NDM Independent Parts Suppliers National Pattern Contract Platform

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In recent years we have seen plants formerly owned by the Big Three forced into "Separation Agreements." The restructuring has instigated painful concessions, intolerable working conditions, and gross neglect of ergonomic standards. Weak and ineffective union leadership has led to diminished job security, and the slow, remorseless death of solidarity.

Previous GM, Chrysler, and Ford plants now exist as spin-off Independent Parts Suppliers [IPS]. The independence is a foil. The Big Three still act as the governing force behind the scenes, pulling puppet strings, manipulating policies, and demanding price reductions. The result is speed up, job overload, excessive overtime, disregard of ergonomics, and a general erosion of humane working conditions. "Competitive Agreements" harm and degrade workers. They strike at the very heart of fairness and solidarity.

IPS rank and file are subjected to the tyrannical whims of the Big Three. When an IPS plant serves only one customer, as is most often the case, it creates a situation in which the Big Three are in effect still running the show, strong arming the rank and file into "competitive wage agreements" and "just in time" work schedules that decimate the membership. Key union principles of solidarity and "equal pay for equal work," become little more than rhetoric with two and three tier wage agreements.

Union members with inferior wage rates work side-by-side with union members making ten or twelve dollars more per hour, plus the seniority to dominate job preference. The divisiveness is not an inadvertent consequence - it is planned. Contractual inequality incites resentment and conflict. Two-tier is antiunion, anti-worker, pro-boss, pro-corporation, pro-corruption, and will eventually cause the labor movement to self-destruct. Favoritism and discrimination, which work directly against union power, are commonplace in such inherently hostile environments.

In the wake of such catastrophically damaging "Competitive Agreements" the union itself has become a source of contention to the rank and file. There is no parity in IPS and no bottom to what the market will bear. Even organized IPS plants are isolated, forced to stand alone and confront issues they are not equipped to address without the union network that corporations have stripped away with the tacit consent of the International.

UAW members in IPS receive very little communication from Regional or International Union leadership. Without the concerted support of the International, IPS rank and file are unable to mobilize with other union members to repel the corporate assault on fair and equal standards. IPS members are intimidated into a stand-down approach; they are isolated and vulnerable to increasingly aggressive attacks from management; they are expected to make unreasonable and unjust concessions. The corporations are organized - the union is in disarray.

IPS are the first to take concessions; they are used as experimental models for target studies later applied to the larger GM, Ford, and Chrysler ranks. Some say there is nothing the UAW can do about it, that we must allow corporations to be "competitive" if we value our jobs. NDM, however, believes justice and equality are the products of struggle not concession. NDM believes the rank and file has the power to control the conditions of their labor. NDM believes the power of one is feeble, but the Union makes us strong when the Union acts like a Union.

Our choices are clear: The rank and file can either concede to powerless cynicism or we can again stand up and demand fair, just, and reasonable treatment through a national IPS pattern contract that would reestablish the union network, promote increased solidarity, and bring fairness and comparative power back to the IPS playing field.

UAW President's Report to the 33rd Constitutional Convention in 2002 stated:

"Total manufacturing employment peaked in 1979, as did union membership in manufacturing. But the number of non-union workers employed in manufacturing was actually higher last year than it was in 1979."

"In marked contrast to many other UAW sectors, and to U.S. manufacturing as a whole, employment in auto parts has actually been on a growth path. The previous employment peak, reached in 1978, was surpassed in 1995. And despite bankruptcies, layoffs and plant closings that have been daily fare in the industry for more than a year, parts employment at the beginning of 2002 was still at historically high levels - down substantially from the all-time peak reached during 1999-2000, but well above its level a decade ago."

"It is no exaggeration to state that our success as a Union hinges on our success in independent parts."

"If our presence in independent parts erodes further, it's not just parts workers who will suffer. Our members in assembly and powertrain plants will feel the squeeze as well, through stepped-up pressure on wages and benefits, more outsourcing, more downsizing."

Why have we failed to organize? We need to take an honest look at ourselves and stop making excuses. Organizing wasn't easier in the 1930's.

The Administration Caucus spends countless time and energy encouraging the rank and file to donate to V-CAP and support politicians. But the Administration Caucus does very little to mobilize union members to support organizing. They have put the cart in front of the horse.

If we succeed at organizing, progressive legislation will follow our lead.

We can't organize by cooperating with the boss. If concession and cooperation is the only strategy the union has, workers may as well rely on individual initiatives. If we truly want to organize, we must show non-union workers we have something more to offer than concession bargaining and bootlicking.

Samuel Gompers once said, "Unions need to provide a practical solution to an urgent need." What do IPS workers need urgently? Fair pay, comprehensive health care, secure pensions, and job security. If we want to organize, we must strive to meet those needs. If we allow the bosses to divide us, isolate us, and treat each local unit as a separate entity, they will continue to chew us up and spit us out. We can't confront a multinational Corporation or a supplier to a multinational corporation with small isolated local strikes.

We need:

(1) a national pattern contract for IPS,

(2) an industry wide benefit plan,

(3) portable pensions

(4) preferential hiring for laid off IPS workers.

(1) A National Pattern Contract: Isolated strikes are social suicide. We need to take labor out of competition and support each other like a real union if we want to survive. We need a partnership with other local unions, not with corporations. IPS needs brothers and sisters in the Big Three to say, we don't handle scab parts. We need cooperation between unions, not cooperation with bosses.

(2) A National Benefits Fund pooled industry wide and administered by a joint union and industry committee to cover pensions, health care, and sub pay for all of IPS. Small suppliers lack the capital accumulation to provide adequate benefits like those enjoyed by workers in the Big Three. A National Benefits Fund would enable small IPS plants to afford better benefits at reduced premiums and therefore make them more competitive.

(3) Pension credits must be portable and cover all UAW members in separate IPS units under the National Pattern Agreement. Thereby ensuring security in a volatile industry.

(4) Preferential hiring and transfer rights to other companies represented by the UAW. Thus meeting the needs of IPS workers for job security and providing a practical incentive to join the UAW.

Some say it can't be done. Let us remind you, they said we'd never get the Eight Hour Day, COLA, 30 & Out, SUB Pay. They said Ford and GM would never recognize the UAW. Surprise, surprise, surprise.

The best way to organize is to show workers we can fight the boss and win.

The only way to win is to unite in solidarity and take labor out of the competition. Cooperation with the boss is a bust. History has shown the only way to gain social and economic justice is to resist, rebel, and revolt.

As Frederick Douglas said, "Power concedes nothing without demand."

We want a National Pattern contract for IPS, a National Benefits Fund for IPS, Portable Pension credits for IPS, and Preferential Hiring and Transfer Rights for IPS.

We encourage all Locals to begin fighting for this platform, and to begin to reach out with other rank and file for a common purpose and focused goal. It is only when the rank and file begin demanding change that we will see it happen.

We demand the international address our concerns and fight for a National Pattern IPS Contract, National Benefits Fund, Portable Pension and IPS Preferential Hiring and Transfer Rights for ALL IPS rank and file.

Nothing else is acceptable - nothing less will work.

UNITED AUTO WORKERS
NEW DIRECTIONS MOVEMENT
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