The Promise and the Limits of the UAW Deals
Consider This from NPR
NPR
4.2 • 6.2K Ratings
🗓️ 14 November 2023
⏱️ 13 minutes
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Summary
While the union won a lot of concessions for workers: big pay raises, cost of living adjustments tied to inflation and increased retirement contributions, some workers are focused on what the new contracts are missing.
NPR Labor and Workplace Correspondent Andrea Hsu reports on what the historic contracts include and what they don't. Host Ari Shapiro speaks with NPR business reporter Camila Domonoske about how the UAW is looking to build on its gains.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | When the President of the United Auto Workers talks about the deals he hammered out with the big three auto companies after weeks of strikes, he's talking about more |
| 0:14.4 | than just a contract. |
| 0:15.8 | The autoworkers at Ford just won a major battle in the fight for a better world. |
| 0:20.9 | But Sean Fain's vision of an epic fight for the American dream faces a test. |
| 0:26.0 | Union members still have to vote to approve the deals, and they aren't all as enthusiastic |
| 0:29.8 | as he is. |
| 0:30.8 | I definitely didn't know. If I can roll no ten times I would. That's Jerry Coleman. He works at the |
| 0:36.9 | Stolantis Jeep plant in Toledo, Ohio installing soundproofing foam. He doesn't trust that the company will follow through on its promises. |
| 0:44.3 | The contract won a lot for workers. Big pay raises, cost of living adjustments tied to |
| 0:49.3 | inflation, increased retirement contributions, but Coleman is focused on what's missing, like retiree health benefits. |
| 0:56.0 | We're in there breaking down our bodies for these companies, people coming out with back problems, |
| 1:01.2 | copper tunnels, messed up ankles or fe feet, but then when they retire, they have nothing. |
| 1:06.0 | Workers gave up those benefits in 2007 negotiations. |
| 1:09.6 | They also took huge pay cuts which the new contract will only slowly undo. So far a majority of |
| 1:16.3 | union members have voted in favor of the contracts but workers at several big |
| 1:21.0 | factories have rejected the deal. |
| 1:23.0 | Union President Fain acknowledges some workers frustrations. |
| 1:27.0 | He spoke to hearing now from W-B-U-R. |
| 1:29.0 | We didn't fix everything. |
| 1:30.0 | I mean, we were trying to fix, you know, things that have been going on for 20 plus years |
| 1:33.7 | and you know it's hard to fix all those things in one contract but even as the vote continues |
| 1:38.3 | he's looking ahead to his next fight he wants to grow the UAW to get into plants that aren't currently |
... |
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