Detroit, MI - The 2015 collective bargaining negotiations between the UAW and Detroit automakers should have some intriguing story lines, reported Michigan Live.
Besides the numerous issues expected to be a part of the talks, including raises and two-tier wages, the negotiations next year will include two new CEOs, two new union vice presidents overseeing the Detroit Three and two female trailblazers.
Cindy Estrada, a second-term vice president, will lead negotiations with General Motors Co. and its new CEO Mary Barra. Estrada, 45, is the first Latina elected to serve as an International officer. Barra is the first female to lead a major automaker.
"I think what we're going to see when the two sides sit down together, people have the interest of making sure GM is successful as well as making sure workers share in those successes," said Estrada, who, like Barra, downplayed gender having any significance. "I think that if we look at both of those together, we can only have success."
During Estrada's first term, she oversaw the union's independents, parts and suppliers/competitive shop department; public sector and health care servicing department, and women's department.
Newly elected UAW Vice President Norwood Jewell, who previously served as UAW Region 1C director (now Region 1D), will oversee Chrysler and lead negotiations with CEO Sergio Marchionne.
Jewell, a 56-year-old former GM worker, said he looks forward to helping lead the UAW with the new management team.
"I'm going to rely a lot upon the directors around the nation along with the vice presidents and Gary," he said. "I know that the team Dennis has put together, there isn't anything we can't do."
And Jimmy Settles, who was re-elected to his third term this week, will continue overseeing Ford Motor Co. But for the first time as vice president, Ford CEO Alan Mulally will not be at the bargaining table. The 68-year-old exec will retire effective July 1, and Ford COO Mark Fields will succeed him.
Settles, 64, said he expects little change between Mulally and Fields since the new CEO was involved with the previous round of collective bargaining as president of the Americas.
"I don't see him as any different as dealing with Alan Mulally," Settles said.
Williams and all the vice presidents were elected and sworn in earlier this week during the 36th UAW Constitutional Convention at Cobo Center in Detroit.
Williams' successor is Gary Casteel, who was a regional director of a 15-state region in the south. He will oversee UAW finances, transnational organizing and Mitsubishi Motors.
When announcing the assignments, newly elected UAW President Dennis Williams said he could have put the three vice presidents in any of the positions "and felt comfortable."
"These were thought out strategically because of what we were facing," he said. "It had nothing to do with the CEO. It was about these peoples' experiences."
Casteel, 56, and the vice presidents ran unopposed. Williams, who served as UAW secretary-treasurer for the past four years, won in a landslide victory Wednesday over Gary Walkowicz of Local 600 in Dearborn. Williams received 98.5 percent – 3,215.969 of 3,270 – of eligible votes.
Williams said he knows the next four years will be challenging, but he and his team are ready: "I couldn't be more pleased with the team I have," he said. "I couldn't have thought of anybody else that could do what we're about to do."
Those challenges, he said, include rallying for a presidential election in 2016 and an important round of contract negotiations next year with the Detroit automakers.
During the last round of collective bargaining agreements with the Detroit automakers in 2011, UAW officials opted for the promise of jobs and profit-sharing checks rather than wage hikes. But now, judging by comments from Local delegates during the convention, members will push for raises and an end to the current two-tier wage system that started in 2007.
"We're all committed to eliminating the two-tier wage system," said Williams, using the term "bridge the gap" in society and membership to discuss the union's challenges.
The majority of UAW members have not received a raise since 2005. Under the union's current two-tier wage system, traditional workers – the majority of UAW members – make about $28 an hour. Entry-level UAW members start at $15.78 an hour and increase every 12 months up to $19.28 an hour.
Williams, as many leaders before him, also faces an uphill battle regarding so-called "right-to-work" laws and membership numbers. The UAW's membership has significantly decreased over the last decades as factories become more automated and 24 states, including Michigan, have passed "right to work" laws that allow employees to decide for themselves whether or not to join or financially support a union.
Williams' election comes a day after delegates approved a controversial monthly dues increase for its members. The increase – the first for the UAW since 1967 – raises monthly payments from two hours of pay per month to two and a half hours.
