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UAW Local 659 Strikes GM Over Unresolved Issues

5 June 1998

UAW Local 659 Strikes GM Over Unresolved Issues

    FLINT, Mich., June 5 -- UAW Vice President Richard Shoemaker
and Region 1C Director Ruben Burks announced today that negotiations at UAW
Local 659 at the Flint Metal Fabricating facility have not produced a
tentative settlement, making a strike unavoidable.
    "The UAW has tried hard to resolve serious health and safety, production
standards and subcontracting issues at Local 659 to no avail because General
Motors continues to drag their feet in addressing clear and repeated
violations of long-standing contract obligations," Shoemaker said.
    UAW President Stephen P. Yokich said, "It's a sad state of affairs that we
have these continuous problems with General Motors, but we are able to work
out problems with Ford and Chrysler."
    "UAW members at Flint Metal Fab have been working too long in unsafe
working conditions, such as being exposed to hazardous chemicals on the job,"
Shoemaker continued, adding, "in addition, members are exposed to excessive
and potentially damaging noise levels and dangerous working conditions in
the operation of mobile equipment."
    "At the same time, the corporation takes work and jobs from this plant by
hiring contractors to perform our work and by sending out the work of building
and repairing dies," he added.
    "This situation is further complicated by the presence of hundreds of
unresolved grievances on other issues important to the membership, as well as
the refusal of the corporation to live up to written commitments made in
previous national and local negotiations," Shoemaker declared.
    "In addition to the problems at Local 659, long-standing issues at the
Delphi East facility also remain unresolved despite our best efforts.
We have issued a 'five-day notice' to the corporation regarding Local 651 in
an effort to focus increased attention on that situation as well.  If ongoing
negotiations at Delphi East fail to produce a resolution of the issues, the
notice will expire at 7 p.m. on June 11, 1998."
    "What makes this situation more troubling," Shoemaker added, "is that in
the same way GM is ignoring our national and local contracts, they are also
ignoring their 'social contract' with America, by transferring jobs,
technology and capital from the U.S. to Thailand, Mexico, China and
elsewhere."
    "At a time when the corporation is making record profits and its top
executives are being rewarded with excessive compensation, it is unjustifiable
that GM's workers are being forced by management to face hazardous working
conditions and serious threats to their job security," Shoemaker stated.
    "The rising tide of success once floated the rowboats and skiffs of the
workers as well as the yachts of the top executives," Shoemaker said, adding,
"But it is obviously no longer true that the success of the corporation is
being shared at all levels."
    "Indeed, it's a sad sight for most Americans to see a corporation so
closely associated with the creation of a prosperous middle-class now doing so
much to tear it down, especially here in Flint."
    "If GM has their way, the Flint community could lose about 11,000 jobs in
the next two years, a devastating blow to a community that has been loyal
to GM for decades," Shoemaker noted.
    "This situation in Flint is a dramatic example of GM's 'America Last'
strategy in which the corporation is attempting to radically downsize its
American workforce in favor of exploiting less than poverty level wages in
other countries," Shoemaker stated.
    "Apparently, GM believes this somehow justifies ignoring the agreements
made with this union," Shoemaker declared, concluding, "It's not acceptable to
us and we don't think it should be acceptable to this community either."