Edition 4 TRUTH
FINDERS WWW.NOUAW.COM
The Truth Finders are
dedicated to distributing the TRUTH
to TMMK Team Members so that they may make an informed decision about the
UAW. We are confident that once you
learn the facts you will agree that TMMK should remain
The UAW organizers claim that
“the UAW is not here for our money, they are here because they were
called”. The truth is the UAW has been
here at TMMK since TMMK opened. The UAW
commonly uses “salts” to help organize a plant.
A salt is a person who is paid by a union to obtain a job at a target
plant for the purpose of organizing the plant.
The salts work to create problems, distrust and disharmony. The salt will then try to convince coworkers
that the UAW will solve all their “problems”.
The UAW has also admitted to placing salts at TMMI. www.sbe.csuhayward.edu/~sbesc/column22.html
www.libertyhaven.com/politicsandcurrentevents/unionsandotherorganizations/saltsavor.html
The UAW organizers claim that laid off workers
from other plants could not transfer to TMMK because TMMK would be a “stand
alone local”. Prior to December of 2003,
GM workers and Saturn workers were covered under separate contracts but
transfers between GM and Saturn were common.
Transfers between GM and
www.thecarconnection.com/index.asp?article=6287&pf=1 www.autonews.com/news.cms?newsId=7281
www.freep.com/money/autonews/vist27_20040327.htm
The UAW organizers claim that
control will stay at the local level but if you look at what happened at plants
such as Accuride you will see that it is the UAW International that is really
running the show. The UAW International cut off strike benefits to Accuride
workers and took over the bargaining talks.
Eventually strike benefits were reinstated. After months of negotiations the UAW
International Executive Board (IEB) put the contract to a vote (it was the same
contract that had been voted down 5 times). The contract contained provisions which would
negate seniority, restrict the grievance procedure, outsource all maintenance
work and increase insurance premiums.
Furthermore the contract would only allow for less than 25% of the
employees to return to work. Employees were told that if they voted it down
again that their strike pay and benefits
would be cut off again. The UAW
finally revoked the charter of Local
2036 in
Perhaps a better way to see who is running
the show is to look at where the dues money goes. If you look at the financial report for a UAW
local, you will see that 62% of all dues are sent to the International in the
form of a per capita tax. Some of that
tax goes into something the UAW calls a Community Action Program (CAP). These CAP’s are mostly used to support
liberal Democratic candidates. The
biggest UAW CAP in
To add insult to injury the UAW has worked
feverishly to prevent its members from learning their Beck rights. Your Beck right is your right not to fund the
political activities of a union. In 2001
President Bush issued an executive order which required federal contractors to
inform their workers of their Beck
rights. The UAW filed a lawsuit against
the Bush Administration in an effort to block this Executive Order.
The UAW has even FIRED members from their jobs for exercising their Beck rights. Recently a former Colt Manufacturing employee
won a judgment against the UAW because of his illegal firing. HIS CASE HAD BEEN CONSOLIDATED WITH DOZENS OF OTHERS IN A NATIONWIDE
CASE AGAINST THE UAW. Why doesn’t the
UAW want its members to know their rights???
What are they trying to hide??? www.nlpc.org/view.asp?action=viewArticle&aid=324
http://union-reports.dol.gov/olmsWeb/docs/formspg.html www.nlpc.org/olap/030714lm.html
www.nrtw.org/b/nr.php3?=283
Pittsburgh
Tribune-Review June 20, 2001
Suggested reading: Go to www.CCFConline.com
and click on “Of Interest”.
The union organizers claim
you will have a “voice”. This is a
typical union ploy. Let’s take a look at
how the UAW handles your “voice”. When a
union office is vacated, the Administration Caucus (AC) appoints someone (a
handpicked friend of the AC) until an election can be held. The appointee will then be sent to the Black
Lake Golf Course in
Let’s
also take a look at how the AC handles resolutions from rank and file
members. Here is a list of some of the resolutions
that were presented at one of the UAW’s Conventions:
·
Proposal to elect
union officials instead of appointing them – DEFEATED by the AC
·
Proposal to
abolish the collection of dues from profit sharing & lump sum payments –
DEFEATED by the AC
·
Proposal to
require that changes to the contract be submitted to the members for approval –
DEFEATED by the AC
The
Delegates at the Convention voted themselves a holiday in
In August 2003 a group of UAW
members called UAW Concern protested outside the AFL-CIO union’s executive
board meeting. Specifically they
protested how top UAW officials are elected.
