UAW locals vote in favor strike authorization

Staff/wire report

LORDSTOWN

More than 90 percent of those in United Auto Workers Local 1714 and Local 1112 voted in favor of strike authorization.

Ninety-six percent of the Local 1714 voting members, who work in the fabrication plant at the General Motors Lordstown Complex where the best-selling Chevrolet Cruze is built, voted for the international union to authorize a strike if needed and for the local union to authorize a strike if needed.

Ninety-six percent of the UAW Local 1112 voting members, assembly plant workers, voted to authorize the international union to strike if needed and 94 percent voted to authorize the local union to strike if needed.

The voting here started Thursday and went through early Friday.

A strike authorization vote is a normal part of the process for the UAW and does not necessarily signal the union’s intent to call a strike. A strike authorization vote by the union’s members gives the union’s leaders the ability to call a strike if contract talks stall or hit an impasse.

The UAW union has scheduled deadlines for strike authorization votes at its GM and Fiat Chrysler locals as part of its national contract talks.

The union formally began negotiations with GM, Fiat Chrysler America and Ford in July in advance of the Sept. 14 expiration date of a four-year contract with all three automakers.

It’s unclear whether a strike authorization deadline has been scheduled for Ford workers.

A number of UAW units, including those in Belvidere, Ill., Detroit, Toledo and Warren, Mich., already have completed their votes with an overwhelming majority of members voting in favor of the authorization.

The UAW represents about 141,000 workers at the three automakers, including 50,300 at General Motors and 39,000 at FCA.

This year is the first year since 2007 that the UAW has the right to call strike against FCA US and GM. In 2009, when GM and Chrysler declared bankruptcy, the UAW agreed to forgo its right to strike during its 2011 contract talks.

The UAW did, however, authorize a strike against Ford in 2011 but did not use that authority.

UAW concerns are for longtime workers who haven’t received a base wage increase in 10 years, and many members continue to be unhappy about a two-tier wage system that pays newer workers less money.

Meanwhile, the auto industry is booming. Industry sales of new cars and trucks are expected to top 17 million for the first time since before the recession.