Parts workers: A key part of UAW’s future

You can’t make a quality vehicle without quality parts. And there’s no way to build a strong union for auto workers without strong representation from workers who make seats, interiors, batteries and other key vehicle components.

Tens of thousands of workers who work in plants that supply parts to major auto manufacturers are UAW members. UAW members in this sector make components that go into every major make and model of vehicle produced in the U.S, including Chrysler, Ford, GM, Honda, Nissan and Toyota. UAW members are involved in every aspect of automotive production, including:

• Seats and components
• Interiors and trims
• Exterior trim
• Engines and powertrain
• Heating, cooling and air ventilation systems
• Electronics and electrical parts
• Exhaust systems; batteries; glass
• Filters
• Steering
• Axles and drivetrain
• Body and structural components
• Transmissions
• Fuel systems
• Suspension
• Brakes; wheel and tires
• Trucking and logistics companies

UAW members work at more than two dozen major automotive suppliers at locations across the United States. The downturn in auto sales which took place in 2008 and 2009 has caused a great deal of economic hardship among workers in the auto supply industry. UAW members in this sector, through their collective bargaining power, have had much greater success in protecting jobs, income, health care and pensions than workers at non-union suppliers.

To assist workers in the auto supply industry and related manufacturing companies in maintaining the highest possible standard of wages and benefits, the UAW Competitive Shops/Independents, Parts and Suppliers (CS/IPS) Department assists local union negotiators in bargaining national agreements with parts and supplier companies, which typically cover agreements at multiple facilities of the same employer.

The CS/IPS Department also supports UAW members working at companies without national agreements, by providing wage and benefit comparisons and assisting with local negotiations when requested.

UAW wage and hour industry councils bring together union members working in similar sectors of the auto parts industry. By working together, UAW members who work for different employers can defend decent wages and benefits and work to build union density in auto parts and supplier industries. Some recent examples of this strategy in action:

• More than two thousand workers at Dana had the chance to organize and bargain first contracts when already-organized UAW members at the company used the leverage of their master agreement contract expiration to win a national neutrality, card-check and arbitration agreement.
• Strong partnerships with supply companies also helped workers at Tower, which in July 2007 successfully emerged from bankruptcy after two years, gain new contracts. In 2009, UAW members were able to negotiate contracts at five plants within 1½ years.
• A major goal of UAW auto parts and supplier workers is to standardize the economics of agreements for particular products or services so that employers compete on the basis of quality, service and innovation – not on who pays the lowest wages.

"Our members have worked really well with developing a strong relationship with the company and that makes a difference,” said UAW Local 1327 President Steve Iliff, of Bluffton, Ohio where UAW members at Tower produce heavy frames for Ford, Chrysler and Nissan trucks. “The industry has seen some changes, but as union members we are better positioned to survive even the toughest times."