced by product development chief Mary Barra, the industry's
first woman CEO. [ID:nL1N0JP24W]
Jewell also said any move to raise union dues would be decided by
the membership at the convention next June.
The UAW is considering hiking membership dues by 25 percent, the
first increase since 1967, as it faces dwindling membership and
rising costs, sources and a union official said this month. Jimmy
Settles, UAW vice president and the top union official for workers
at Ford said the increase was only in the discussion phase and no
decision had been made.
The UAW has faced dwindling membership since 1979, when U.S.
automakers dominated the domestic car market and before the
widespread use of robots and other manufacturing efficiencies cut
the need for as many assembly line workers.
UAW membership sunk to 355,191 in 2009 at the depths of the U.S.
recession but while U.S. auto sales have increased nearly 50 percent
since then, union membership has risen 8 percent.
(Additional reporting by Bernie Woodall
in Detroit; editing by Nick Zieminski)
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