Fed Up with ‘Walmart Wages,’ Workers at Alabama Auto Parts Plant Vote Overwhelmingly to Join UAW

[Ichingcarpenter]

Piedmont, Ala. – Facing pay as low as $9.70/hour, unaffordable health care, and abusive use of temp positions, workers at a parts plant operated by the global auto supplier Commercial Vehicle Group (CVG) announced Thursday that they have voted overwhelmingly to join the United Auto Workers.

The vote, 89-45, marks a rejection of the pay cuts and growing use of temp positions that are increasingly the norm at auto parts plants, which now employ nearly three out of every four auto workers in the United States. CVG is one of the world’s top manufacturers of parts for heavy trucks and other commercial vehicles, and its Alabama factory is one of the company’s most profitable facilities.

“Our backs were up against the wall – in just a few years, the company gutted our health insurance, took away personal days, and started replacing jobs with temp positions that pay less than Walmart,” said Tiffany Moore, 34, a mother of two children, who is paid $13.84/hour at the CVG plant. “I’ve never been part of a union before, but after years of scraping by while the company ignored our concerns, anyone could see that the only option we had left was to join together to demand the change we need to support ourselves and families.”

Roughly one-in-four jobs at the CVG plant are temp positions, where pay starts at $9.70/hour, with no benefits. For all production workers at the plant, wages are capped at just $15.80/hour, regardless of skill or experience. And costly health insurance reduces pay even further: single and spousal health insurance costs $60 per week, and family health insurance costs $110 per week, meaning that workers paid the top wage of $15.80/hour, or roughly $33,000 per year, will see their take-home pay reduced to just $27,000 per year when they purchase family health insurance.

http://uaw.org/fed-up-with-walmart-wages-workers-at-alabama-auto-parts-plant-vote-overwhelmingly-to-join-uaw/

[Omaha Steve]

1. K&R!

[Adrahil]

2. Good! nt

[Sherman A1]

3. K&R!

[Alkene]

4. Talking Union - Pete Seeger

[Indydem]

5. Well, there goes another 134 jobs to China.

If your job requires no skills to do, 27,000 a year is pretty decent pay.

If your spouse has an equivalent job, your household income is $60,000. That is solidly middle class, and pretty damn good if you are an unskilled laborer.

This company is very likely to pull the plug at this point. They can get unskilled labor anywhere.

[classykaren]

7. WOW

[rpannier]

8. Go apply

After a year at 9 something an hour come back and tell us all how much you enjoyed it
I will admit it's nice when the anti-union crowd comes out and shows itself
At least I'll be able to recognize the enemy in our own ranks

[winterwar]

14. Thank you

Well said

[whathehell]

24. +10 n/t

[Indydem]

31. You have no idea what I do.

Further, you have no idea what I make or have made.

I've worked for free in the past, trying to get a business off the ground.

Making $9 is too little. Making $15 an hour to work in parts manufacturing (which I have done in the past) and have no responsibilities beyond your own job, is darn good money. If you want to work in a factory, and do not have any education beyond high school, $15 an hour is pretty good.

I don't prescribe to the idea of a $15 minimum wage. I've had to make payroll, and I know there are people out there that barely deserve $8.

[LuvNewcastle]

9. That $15 an hour is only paid to those

who have been there long enough to work up to it. Those are highly productive workers at a successful plant. They should be getting $15 as the base pay. It's fucking disgusting what so many companies are doing to American workers, and then they tell them that they're lucky to have a job. This shit has got to stop. American workers are getting crushed even though they're some of the most productive workers in the world. I'm really fucking sick of people with your attitude. Such people can go pound sand.

[Indydem]

32. Then go start a business.

Go get a parts manufacturing plant off the ground.

Compete with CVG.

Win the contract.

Pay your people whatever you want.

If you can't or won't do that, what right or authority do you have to tell people who have done that how to run their business?

[LuvNewcastle]

33. What right do I have?

I have worked for about 31 years now, in Mississippi, doing various jobs and earning anywhere from minimum wage to around $40,000 a year. I know the value of work, and I know when people are getting screwed by the company they work for.

A whole lot of people today are getting screwed. Companies either want to work you to death, if you're on salary, or give you so few hours that you need another job to make ends meet, and good luck finding a way to work both jobs without one interfering with the other. Then you have people with families, so they have a whole other set of problems to figure out.

Most people are working too hard and for too little pay, and it's all because business owners don't want to share profits. So I don't need to go start a business to know about how to fuck the working class. I've already seen enough for a lifetime.

