Published: May 21, 2008 12:13 am            

AMERICAN AXLE: Local workers approve deal

While other workers are up in arms, the prospect of closing plants didn’t stop local American Axle workers from voting overwhelmingly in favor of the United Auto Workers new deal with the company.

Of the employees of the Town of Tonawanda, Cheektowaga and Buffalo plants who voted on the deal Monday, 81 percent cast ballots in favor of the agreement that will shutter two of the three local plants, said Kevin Donovan, assistant director of UAW Region 9.

Tonawanda’s forge facility is expected to close sometime within the next six months to a year and the Buffalo plant that hasn’t been operational since 2007 will be permanently closed.

But just because local workers have agreed to the deal doesn’t mean it will pass. Amherst resident Chris Bogart worked at the Tonawanda forge for 14 years and said the plant’s employees are at the mercy of Detroit since the approximately 510 local workers make up less than 15 percent of the UAW employees at American Axle facilities who are eligible to vote. The last group of those workers in Detroit is scheduled to vote Thursday.

UAW negotiators and American Axle agreed on a deal late Friday shortly after GM agreed to kick in $200 million to help end a stalemate between the company and union.

The four-year deal has American Axle agreeing to invest $170 million to $200 million in UAW-represented factories and placing new business in the plants.

The deal also cuts the hourly pay of a production worker in Detroit to $18.50 from $28, an increase from the $17 per hour that American Axle had previously offered. Workers whose wages are going down will receive buydowns of up to $105,000 paid over three years to help ease the transition to lower hourly pay. The size of the buydown would vary with the size of a worker’s pay reduction.

Buyouts of $85,000 for someone with less than 10 years with the company and $140,000 for a worker with more have been offered as well as an offer of a $55,000 early retirement bonus.

UAW President Ron Gettelfinger and other union officials explained the deal to Detroit workers at a meeting was punctuated by anger and shouting, with most workers leaving the session saying they didn’t like the four-year deal. Many said they’ll vote to approve it because it’s the best the union could get in a weak economy with the possibility of American Axle moving their work elsewhere, but others said they will vote to stay on strike.

“I think by and large most people will vote for it,” Bill Alford, president-elect of Local 235, said Monday. “They understand the way things are right now. People are making their own decisions. You’re going to get a lot of ‘no’s,’ but I think for the most part, it’ll go through.”

        

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