CAW responds to LaSorda

Rick LaPorte of CAW Local 444 responded to Tom LaSorda’s public statements regarding Canadian Chrysler plants and his threat to shut down all Canadian Chrysler facilities in a note to Local 444 members (Local 444 represents Windsor; Brampton is represented by Local 1285, and Etobicoke Casting in Toronto is represented by Local 1459). He wrote:

I write this leaflet with a sense of obligation to all those men and women who work so hard to produce a world class mini-van in Windsor and outstanding products in Brampton.

As Chairperson of the Chrysler Master Bargaining Committee and President of CAW Local 444, I feel compelled to respond to the chain of events that took place last week, in relationship to the bargaining process and to comments rendered during Mr.LaSorda’s testimony on Parliament Hill. …

As I have said in many media reports, your Master Bargaining Committee met with Chrysler’s Labour Relations Executives on the moming of Wednesday, March 11,2009 to discuss the GM agreement. The intent of that meeting was a probing session designed to get both sides on the same page and to see whether the two sides can come together and find some common ground. To say it was a tough meeting would be an underslatement, but both parties agreed to meet after the company had an opportunity to review some numbers. 

Later that evening, there were media reports beginning to surface about the testimony of Tom LaSorda. It was both a surprise and a shock to hear some of the reports based on the meetings I had attended earlier in the day. We were hearing reports of Chrysler threatening to pull production out of Canuda if we did not meet the company’s demands. We also beard that Mr. LaSorda said the GM agreement bargained with the CAW was not concessionary enough for Chrysler and he required more cuts in order to remain in Canada. It was quite a shift in events in just a matter of hours. So much so, I was hard pressed to find a reasonable explanation for his comments. 

By morning my shock and disbelief turned into anger as it did with our members and the general public. 

Yet, Mr. LaSorda would have you believe that he did not threaten to close his business in Cmada if we did not meet his expectations. In his letter dated March 13th, 2009 and in the media reports, he claims “the current Chrysler/CAW labor costs are not competitive. Compared with the Canadian Transplants (Honda and Toyota) it’s approximately $20/hour.” As all of you know, we have said from day one, we would not be compared to nonumon transplants but would compare ourselves with our counterparts in the UAW. He admitted “We had a gap with the UAW and we closed it without touching base wages and pensions.” Our goal was simply to stay in the ballpark for future investment in the Canadian operalions. 

Another factor is the value of Canadian dollar and tbe exchange rate that is used in calculating the equation. Chrysler wanls to take full advantage of this rate. Tbey continue to ignore the facls that Mr. LaSorda claims he wants you to know.

As of the writing of this report, the Canadian dollar is worth 78 cents US but Mr. LaSorda and his representatives want to use a 90 cent dollar when comparing our wages with those in the United States. I ask you: Is this fair? Has be told you this? There is a big difference when one compares our wages with the UAW and when one compares our wages with the non-union transplant wage. It is like comparing apples with oranges. 

He tells us he is just informing us of the situation and be wants us to have all the facts. I would suggest he wants to tell you his side, minus many facts and figures. I question why he continues to mislead the workers in Canada. He says this is not a negotiating strategy. Then why will he not tell us he has no intention of giving us credit for the Canadian dollar? 

We have said in the past and we continue to say, our wages are comparable to wages of other auto workers around the world including Japan, Germany, and the United States. We have said that we will continue to maintain that investment edge when it comes to wages and productivity. Another important factor in the equation, one totally ignored by Mr. LaSorda, is the fact that we are number one in productivity compared to the other two mini-van operations.

Chrysler would prefer to compare us with car assembly plants as the benchmark; again it is like comparing apples with oranges. What I find offensive is the fact he chooses not to acknowledge our hard work. It didn’t just happen! The Canadian workforce has worked incredibly hard to achieve this status, a fact that Marcel Breault has commented on many times over. 

In Mr. LaSorda’ s letter dated March 13, 2009, he also states, “The UAW and all salaried employees in the U.S. and Canada gave up tuition reimbursement – CAW still has it”. Again, Mr. LaSorda is comparing apples with oranges. There are many differences in the labour agreements between Chrysler and both the UAW and CAW. As he has done over and over, be fails to give us any credit und he does not mention Lhat there is a reduction in the tuition refund of seven hundred dollars. The company would prefer to strip you of all your dignity as you head out the door. We believe that now is not the time to stop the tuition refund. Now is the time when workers need to seek education more than ever, as they are faced with so much job loss ill our industry. 

He also slates “CAW employees get child care coverage and UAW doesn’t”. Here’s a person that wants you to have the facts but, did you know the UAW gave up child care last contract because they choose to eliminate their program, in return for some other benefit. He fails to give Canadians their own identity; he has lost touch with the average Canadian. We as Canadians believe in good quality child care services for our children and this is just another example of why the CAW split from the UAW. 

I thought the next statement was an interesting one to say the least seeing that it is coming from a “straight-forward blunt talker” like Tom. He states “The UAW assembly plants and GM Oshawa have 40 minute break times; Windsor has 56 and Brampton has 53″. I don’t know about you, but the last time I saw those relief patterns was 1993. Just to set the record straight we have 42 minutes of relief on an eight hour shift in Windsor and Brampton has 50 minutes which includes a 20 minute paid lunch. 

