The “white book” or new contract is available for UAW members’ review in the Work Center.

Seniority is irrelevant in the new UAW-GM contract. If you have a job on the line you will never be allowed to bid on an off line job unless you are willing to work for less. All the best off line jobs will go to new hires at $14 per hour. Earn less is what they mean by “job security” and “insourcing.”

There won’t be any raises in the next four years. A GM worker’s standard of living will decline from here on out. In 2011 we will be making 68 cents more than we are today. (page 2 of UAW GM Report “New Contract Protects Wages”). What can you buy for 68 cents? Not enough protection for a one-night stand.

In 2011 GM will bring us all down to the lower tier. New hires and temporaries will be the majority. GM will make sure of that. If they have to hire a bunch of temps to stand around in the shadows ninety days before the contract expires, GM will make sure that the underpaid workers will be the majority. (pg 47 in the white book: “Long Term Temporaries”).

The new underclass at GM does not have a pension. They have a 401k (pg 120 in the white book). GM will contribute a dollar for every compensated hour in the new hires 401k for their health care in retirement (pg 118 in the white book).

New hires will have no interest in bargaining for pension and health care improvements for top-tier workers. Quite the opposite. The lower-tier workers will have incentive to improve their own lot at our expense. It’s only fair. Check out the health care for new hires in the white book (pages 117-121). It is what we can expect for ourselves in 2011.

If you are presently in a “non core” job you will be grandfathered out, that is, you will have a target on your back. GM will have an incentive to fire top-tier workers—a big one. New hires not only earn half-as much in wages, they will never have a pension or health care in retirement.

What is “non core”? Page 116 Attachment A in the white book defines the new wage structure for: “truck driver, material handling, unitizing, warehousing, kitting, sequencing, repacking, sub assembly, inspection, non core stampings, non core blanks, machining (pt)-camshafts-connecting rods, and others.” Basically, non core is any job that isn’t back-breaking, ball-busting, gut-grunting labor.

New hires’ raises will be pegged at the average (i.e., non union) wage for manufacturing. (pg 112 in the white book(The “average” wages will de-escalate rapidly now that GM has taken a pay cut. Lear, American Axle, Johnson Controls, etc., will demand further pay cuts based on the GM-UAW deal. Thus, the average wage in manufacturing will decline rapidly.

Skilled trades need to check out pages 249-293 in the white book, which your bargaining committee is required to allow you to review. The changes in work rules, demarcation, full utilization, alternative work schedules, and work assignments to be “exited” are too numerous to be itemized in this flier. Suffice it to say, the foreplay is over.

“The parties have agreed to exit the following functions in their entirety as expeditiously as possible” (pages 299-300 in the white book). The tasks are too numerous to itemize but include: cardboard disposal, trash handling, janitors, line sweepers, chip handlers, filter changing, fixture relamping, etc., etc....

The Attendance Program is quick and dirty. “The reason for an absence is no longer relevant nor required” (pages 169-175 in the white book). So you won’t have to worry about not having a doctor’s excuse because management won’t accept it anyway.

As for Job Security, well, we’ve all seen how GM and the UAW honor Job Security promises. The only “moratorium” we’ll see in this contract is the funeral of the industrial middle class. Page 329 of the white book lists nine plants that will be closed and one that will be closed or sold. Doc 13 moratorium on plant closings (on page 184 of the white book) describes the conditions “beyond the control of the Corporation,” which disallow compliance with the moratorium. A new phrase “market related volume decline” is underlined. When GM designs a loser it is beyond their control and thus releases them from accountability.

For more information and actual GM-UAW contract language in the “white book” go to:
www.soldiersofsolidarity.com
www.factoryrat.com
www.futureoftheunion.com