In a nearly unanimous vote, Nexteer Automotive workers in Saginaw, Michigan rejected a concessions-laden contract backed by the United Auto Workers. According to UAW Local 699, workers rejected the deal by 96.2 percent, with 98 percent of production workers and 82.8 percent of skilled trades workers voting down the UAW-backed deal.
The vote was a staggering rebuke to UAW President Shawn Fain and the Local 699 leadership, which attempted to ram through a contract that would pay $19 an hour to new hires, expand the hated two-tier wage and benefit system, and impose higher out-of-pocket health care expenses for workers hired after May 2021.
The 1,300 workers at the former General Motors plant manufacture steering systems for some of the most highly profitable models in the US, including the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra, the Ford F-150 and Dodge Ram pickup trucks.
In discussions with WSWS reporters during the voting on Wednesday, Nexteer workers explained why they opposed the sellout deal pushed by the UAW apparatus. In the videos below, two workers described the crushing impact of the decades-long stagnation of wages and the sharp rise in fuel and food prices, which has been exacerbated by Trump’s criminal war against Iran. Underscoring the political radicalization of workers over the deeply unpopular war and vast social inequality gripping America they expressed support for a common struggle by workers in the US and around the world against the transnational corporations.
The defeat of the sellout was powerful, but it is only the first step. The International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees calls on Nexteer workers to throw the bargaining committee that negotiated this deal out, replace it with a rank-and-file committee consisting of the most trusted and militant workers to prepare strike action to win the non-negotiable demands workers need: Including living wages, the abolishing of the two-tier system and health care coverage fully paid by the company for all workers. At the same time, workers at GM, Ford and Stellantis must back this decisive struggle by refusing to handle all scab parts.
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