It is concerning when he is raising issues that we have already said to the company we were willing to discuss further. The issue of our relief time is not part of pattern bargaining and can be discussed further. He fails to tell you all the facts in his email to the employees. As a matter of fact, I received another copy of his letter later in the day which was modified to show the correct amount of relief time at Brampton which is 50 as I explained. It is disheartening and frustrating when you hear and read the President of Chrysler sending out misinformation to its employees while at the same time he fully expects us to buy into his version of our collective bargaining. 

The next statement is also puzzling to me as well he writes, “A UAW retiree’s annual cost share for health care is almost three times a CAW retiree, while the pension payments are similar. A UAW active employee’s average annual cost share for health care is almost twice as much as CAW employees”. Again it is clear he wants to compare apples with oranges. The health care system in Canada is much different than the health care system in the United States so we fully expect the UA W workers health care cost to be more. This is one of the advantages we have as Canadians, but Tom LaSorda does not want to give you credit for our health care system in Canada. 

He also mentions paid time off the job. “CAW has 6 weeks paid time off and the UAW 5 weeks”. In this particular quote he chooses not to acknowledge a couple of facts, the first one is the fact we just gave up a week’s vacation less than a year ago and the second being we also gave up five more additional paid days in this current round of bargaining. So you can see, we have adjusted our paid time off to remain over all competitive with our counterparts in the United States, but that’s not good enough for Mr. LaSorda. He wants to be the leader in reducing our paid time off the job. 

He also talks about the “legacy obligation of $1.6 billion for retiree and active health care” but again, he fails to consider or mention your future sacrifice of a contribution of $30 a month and the shifting of your $1700 bonus to a health care fund. The company has underfunded these programs. They would like us to pay for their past sins.

He also raises an “$80 million liability for out of province coverage, where we have to pay above the OHIP rates if people live in Florida for the winter months, vacation or need to seek medical care outside Ontario.” What this means is they have $80 million in liability on their books, based on an assumption that every retiree will be living in Florida for the winter. 

Mr. LaSorda stated “it (the GM Agreement) was unacceptable due to the differences between companies and our (Chrysler’s) analysis showed it didn’t close the gap. It’s not close”. The only difference he quoted was the retiree ratio of the different companies and because of the ratio; he couldn’t live with the pattern. I do agree there is a major difference in the active to retiree ratios, but if the company would have funded the pension at the proper levels instead of giving the senior executives hefty bonuses in the millions we would not be in this position. 

Tom LaSorda states “The third critical factor was labor costs.” He stated “the current Chrysler/CAW labor costs are not competitive.” Yet GM Chief Financial Officer Ray Young stated, “At current exchange rates. the new CAW labor rate beats foreign automakers in the U.S. such as Toyota Motor Corp.”

In an interview yesterday Toyota spokesman Mike Goss said ‘Toyota’s hourly U.S. labor rate is about $48 (C$61.05)”. Yet. Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC this week said the CAW cuts aren’t deep enough for them. “I do not know Ford and Chrysler’s costs”, Young said. “Our analysis shows that the CAW contract with GM of Canada gets us to a competitive active labor costs per hour. At current exchange rates, we’re actually lower.” (Bloomberg news) March 14, 2009. 

Just so we are all on the same page, Tom LaSorda’s message was posted on the plant manager’s message board. I sent an email to the plant manager, Marcel Breault, requesting an opportunity to respond to Mr. LaSorda’s message. Based on Tom LaSorda’s closing remarks which read “Keep the team informed”, I thought I would also be allowed to communicate the facts, but instead they did not even have the decency to respond to my request. I am forced to compose a leaflet for the shop floor to get the information to the membership. 

I ask our members to remain hopeful that this company will acknowledge all of your hard work and dedication in making the Windsor Assembly Plant a top notch world class facility.

Referring to Fiat touring our plant, Plant manager Marcel Breault, on his message board Monday, March 9, 2009, said “They could not believe the working relationship we’ve developed. From Team Members, Team Leaders, Skilled Trades and everyone else. Fiat recognized the positive atmosphere that is Windsor Assembly. We genuinely work well together, we’ve built a trust and commitment to each other that can’t be found anywhere else in the auto industry and it did not go un-noticed amongst our guests. They’ve seen SMART Manufacturing done. before but never at the level we’ve achieved. I know I’ve said this many times before but it’s a fact and it bears repeating. We should all be very proud of what we have done here at Windsor Assembly.” Mr. LaSorda obviously does not see our commitment or dedication to this company. 

In closing, I would like to provide an update as to where we are with the latest round of bargaining. The CAW Economist, Jim Stanford, along with Pension specialist Sym Gill, will be meeting with the company on Monday to work on getting both parties to agree on the numbers. Once we can both agree where the true numbers are, we can begin to bargain in a fair and equitable process. Until then, both sides agree to disagree. We are hopeful we can get back to work before the end of this week; we will endeavour to keep you informed as we go through the process.