When Rhonda Naus got a job inspecting Jeep Wranglers fresh off the assembly line, her combined salary was about half that of her coworkers. But what follows is that her temporary status will eventually become permanent as her salary increases significantly.
Six years later, she’s still doing the same job as her colleagues at Stellantis, but making much less.
“I knew I had to start at the bottom. I didn’t think I would be at the bottom forever,” Naus said. He is one of thousands of striking UAW workers across the country calling for increased wages and benefits and an end to multiple pay tiers for company workers.
From office workers to delivery drivers, companies increasingly rely on temporary workers. For years, automakers have used low-wage workers to fill absent and furloughed full-time employees and to replenish staff when production ramps up.
The Detroit automakers’ tiers were created in 2007 as the UAW tried to help them escape serious financial troubles. Even so, GM and Chrysler eventually went bankrupt with government funding.
‘We will end the abuse of casual workers’
Union leaders said today that Detroit automakers are abusing the system by treating temporary workers as full-time workers to save money — a major point of contention in current contract negotiations that has led to More than 25,000 autoworkers went on strike.
“Temp jobs have to be temporary jobs,” UAW President Sean Fein said weeks before the strike began. “We will end the abuse of casual workers.”
As part of contract negotiations, the union is also demanding pay increases, a 32-hour work week with 40 hours of pay, the return of traditional defined benefit pensions for new employees and the return of living expenses. Among other benefits, there is the potential for increased wages.
Under the contract negotiated in 2019, temporary workers would gain full-time status after 19 months of continuous employment at GM and two years at Ford. At Stellantis, the maker of Jeep, Ram and Chrysler vehicles, they were given priority but no guarantees.
In current negotiations, GM and Stellantis have proposed raising the starting wage for temporary workers from $16.67 an hour to about $20 an hour. Ford raised its offer to $21 an hour, share profits, and said it would make temporary workers full-time after 90 days of continuous service.
Once temporary workers become full-time workers, their wages will increase, eventually reaching the assembly plant’s maximum wage of $32 an hour.
Of the Detroit Three, Stellantis relies most heavily on temporary workers, who make up about 12 percent of the UAW workforce, or more than 5,100 employees. GM said its temporary workers make up 5-10% of union membership, compared with about 3% at Ford.
Temporary workers, also known as supplementary workers, make up about one-fifth of the 5,800 unionized workers at Jeep’s Stellantis plant.
“You can work here for 10 years and still not be employed full-time. It’s crazy,” said Logan Bohn of Woodhaven, Miss., who already works at the Toledo plant Two years.
Temporary workers at Stellantis start at $15.78 an hour, lower than some fast-food restaurants, and top out at $19.28 after four years.
Neither Ford nor GM have commented on Fein’s claims that the companies pay poverty wages to temporary workers. A Stellantis spokeswoman noted that the company said it wanted to reach an agreement that “fairly rewards our employees for their contributions to our success without placing Stellantis at a significant disadvantage relative to our non-union competitors.” .”
“I’m not going to stay if they don’t give us a clear path”
The UAW’s push to eliminate tiered pay got bolder this summer, when UPS agrees to terminate the system His driver signed a new contract with the Teamsters.
Along picket lines outside auto plants, even workers who would not directly benefit from ending the graded wage system said it was a top issue for them. Jennifer Navarre, a full-time worker on the Jeep assembly line in Toledo, Ohio, said it’s an unfair arrangement.
“We must fight together,” she said.
Inequality in casual workers goes beyond wages. They have fewer health care benefits and don’t receive profit-sharing checks or other performance bonuses. They also have to deal with unpredictable schedules and may be told to work overtime when others are allowed home.
“There are weeks where you’re working six or seven days, and then a few weeks later it’s like, ‘We don’t need you here,’ or ‘We just need you on Monday,'” North said.
Workers in Toledo said turnover among temporary workers was high, with many leaving when Amazon opened a distribution center nearby and a solar panel factory expanded operations.
Orlando Evans, who was hired by Jeep five years ago, said many temporary workers stick to second jobs with flexible hours because they never know when they will be asked to work six days a week, or Doesn’t work at all. He started a business driving people to the airport and around town.
“The idea came to me after I was sent home multiple times,” he said. Evans didn’t leave his temporary job at the automaker because he needed health insurance for his three children and two stepsons.
“Other than that, there’s not much reason to stay,” he said.
Courtney Torres, a mother of four, said she lives paycheck to paycheck, working six days a week.
“I just got health care and hope,” she said.
She said she hopes the new contract will provide a direct path to full-time employment for her and others.
“I want a career, I want to go somewhere, I want to be able to go on vacation and take my kids on vacation,” she said. “Honestly, if they don’t give us a clear path, I’m not going to stay. I’m trying to keep up.”
Svlook
