Nearly all of the hourly workers at General Motors’ plant in Spring Hill — 96 percent — voted to authorize a strike as a bargaining chip in upcoming negotiations with the United Auto Workers. Union leaders say it’s a “procedural” maneuver typically used ahead of formal talks on pay and benefits.
Company-wide, the key sticking point will be phasing out a two-tier wage structure implemented during the recession. The current contract expires
Sept. 14.
Roughly 20 percent of GM’s Tennessee workforce is getting paid at the entry level rate, which is close to half of the $29 an hour for employees hired before the downturn. UAW local 1853 chairman Mike Herron says while most of the plant’s 1,600 workers make the higher amount, they want the newcomers to at least have a path to their prosperity.
“They all look at the people coming in behind them, and they want to leave a legacy of knowing that these folks are going to be able to go ahead and attain what they’ve got some day,” Herron said.
Similar strike votes have been taken during every negotiation for the past two decades, according to Herron, except for 2011 when bankruptcy rules prevented the union from even contemplating a strike.
On Air - 90.3 WPLN-FM