27 March, 2008Strike enters fifth week as workers hold firm against company demands for deep concessions, job cuts and a 50 per cent wage reduction.
USA: For more than a month, 3, 650 members of the United Auto Workers have been on strike at five American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings Inc. plants refusing to accept the company's demands to cut wages in half, replace pensions with individual retirement accounts, decrease health care benefits and cut some 1,000 jobs.
The company has threatened plant closures and the shifting of work out of the country if the workers do not accept demands. The strike, which began on February 26, has caused North America assembly plants supplied by AAM to temporarily reduce production of vehicles. The UAW has filed a complaint with the National Labour Relations Board against AAM citing unfair labour practices.
Meanwhile, American Axle's CEO Richard Dauch earned US$10.2 million last year, according to a recent filing made with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The company gave Dauch a reported US$850,000 raise in 2007, a 9.2 per cent increase, as well as raises for the company's three highest-ranking executives, who received raises ranging from 6.7 per cent to 27 per cent.
The International Metalworkers' Federation and IMF affiliates around the world have expressed their solidarity with the striking workers and the UAW. "The company could not have made the product and profits it has over many years without the efforts and commitment of these workers," said IMF general secretary Marcello Malentacchi, "and now the company is trying to make negotiations a one-way street."
American Axle is a Detroit-based auto parts supplier created in 1994 when General Motors Corp. spun off five U.S. plants. American Axle makes axles, transmissions, suspensions and many other parts used in trucks and cars. Last year the parts supplier posted a US$37 million profit.