Dana workers speak out
‘It’s like a different place’
Even though they’re from different plants in different towns in different states, UAW members at 11 newly organized Dana Corp. facilities all share something in common: Forming a union with the power of the UAW Dana National Framework Agreement behind them was the catalyst to gaining respect, a voice and fairness in the workplace.
Dana workers decided to go union for different reasons.
For some it was the company’s takeaways: overtime eliminated, and vacations and holidays suddenly not counted as time worked.
For others it was the fact that they’d gotten a $1 raise in the last six years.
For Cindy Rich of Dana's McKenzie, Tenn., facility, it was when her son, Billy Doupis, a National Guardsman, was deployed to Iraq, on his 22nd birthday no less, in November 2005.
Rich requested a two-day leave of absence to visit him at training camp in Indiana before he left for his tour of duty. Dana denied it.
The next time she saw her son was when he came home safely on leave nine months later.
On Dec. 11, 2007, that same son, now 24, and Rich’s husband, Victor Rich, 48, who are military police in the same unit, were deployed to Iraq for a year.
This time, when Cindy Rich requested a five-day leave of absence, it was approved, no questions asked.
What changed between November 2005 and December 2007?
Plenty.
In July the UAW and Dana signed a National Framework Agreement that ensures fair treatment of workers, and includes contract language on personal leaves of absence.
In September Dana workers in McKenzie took advantage of the new pact to form their own union and put the existing national agreement in place.
That’s the difference having a union makes.
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Paris, Tenn.
UAW Local 9025
There’s a 60-foot tall replica of the Eiffel Tower in northwest Tennessee. It’s in a park next to a playground in Paris, after all.
But this Paris, population 9,763, is home to the “World’s Biggest Fish Fry.” It welcomes visitors heading in from the south on U.S. Highway 79 with a 20-foot catfish sign boasting the annual cookout (always the last weekend in April).
For Connie Peridore of Dana's Paris facility, about 90 miles west of Nashville, deciding she needed a union was clear when her fiance’s father died and she asked for a day and a half off to attend the services. First the company said yes; then they said no.
In her nearly 20 years there as a press operator, she had never used all her vacation time.
“It was time for everyone to start getting treated fairly,” said Peridore, a bargaining committee member at McKenzie’s sister facility, which held its card-check recognition Oct. 8. They also opened local contract bargaining in November.
“Management always did what they wanted, when the wanted and how they wanted,” said Joe McClure, a certified process technician for eight years.
During the organizing campaign, McClure appreciated that Dana stayed neutral and let workers decide for themselves. He was also impressed by the union’s upfront approach.
“The UAW told us to do our homework and make an educated decision about voting for the union,” said McClure, 27, a bargaining committee member.
McClure’s goal for this first local contract is “a level playing field.”
“It’s not like we’re looking to win the lottery,” he said. “We just want to be treated fairly.”
Overtime was one of the takeaways at Dana Paris. For Terry Mooney, a 45-year-old National Guardsman and Iraq War veteran, it hit hard.
“It may seem minor, but that OT amounts to thousands of dollars a year for us,” said Mooney, an automation technician with eight years at Dana.
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McKenzie, Tenn.
UAW Local 9024
“Everybody has a story,” said Cindy Rich, 47, who has 12 years as a quality auditor. “That was just a really crappy thing to do to our family,” she said on being denied a leave of absence before her son went to Iraq the first time.
Even when a former Dana manager told Rich that “you just can’t win with these people,” she never gave up. “I thought, maybe so, but I’ll die trying,” she said.
She’s now on the bargaining committee, which opened local contract talks in November. They’ll negotiate with management on local issues such as wages and classifications, overtime, work scheduling, job bidding and bumping.
“It feels great to finally have a voice at work. We just want to be treated with respect,” Rich said, “and it’s good to know the UAW’s got our backs.”
With nine years at Dana McKenzie, Sandra Conley saw things changing, but not for the better.
“Some were small, some drastic, but the turning point for me was when management froze our cost-of-living raise and then took a big raise for themselves,” said the 47-year-old post-cure operator and grandmother of four who said she “bakes auto parts at 350 degrees just like bread.”
“You know what they say: ‘If you don’t stand for something, you’re going to fall for anything,’” she added.
She welcomed the National Framework Agreement, which was ratified well in advance of her plant’s Sept. 21 card-check recognition.
“I felt more secure with that agreement in place,” said Conley, a bargaining team member. “We gained pretty much everything we’d lost, and you knew what was expected of you going in.”
Her goals for local contract negotiations include fairness in job bidding and transfers.
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Hopskinsville, Ky.
Known as “Pet Rock” to just about everyone in this town 70 miles north of Paris, Tenn., Mike Petrakovitz said he never had any doubts about joining the UAW.
“The question for most of us was, ‘Why not join the union?’” said the 18-year support technician.
Petrakovitz, 60, recalled a time when UAW organizers stood at the Hopkinsville plant gate handing out leaflets. “As we drove in, we’d roll up our windows and keep on going,” he said.
But with neutrality and a card-check process in place, the environment for change — an organized workplace — improved.
A bargaining committee member, his goal in negotiating a first contract includes wage gains. “In six years, we’ve only gotten a $1 raise,” he said. “I think we’re worth a whole lot more than that.”
Hopkinsville’s card-check recognition, held Oct. 18, was the UAW’s most recent Dana victory. They haven’t been assigned a local union number yet, and first contract bargaining is set to begin in January.
Bargaining team member Jannie Ford continues to get input from her co-workers.
“You don’t always know what others are dealing with when you’re in your own area all day long,” said Ford, a product technician for 12 years.
“I haven’t had much of a problem myself, but I hear others since I cover the floor,” she said, adding that “morale was so low the last few years” because workers felt mistreated by management.
“But it’s gone up so much since we voted in the union. It’s like a different place,” added Ford.
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Respect, a voice and fairness. They’re key ingredients to a unionized workplace.
For UAW Local 9024 member Sandra Conley of Dana McKenzie, that recipe includes a lot of solidarity.
“We want a UAW flag outside our plant to remind the company that it’s no more just ‘me.’ It’s we.”
