Mopar Workers Frown, Vote Down UAW Contract

Aaron Cole
by Aaron Cole

Detroit parts and axle operations workers Wednesday voted against a four-year contract proposed by the United Auto Workers and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, the Detroit News reported.

About 700 Local 1248 workers in Warren, Michigan, turned down the proposal and said Wednesday that the contract created a third, unfair pay tier for Mopar workers that would cap their wages at a lower rate than Tier 1 and Tier 2 workers at FCA.

Under the proposed contract, veteran Tier 1 workers could receive pay raises up to $30 an hour, and newer, Tier 2 workers’ pay could go up to $25 an hour. Parts and axle operations workers pay would top out at $22 and $22.35 per hour, respectively.

Union President Dennis Williams said the “third tier” claims were inaccurate; those workers would have a path to apply for higher paying jobs.

“They’re not stuck. They’re not dead-end,” Williams told the Detroit News. “A tier system is when you don’t have a path. That is a tier system.”

Mopar employees were eligible for the $3,000 ratification bonus. The contract would cover more than 40,000 workers at FCA. Critics say the contract doesn’t raise wages high enough, and that the tier system wasn’t effectively eliminated.


Aaron Cole
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  • Vent-L-8 Vent-L-8 on Sep 24, 2015

    this face will be appearing in my 3rd level REM sleep tonight, so um thanks for that.

  • SCE to AUX SCE to AUX on Sep 24, 2015

    The UAW has a leadership problem; wonder if the rank and file realize it.

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    • VolandoBajo VolandoBajo on Sep 26, 2015

      @highdesertcat No reply buttons further down the chain here, and apropos of little except the value overall of military pensions: At age 36, struggling to eke out a more than just adequate living as a branch manager for an office of a large Beltway consulting firm, and recently divorced, I thought about the idea of going back into the Marine Corps, and trying to make it into the officer corps. I had been a grunt in my tees and early twenties, for a single stint, but had just read a study by the Rand Corporation which is my main point. Turns out I had missed the age cutoff at that time by just over a year. But the idea of retiring at 56 with half-officer-pay or at 66 with two-thirds, seemed like a decent career/retirement plan. Seems the RAND study showed that for an educated person who worked in "industry" vs. one who went into the military, the person who elected for the military made out much better over their full lifetime than all but the very top tier of those in industry. While I knew I would have to work like hell to make the grade and would have to put up with a fair amount of crap over twenty to thirty years, at that time, in a down economy, it seemed like a reasonable alternative. So much so that I considered encouraging my twenty one year old son to go that route, until the current "leadership" of our country handed us such "victories" as Benghazi and the death of an entire SEAL team when they were all shot down by a rocket, after being loaded into a single helicopter in combat territory. But the takehome is that in general, doing twenty or thirty in the military, especially for an officer, provides a pretty cushy ride, IF you don't get screwed over by what passes for leadership in the military these days. But of course, that IF has gotten so large that it would take a much larger font to place it in proportion here. And before I get flamed, I don't begrudge anyone who stuck it out getting their gravy...they earned it. But I refuse to believe that it was a particularly difficult path, either, and ditto for most civil servants, including police officers and firemen. For an enlisted person, on the other hand, I would think that they would be left in a fairly tight spot when they retired at a typical age of either forty or fifty. And as always, YMMV.

  • Ianw33 Ianw33 on Sep 24, 2015

    Does anyone know what the job requirements typically are for people looking into the entry level, or "third tier", jobs are? Do they require a college/technical degree? if they don't require a degree, these wages seem more than fair. Heck, post-2009, these wages sound fair even with a degree!

    • Redav Redav on Sep 25, 2015

      "Fair" is being interpreted as a comparison to others, not a inherent value. Being paid $22/hr with benefits to do non-skilled labor isn't 'fair' if someone else is being paid $25/hr for the same work.

  • Indi500fan Indi500fan on Sep 24, 2015

    They're making about 2x what warehouse folks make at Amazon, etc. plus a pretty decent bennies package. Just another reason why OEM service parts are priced dearly.

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