Workers Fume Uncertainty, misinformation, rampant rumors keep employees on edge
John T. Greilik / The Detroit News , EX-SCAB PAPER, YEA RIGHT January 31, 2001
Ken Lewenza, president of the Canadian Auto Workers Union Local 444, says he won't stop fighting for the workers at the plant where DaimlerChrysler will cut 784 jobs.
By Mark Truby / The Detroit News
AUBURN HILLS -- Already shaken by Monday's news of massive job cutbacks, the Chrysler Group's workers say a lack of information from company and union leaders has heightened their frustration, anger and worry.
United Auto Workers union President Stephen Yokich has been all but invisible since Chrysler President Dieter Zetsche announced Monday that Chrysler will cut 26,000 jobs, close six plants and reduce production capacity by 15 percent.
Charles V. Tines / The Detroit News
UAW leadership has been quiet about the cuts. Some members at a rally in Hazel Park showed their frustration with this sign.
"People are scared," said George Richardson, who has worked at Chrysler's Warren truck assembly plant for three years. "We pay our dues and we should hear something from them."
Zetsche said he announced the moves earlier than expected to quell growing fears throughout Chrysler's workforce. But with many details still murky and more restructuring moves expected to be announced on Feb. 26, both salaried and hourly workers remain unsettled.
Yokich, who sits on parent DaimlerChrysler AG's governing supervisory board, has not spoken publicly about the Chrysler restructuring. Late Monday, he released a five-paragraph statement expressing his confidence that the UAW-Chrysler labor agreement "will provide our members with security during this difficult period."
Despite the reassurances, many workers are holding meetings, venting on talk radio shows and scouring Internet chat rooms for clues about Chrysler's future.
The Canadian Auto Workers leadership, by contrast, has publicly aired concerns about the cutbacks .
Several Chrysler workers showed up Tuesday at a rally in Hazel Park organized by UAW Concern, a Kalamazoo-based splinter group led by frequent UAW critic Pat Meyer.
Richardson, who attended the meeting, said, "If (union leaders) are working on things then they should show us they are working on things."
The dearth of information within factories and office suites has made them hothouses for rumors. At Chrysler's Detroit axle plant last week, a rumor spread that the factory was being sold to American Axle Corp. It wasn't true.
At UAW Local 961, which serves Chrysler's Detroit axle plant, more than a hundred workers packed into a recent union meeting looking for answers, said Janice Ali, a Local 961 member who works at the axle factory.
"We are not getting anything from the union," said Ali, whose husband, brother and two sons also work in Chrysler plants. "I'm concerned about my sons and my grandchildren. It's unfortunate that we can't get any answers."
Though Chrysler has specified the number of workers who will be cut and the plants affected, employees want more specifics. So far no details have been released outlining the packages blue-collar workers will be offered to take early retirement.
Charles V. Tines / The Detroit News
DCX worker Thelma Secrest takes notes at a meeting in Hazel Park.
Some employees say they are confused about when the layoffs go into effect and who is eligible for supplementary unemployment benefits, which pay laid off hourly workers 95 percent of their base salary.
"They say veteran employees will be safe," Ali said. "I'm not sure what veteran employee means."
Uncertainty may be highest among white-collar workers, where layoffs will be executed based on employee performance and company needs rather than seniority.
Most of all, employees want to know what the future holds as Chrysler struggles to claw back to profitability after a spectacular financial nosedive that began in the third quarter of last year.
UAW leaders are meeting with Chrysler executives this week to hammer out details of the layoffs and production cuts but have so far declined to discuss the matters publicly.
Labor experts say that the muted response from the UAW's leadership probably indicates that it came to negotiated agreements on the most of the restructuring moves.
"Their silence says something," said David E. Cole, director of the Environmental Research Institute of Michigan's Center for Automotive Research. "If there was something happening at Chrysler they were opposed to, we would have heard about it. Yokich is a pragmatist. He would rather see one out of four people lose their jobs than four out of four."
Yokich, who also is a member of DaimlerChrysler's supervisory board with an intimate knowledge of its financial situation, has had a testy relationship with the news media for years. He joined the board as a worker representative after the merger in 1998.
Harold Ringo, who works at Chrysler's Warren Stamping Plant, said he's willing to wait for details even though "the workers' morale is pretty low right now."
"They are trying to get information," Ringo said. "I assume eventually they will tell us what's going on."
CAW leaders have operated in stark contrast to the UAW. Since the cutbacks were announced, CAW leaders have called a news conference, spoken to various media outlets and distributed leaflets throughout factories.
CAW President Basil "Buzz" Hargrove said the details of the layoffs and plant closings are being worked out in meetings with Chrysler executives this week.
The CAW is calculating how much money remains in DaimlerChrysler's coffers to pay supplementary unemployment benefits.