Top UAW officials are elected by delegates at the UAW constitutional
convention rather than by direct voting of members. The delegates have elected every UAW
President since 1946. Tom Marino, an 18
year GM worker, said “You get tired of feeling like they won’t listen to
you, like all they really want is your dues money”. Tom Kelley, a UAW member from
The union organizers claim that you would
have a “voice” at the bargaining table.
Let’s look at what their “voice” achieved during the September 2003 Big 3/UAW
contract talks. They got 50,000 job eliminations, 10+ plant closings, prescription drug co-pays doubled, two tier wages for
www.laboutnet.de/branchen/auto/gm-opel/bdog/41.html
http://lists.iww.org/pipermail/iww-news/2003-August/002928.html
www.labornotes.org/archives/2002/07/c.html
www.labournet.net/world/0311/usauto2.html
The union organizers would
like you to believe that the UAW will make all the jobs easy at TMMK. The truth is that the incident rate at TMMK
is below the industry average and it is less than the incident rate at the UAW
represented plants of NUMMI, Mitsubishi and Ford-Louisville. The incident
rate at Ford-Louisville exceeds 50%!
In an
The
Big 3 have process reductions as well.
The big difference is that when
they have a process reduction someone losses their job. A recent article in the St. Louis
Post-Dispatch discussed the productivity gains at the Chrysler minivan factory
in
www.freep.com/money/autonews/drive4_20040304.htm
The union organizers are
trying to make everyone believe that
Comparing our wages to the
wages of the
In the last 20 years unions
representing workers on private payrolls have LOST 28% of their membership
while total employment has grown by 38%.
During that same time period, in inflation adjusted dollars, union members’
pay increased by 4% while the pay of
non-union workers increased by 17%.
Source: UNION MEMBERSHIP EARNINGS and DATA BOOK 2003 Edition
We searched for evidence of
vehicle giveaways at UAW plants but only found one. Recently the workers at the Ford plant in
Several team members have
mentioned that they signed a card so they have the pleasure of VOTING NO, should there be an election. They believe that they won’t have to deal
with the organizers for another 3-5 years.
This line of thinking is incorrect.
If an election is held another election cannot be held for ONE
year. The UAW can start a new organizing
campaign the day after an election. Go
to www.NOuaw.com and learn how to REVOKE your card.
A week after the
In a recent UAW publication,
a UAW Local President urged people NOT to buy Toyotas or Hondas. Remember that the UAW represents workers at
NUMMI that build Toyotas. The UAW also
refused to stand up for one of its members who was FIRED for driving a “foreign” car and not parking in the FAR CORNER
of the parking lot. The far corner of
the lot is designated for “foreign” cars.
The UAW considers Toyotas to be foreign even if they are built in the
www.web.ucrc.state.oh.us/abstract/Court/c0000103.htm www.lsj.com/news/business/030907_cars_1e-6e.html
A product designer at
DaimlerChrysler filed a complaint with the NLRB against the UAW. The complaint claims that the UAW failed to
inform its members that Chrysler had the right to cut jobs under the terms of
the new UAW/Chrysler contract. The job
cut provisions were not disclosed to members before they voted to ratify the
contract in 2003. Dow Jones
www.detnews.com/2004/autosinsider/0403/17/c01-94484.htm
Some team members have
requested additional info on the American Automobile Labeling Act. This website should be helpful: www.cato.org/pubs/regulation/regv17n4/reg17n4-cur.html
Of interest; It is expected that the Hyundai/Kia Group will sell more
cars than Honda this year. Worldwide
sales for Hyundai/Kia are expected to be 3.3 million units versus 3.2 million
for Honda. Ten years ago had you ever
heard of Hyundai or Kia??
SLOGAN CONTEST UPDATE
We would like to thank those
who have submitted slogan ideas. You can
still participate by sending your slogan idea to Truth Finders PO Box 2005
Sal Davis in
IA430 sends this message to fellow team members; “DON’T HATE ME BECAUSE I AM
Rodney Holland
in IA260 is always looking out for his fellow team members; “FRIENDS DON’T LET FRIENDS SIGN CARDS”
Rick Clevinger has
some wise words; “
Rodney Hicks
in IA820 wants to share the truth with his fellow team members; “YOU WANT THE TRUTH, WE’VE GOT THE
ANSWERS” www.NOuaw.com
Duane Power
better known as “Country” goes
straight to the point; “MY JOB, MY CHOICE,
Aaron Dip a
Temp in IA260 sums it up; “WORK FOR PAY,
DON’T PAY TO WORK!”
