The UAW calls a vote to authorize a strike at an Indiana plant. That’s what it’s all about

A local United Auto Workers representative representing General Motors Co. assembly plant workers. in Fort Wayne in Indiana, holding a vote to authorize a strike Leaders said this week that the automaker was violating a national contract by forcing managers to work on the assembly line, including performing repairs and inspections.

The Detroit automaker cut overtime hours at the plant that builds the lucrative Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickups several months ago, and last month fired temporary part-time workers after the union and the company failed to reach an agreement to extend their employment. Local edition 2209 President Rich LeTourneau stated. Those events led to managers doing work intended for UAW-represented employees, he said. On Wednesday, the local union announced a strike of about 3,800 of its members at the plant.

“They shouldn’t touch our trucks,” LeTourneau told The Detroit News. “They continue to cut jobs, and we know that some of the work will be transferred to artificial intelligence. This is the exact opposite of artificial intelligence. Until that day comes, they need to worry about doing their jobs, not ours.

“As long as they get away with this, our jobs will never come back.”

According to an excerpt provided to The News, clause 215 of the national contract states: “Supervisory employees are not permitted to perform any hourly work,” except in emergency situations to avoid work interruptions or to instruct or train employees.

LeTourneau said the line has at least five to six managers a day. In a message released Monday, he said he is calling on GM to allow UAW members to stop lines at every plant whenever management touches vehicles. Wednesday’s vote gives the union permission to call a strike, but does not guarantee it will happen.

“The limited release of these products will be stunning for GM,” he wrote, “but they will soon understand what I am talking about, and it will only take a couple of weeks.” On Monday, LeTourneau met with Doneen McDowell, executive director of GM’s truck and large SUV assembly and components business.

“We both agreed that management should not be on my assembly line or any other GM assembly line,” he said, although he confirmed the vote would take place Wednesday from 5 a.m. to 5 p.m.

A GM spokesman referred to a statement last week that said GM was abiding by its national and local agreements and that there was no practical or legal basis for a strike at the plant.

The Detroit News left a request for comment with representatives of the international UAW, but they did not immediately respond.

Last month, GM said it was laying off about 250 temporary part-time workers. at the end of September. Since December last year, the union has been seeking to make workers temporary, if not permanent, full-time. The vote to authorize the strike “is not about temporary employees, that ship has sailed,” LeTourneau wrote in his update.

The Detroit union is also threatening a strike at Stellantis NV over delays in opening an assembly plant in Illinois. At least three local residents in California, Colorado and Illinois have given permission to strike, but Stellantis has filed nine federal lawsuitsstating that it believes the strike would be illegal under the terms of the parties’ 2023 collective bargaining agreement and that the court should intervene to prevent it. The union called the objections “frivolous.”

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