VICTORY AT DANA DANVILLE
Workers ratify first agreement for Local 3062
Danny Akins remembers when management at Dana Corp. in Danville, Ky., told workers there that they were the experts in their 25 feet of work space.
"That sounded good, but no one ever asked us anything or listened to us," said Akins, a maintenance technician who has been with the company for 19 years. "I got fed up with the company always telling us what to do and never listening to us."
Now, as UAW members, "we have a voice in what goes on around here," he said.
In July 2007, the UAW negotiated a National Framework Agreement for Dana workers who wanted to join the union. The four-year national agreement covers wages and health care for active workers, and pensions and health care for retirees. Under the agreement, Dana will contribute $750 million to a Voluntary Employee Beneficiary Association (VEBA) trust fund to pay health care benefits for current and future retirees.
The agreement gives Dana workers unprecedented sourcing commitments for UAW plants, a grievance procedure, a stronger overtime structure and seniority rights.
When workers in Danville said they wanted to form their own union, they were bombarded with anti-union tactics from the company and the community, including threats that members joining the union would be "blacklisted" in their community, even though that has been illegal since the Wagner Act was passed in 1935.
The Danville workers wanted democracy and fought back.
In a Jan. 18 card-check recognition, they joined the UAW. They ratified a first agreement March 15 and then soundly defeated a decertification attempt March 17 by voting 98-51 in favor of the union.
They are now proud members of UAW Local 3062 and produce gaskets for General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC.
"It just feels good to know you're not just a group of employees standing there by yourself," said Miles Jacobi, the local's bargaining chair and 18-year Dana worker. "Being UAW members (with a contract), we know that if you just don't feel things are going right, you know you have a place to turn."