Over 7,500 UAW members at American Axle auto parts supplier plants in Michigan and New York have ratified a new national agreement that provides them the same substantial gains won by union members in Big Three pattern bargaining last year.
Hourly workers at American Axle & Manufacturing (AAM) plants in Detroit, Hamtramck and Three Rivers, Mich., and Buffalo, Tonawanda and Cheektowaga, N.Y. approved the four-year contract by over 81 percent in early March.
UAW President Stephen P. Yokich hailed the new contract and the work of union negotiators.
"The UAW bargaining team at AAM worked hard to reach this agreement, and we are pleased with what they have achieved for our members," said Yokich.
"UAW members at American Axle are proud that their efforts have helped this company to become very successful and this new agreement recognizes those efforts," added UAW Vice President Richard Shoemaker, director of the UAW-General Motors Dept.
American Axle, which was spun off from GM in 1994, manufactures drive line and chassis systems and forged products for trucks, buses, cars, and SUVs.
Like the contracts the UAW bargained at GM, Ford and DaimlerChrysler, the AAM agreement provides a three-percent wage increase in each year, a $1,350 up-front lump-sum bonus, an improved cost-of-living (COLA) formula, and no reductions in profit sharing. The economic gains are worth more than $29,900 to a typical UAW production worker over the life of the contract.
UAW-AAM workers won historic pension gains for future and current retirees. The basic pension rate is raised $7.45 per month per year of credited service over the life of the contract, and the monthly 30-and-out pension is increased by $435. Pensions for current retirees and surviving spouses are improved by a combination of benefit level increases and lump-sum payments. Surviving spouses of retirees will get 65 percent of the benefit, up from 60 percent.
Job security is strengthened, requiring AAM to hire new workers as attrition replacements when employment falls to unacceptable levels and the pool of laid off workers is exhausted.
The UAW also convinced AAM to convert 317 temporary employees to regular new hire status, with retroactive 1999 Christmas holiday pay and time worked as temporary employees counted towards eligibility for health care benefits.
Income security is enhanced with a $32.3 million, or 45 percent, increase in the SUB (Supplemental Unemployment Benefit) fund cap to $103.8 million.
UAW bargainers also won health care improvements in the Medicare Part B premium, prescription drug program, dental care, childhood immunizations, and other coverage.
New contract language curtails temporary outsourcing of work, and a new plant closing moratorium says AAM will not sell, spin off, or dispose of any bargaining unit during the life of the agreement.
Holidays are increased to 69 during the life of the agreement, including election day in 2000 and 2002.
Additional contract gains were won in health and safety protections; training programs and tuition assistance for members, retirees, spouses and dependents; life insurance, disability benefits, and survivor income benefits; work and family programs; skilled trades training, security and apprenticeships; corporate commitment to workplace diversity; and other areas.
The UAW-AAM agreement expires in 2004.
