Turnaround at Dana

Union manufacturing jobs are supposed to be an endangered species in the United States. Employers routinely move work away from union facilities and fiercely resist organizing efforts by nonunion workers.

For 20 years that was the strategy followed by the Dana Corp., a key supplier to U.S. auto plants.

In the 1980s workers at 25 Dana plants had UAW contracts. By the beginning of 2007 that number was down to nine – with two slated for closure.

A year later, there’s a turnaround at Dana.

Since last July workers at 11 Dana facilities in seven U.S. states and Canada – from St. Clair, Mich., to Milwaukee, Wis., and Dry Ridge, Ky., to Barrie, Ontario – have organized their own local unions. The new bargaining units total nearly 2,500 new UAW Dana members.

There are now 18 Dana plants with UAW contracts, twice as many as a year ago.

How did the turnaround happen?

In 2006 the UAW Independents, Parts and Suppliers/Competitive Shops (IPS/CS) Department, headed by UAW Vice President Bob King, and nine UAW Dana locals formed a coalition with United Steelworker (USW) local unions, also representing Dana workers, to confront challenges at the company. A strategic plan was developed to take advantage of this opportunity to boost UAW and USW bargaining strength and to expand the rights of the unorganized.

In March 2006 Dana Corp. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The company asked a federal judge to cancel the company’s labor contracts, and a trial was under way. Union members made it clear that such drastic action could result in a labor dispute.

The high-stakes bargaining led to a successful outcome.

Working together, UAW and USW members hammered out the UAW Dana National Framework Agreement, ratified by Dana workers July 24, 2007.

The four-year national agreement covers wages and health care for active workers, and pensions and health care for retirees. Dana also will contribute more than $750 million to a Voluntary Employee Beneficiary Association (VEBA) trust fund to pay health care benefits for current and future UAW and USW Dana retirees.

In an important and innovative feature of the settlement agreement, the two unions recruited and encouraged Centerbridge Partners LP of New York to invest $500 million and sponsor a reorganization plan to allow Dana to emerge from bankruptcy.

In addition, to expand the rights of unorganized Dana workers, the union insisted on fair procedures, including card-check recognition, a process where employers agree to recognize a union once a majority of workers indicate their preference by signing union authorization cards.

In July, with the framework agreement in place, it was time to move forward with the neutrality and card-check agreement. The entire UAW teamed up to assist Dana workers, including the union’s National Organizing Department, directed by UAW Vice President Terry Thurman, the IPS/CS Department and UAW regions.

When workers at the 11 newly-organized Dana facilities achieved majority status they were not just forming their UAW local unions but also deciding whether to accept the national agreement. All 18 local contracts at UAW-represented Dana facilities will expire June 1, 2011, as will contracts at the Steelworkers locals.

With a common expiration date, Dana workers from different locals will be united during the negotiations process and will have more power at the bargaining table.

“Our members at Dana had a clear agenda in negotiations: protect jobs and retirees and correct the mismanagement that led the company into bankruptcy. We also insisted that from now on, Dana must respect workers’ right to organize,” said King. “Dana agreed to our conditions, and they have kept their commitments.”

“I can’t think of a better illustration of why we need the Employee Free Choice Act,” said Thurman, referring to federal legislation that would require all employers to recognize unions on the basis of a majority card check.

“It’s the same company, and the same workers who tried to organize for years without success. But with card check and neutrality , all of a sudden, it’s a different story,” Thurman added.

An active UAW organizing drive continues at Dana’s Danville, Ky., facility.