The following statement was drafted by the Nexteer Workers Rank-and-File Committee following a meeting on Sunday, May 31. Since this statement was written, workers have informed the WSWS that the UAW is putting forward a fourth tentative agreement and attempting to rush through a vote.
Nexteer workers are encouraged to contact and join the committee by writing to nexteerworkersrfc@gmail.com, texting (947) 622-2198 or submitting the form at https://tinyurl.com/nexteerrfc.
Brothers and Sisters,
On Friday morning, we rejected a proposed contract for the third time in less than two months. In response, the UAW apparatus has told us, in so many words, to shut up and do as we are told.
The Local 699 newsletter issued Friday morning announced that “the current agreement remains in effect” and that “all members are expected to continue working as scheduled.” Any decision regarding a strike, L. 699 officials can only come through “official union authorization.”
We disagree. The UAW apparatus has had its say. Now it’s time for workers to have ours.
The apparatus does not work for us
After we rejected the first TA, the apparatus came back with a contract that was worse—a new 48-month “grow into” period for post-ratification hires and a 9-month contract extension. UAW International Servicing Rep Jason Tuck—who collects $148,476 a year and was rewarded with promotion to Solidarity House for selling us out—came to the May 17 meeting to curse and threaten us with a plant closure. But we sent him packing and defeated the second deal.
Then they moved some money around, frontloaded the first year’s raise and increased the signing bonus. They thought they could exploit the difficulties we face because of their years of concessions. But they were wrong again. We stuck together and defeated the deal again.
We have just heard word that a 4th TA has been reached, and that we are to vote at the plant, under the eye of “big brother”: corporate management and the UAW. This is not the outcome of “negotiations,” but a conspiracy between the company and the bureaucracy to force the same contract through — and, failing that, to impose it through arbitration. We will not allow it.
One aim of forcing through a 4th TA is to prevent a joint struggle between Nexteer workers and American Axle workers, who walked out on strike Monday morning. Why aren’t we on strike with them? Because the UAW International does not want a common front of workers.
Recall the bargaining committee
The Local 699 bargaining committee has failed three times to bring us a contract we can live with. Three strikes, and you’re out. We call for the immediate recall of the entire bargaining committee and its replacement by trusted rank-and-file workers chosen by us, accountable to us, with no career interest in promotion to the International. The new committee must negotiate in the open, on terms drawn up by the membership.
We will not accept the same contract pushed through a fourth vote. We will not accept further extensions. We will not accept arbitration. The principle must be: No contract, no work.
Everything the UAW apparatus has done has been aimed at one thing: to prevent us from exercising our fundamental right to withhold our labor and fight the company that is exploiting us. That is not because we are in a weak position. On the contrary, a strike would quickly dry up steering components to GM, Ford and Chrysler whose bosses want Nexteer to defeat us. We have voted overwhelmingly to strike. Now we have to take the necessary steps to enforce the will of the membership.
Our demands
Our labor generated Nexteer’s $4.6 billion in revenue in 2025 and the $102 million in profit the company pocketed while management collected $10,000 bonuses. The decision about what we will accept is ours.
This is what our committee suggests should be our non-negotiable demands:
Substantial immediate wage increases that exceed inflation, with cost-of-living adjustments.
An immediate wage increase to $35 an hour to close the gap with Big Three autoworkers.
Abolish all tiers. No “grow into” periods. Equal pay for equal work.
Restoration of defined-benefit pensions and retiree healthcare for all workers.
Full healthcare coverage for every worker and every family member, at the company’s expense.
Workers’ control over line speed, staffing and safety.
Job security and a zero-layoff policy.
To our fellow Nexteer workers: Join us!
We call on all Nexteer workers to join the Nexteer Workers Rank-and-File Committee, which is accountable to us and independent of the apparatus and the company. Identities will be protected
To sign up:
- Web: https://tinyurl.com/nexteerrfc
- Email: nexteerworkersrfc@gmail.com
- Text: (947) 622-2198
To all UAW workers: Our struggle is your struggle!
To the workers at American Axle now on strike, the 4,000 at Dana whose contract has expired, and the workers at Bridgewater Interiors and Magna Seating: You face the same apparatus, the same playbook, the same outcome unless we organize independently. Build rank-and-file committees. Coordinate with us. We should all be on strike together.
To the Big Three workers at Ford, GM, and Stellantis, particularly those at Ford Rouge who have already pledged to refuse scab parts: Under just-in-time production, a Nexteer strike can halt your assembly lines within days. Refuse scab parts. Refuse mandatory overtime that lets management stockpile in advance of strike action. Let’s fight together and not let them divide us.
To autoworkers in Canada and Mexico: Your struggle is bound up with ours. The transnational corporations play workers off against each other across borders. We extend our hand.
At the upcoming UAW convention workers must demand strike pay of at least $1,000 a week, drawn from the union’s $1.1 billion treasury. That money, paid for with our dues, must be used for a fight, not to send union bureaucrats on all expense paid junkets.
We will become the authority
We have heard the arguments for accepting this contract. We have heard them from the company. We have heard them from the apparatus.
Their authority is rooted in their salaries and their relationships with management. Our authority is rooted in our labor. Without us, the steering components do not get built. Without us, the Big Three assembly lines stop within days. Without us, there are no profits.
We will not be intimidated by threats to close the plant. We will not be worn down by a fourth or fifth vote on the same management-written deal. We will not allow our strike authorization to be buried in extensions and arbitration.
We have rejected three contracts. We have voted to strike. We have made our position clear. From this point forward, the workers will become the authority.
In solidarity,
The Nexteer Workers Rank-and-File Committee