Last year, under pressure
from the Big Three, Dana Corp. signed a neutrality agreement with the UAW. The agreement included union recognition
based on card checks. NLRB supervised
elections are NOT allowed under the agreement (Why does the UAW fear secret ballot elections?). Dana employees at many facilities have
successfully fought off the UAW’s attack but the union was certified in a few
places. Union opponents had told their
coworkers all along that the union had a sweetheart deal with management and
would sell them out just to get their dues.
Recently, Dana employees at the
www.nrtw.org/b/nr.php3?id=249 www.nrtw.org/b/nr.php3?id=290 www.nrtw.org/b/nr.php3?id=258 www.nrtw.org/b/nr.php3?id=279
DANA-BRISTOL CONTRACT SLAMMED DOWN BY
EMPLOYEES
Employees overwhelmingly vote NO on new contract and
tell
UAW go back to the bargaining table…Or go home!
By our reporter
As the UAW faces tougher and
widespread opposition from organizing future Dana plants, the UAW will
have no bragging rights when
they head to other Dana facilities. The
newly formed UAW at Dana-Bristol overwhelmingly voted NO on the new
contract. The results were 130 employees
voted No and 3
employees voted YES. “Workers are furious at what the UAW brought
to them. It was a joke”, says a
Dana worker.
“This is an embarrassment”,
says a group of pro-union supporters, who claim they’ve made the BIGGEST
mistake of their employment
history with Dana. “We’ve been lied to
and used by the UAW”, they say! “It’s
just like the anti-union
people have said all along, the UAW just wants our dues, and that’s
it! They have
proven that! We truly believed we were going to help ourselves,
and just got slapped in the face by Bob
King himself. We feel like fools. What have we done here? We’ve lost”, they say. “We never had a voice
Like Bob King claimed we
would and we never will have one. The
UAW has created a very bad situation for
the employees in our
plant. The UAW has failed us already and
we don’t even have our first contract.”
Some union supporters are
asking for their cards back and other employees are starting to call their
State
Senators to file complaints
and get information on how to decertify the UAW and oust them from Dana.
“One of the UAW’s biggest
supporter’s was wearing a sign on his shirt that said. ‘No Pension – No
Contract’”, says another Dana
worker speaking on condition of anonymity.
“There is a major breakdown
between the union
supporters”, she says. “They are
fighting amongst themselves over the contract and
several want their cards
back!” Speculation has it that the newly
elected president of their union wants to
step down. Some of the highlights of the contract
include:
- No signing bonus
- NO
Pension increase for the life of the contract
- 3% raises first 2 years with last 2 years pending
plant performance
- Buzzer to buzzer breaks and lunches with
disciplinary action to those who violate it
- NO MORE smoke breaks
- Healthworks insurance. (Another was not even bargained for!)
- Mandatory
overtime
- Mandatory
teams and idea program
These are just a few of the
highlights. “We’ve lost all of our perks
now”, says one worker. “I hope the other
Dana plants that are non-union
realize what they have and cherish it, because once the UAW comes in, it’s
ALL gone. ALL OF IT!!! STAY
is the BEST advice I can give
my fellow Dana workers at other plants”. Some workers are questioning how
the UAW and Dana were able to
negotiate a contract in a matter of 2 to 3 weeks! “These are pre-written
contracts”, they say. “All the UAW is doing is filling in the
blanks for each specific plant. We feel
violated in
the worst way by the UAW and
Dana. Shame on Dana for doing this to
their workforce”.
Some workers knew it was
coming after the Dana-Elizabethtown contract was ratified. Workers there too
Wanted to vote it down but
were told by Bob King that it was “the best the UAW could do for them!” The
Workers of E-town were also
told that if they DID vote it down, the next contract would not nearly be as
Good. Workers are questioning where the employee
voice is at that Bob King promised them.
“They
treated us like family when
they wanted our card signatures, but as soon as they had the majority and won
their drive, they wanted
nothing to do with us except for our dues.”