Business owners should keep in mind that the working people are the ones who build the owners' wealth, and we're also the ones who buy the products they sell. They're cutting their own greedy throats by paying people so little and treating them like animals.

[Ichingcarpenter]

34. ''what right or authority do you have to tell people how to run their business?''

what right or authority do you have to tell people who have done that how to run their business?

Its called


We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union

establish Justice,..........got that?

insure domestic Tranquility,..... not for the 1%

provide for the common defense......... common defense not corporate defense

promote the general Welfare,......... not welfare for the rich but for the people

and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

UNION man

[mymomwasright]

12. Many companies claim "unskilled labor"

Problem is, they lie a lot. It takes skill to drive fork trucks, operate computer programs, handle hazardous materials, etc. They get what they pay for and many times people get hurt, too. Companies like to work on the cheap and many don't mind the risk of the revolving door temp agencies to fill the void. Companies want workers to remain afraid and concerned about employment. That's how they win. Organized labor us always best!

[winterwar]

13. No skill?

Please explain what you know about working in a parts plant. I've seen first hand, most parts plants make you work at a fast pace with little tolerance for error. I'd love to see you try your hand at a "no skill" job at one of these plants and keep up. It's funny you say the jobs will go to China because of wages, because there are plenty parts supplier jobs here on Michigan that pay well and have managed to stay in business for decades. So please enlighten me with your superior knowledge of the subject. I never thought I'd see a regurgitated anti-union taking point in DU.

[hobbit709]

18. Try living somewhere other than the boonies for $27K a year

Evidently you only give a shit about yourself.

We know whose side YOU'RE on.

[whathehell]

20. Yeah, so lets all work for the lowest amount possible, so

our slave wage job stays here instead of going to China.

It's a race to the bottom -- Run faster!

[mountain grammy]

21. I can't even begin to understand your post.

no job requires "no skills." You are making assumptions that are meaningless to all but the anti union and anti worker community out there who doesn't have a clue. You're here on DU, educate yourself.

[Codeine]

23. Aren't you special? nt

[Enthusiast]

25. American workers must draw the line. This race to the bottom is unacceptable.

This government should represent our interests by enacting tariffs that would offset what amounts to overseas slave labor.

[daleanime]

29. Thank you for your post, while I strongly disagree with your position....

I love the response you kicked.

And I do enjoy the honesty.

[Human101948]

6. Why don't they appreciate their Republican gifted Right to Work?

This is great to see. It would be even better if more and more workers in Right to Work states came to the realization that they are getting screwed.

http://www.newsweek.com/slippery-math-right-work-advocates-332555

"In fact, the scientific research actually shows the opposite of what right-to-work proponents have claimed.

The most rigorous research study available—published in 2011 by the nonpartisan Economic Policy Institute and conducted by Heidi Shierholz (now the chief economist of the U.S. Department of Labor) and Elise Gould—controlled for 42 variables. It found that right-to-work laws result in lower wages and a lower likelihood of health care and pensions for union and non-union workers. It also shows right-to-work laws have no impact on economic growth.

Right-to-work proponents, however, have used “research” reports that control for few if any variables, to suggest that right-to-work states have done better on a variety of growth measures, predicting that their state would similarly benefit by passing a bill."

[raccoon]

10. Great news! Finally, some red state workers are

getting their heads out of their arses getting their eyes opened and realizing that unions can be a GOOD thing.

[Lee-Lee]

11. Good to see workers organizing inn the south!

This area was neglected by organized labor for so long, and I think that was a strategic mistake in the 50s and 60s.

[roscoeroscoe]

15. UNION NOW

Way to go, 'Bama!

[winterwar]

16. UAW does it again!

If you really want to support American workers, support unions. They work hard to make sure workers have rights and fair wages. They pull wages up for non union workers as well.

[stonecutter357]

17. K&R!

[japple]

19. Workers in the South have been brainwashed for generations over the

issue of unionization. It's nice to see that some are starting to see the light!

[whathehell]

22. Yes! Glad to see some are finally seeing the light!

[merrily]

26. Yeayyyyy! Unionizing is one of the few things from the 1850s that is still a GREAT idea.

[Smarmie Doofus]

27. "Release the hounds!" K and R

[daleanime]

28. Excellent!

[DrBulldog]

30. There are a lot of Americans these days asking "What good are unions?"

Well, people, YOU or your kids could end up in a situation like this some day. THIS is why we need more unions!