The crowd of UAW members and supporters hold up signs supporting Local 2093 in Three Rivers in their union contract negotiations with American Axle at a solidarity rally Sunday at Three Rivers High School.
By Robert Tomlinson
News Director
THREE RIVERS — Hundreds of United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 2093 members at American Axle and Manufacturing (AAM, also known as Dauch Corporation) in Three Rivers and their supporters rallied in solidarity Sunday amid what is expected to be significant contract negotiations between the union and AAM.
Held at the Three Rivers High School Performing Arts Center, the majority of rallygoers wore red shirts, held signs of support, and cheered along as UAW representatives, state officials and local officials offered their support to the union in their contract fight against one of the largest employers in St. Joseph County.
Highlighting the near-90-minute event was UAW President Shawn Fain, who told the crowd that the union’s international leadership would have their back in their contract fight.
“I came here today to deliver two simple messages: One message is for all of you in this room in Local 2093. That is that the international UAW has your back,” Fain said. “And the other message is for American Axle, because I know they’re listening. That message is this: Tick tock. That’s the sound of the clock ticking on this company. It’s the sound of 18 years of injustice at American Axle. It’s the sound of time running out on corporate greed in Three Rivers, Michigan, and with American Axle.”
United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain gives a fist pump to UAW members and supporters in Three Rivers prior to his speech at a solidarity rally Sunday at Three Rivers High School for Local 2093 amid negotiations on a new union contract with American Axle.
Local 2093 began negotiations with AAM on March 23, and their current contract expires May 31. According to union leadership, workers are seeking a number of demands in this round of contract talks: no concessions, fairer wages and profit sharing, better health care, stronger retirement, and job security.
“[The employees] have been suppressed for the last 18 years,” Josh Jager, a member of Local 2093’s bargaining committee and an employee at AAM since 2002, said in an interview after the rally. “Our buying power at $18 an hour to start is barely better than the $10 an hour we had 18 years ago for new hires coming in. We see the CEO making his money, we want him to make his money, but we need a fair share.”
Much of union leadership and its membership points back to the Great Recession in 2008 as a watershed moment in the relationship between the union and AAM. According to the union, workers made “major sacrifices” to save the Three Rivers facility from closure during that time period, giving the example of workers that made $29 an hour at the time seeing their wages slashed to $14.50.
Now, they say, workers have yet to make up that ground from those past levels, with wages reportedly topping out at $22 an hour, while they say AAM has generated $2.9 billion in profits since 2022 as a Tier 1 part supplier to General Motors, and the CEO has been paid $47.9 million during that time.
“We have members that right now, they take out a loan on their 401k almost every 12 to 24 months to pay off credit card debt, and it’s just a perpetual thing because they can’t make enough money,” Jager said. “There’s a guy that works seven days a week, $22 an hour, and can’t support himself. We have members that ride their bikes to work because they can’t afford to get their cars fixed. We have members that walk two and a half miles to work every day because they can’t afford a car.”
AAM did not respond to multiple requests for comment on the negotiations or the rally by press time.
Sunday’s rally started with comments from Local 2093’s bargaining committee, including Jager, followed by remarks from UAW Region 1D Assistant Director Scott Zuckschwerdt, the MC for the event. He encouraged members to support the bargaining committee with their efforts, reiterating that regional leadership would support them in negotiations.
“This local union, this bargaining team, what they need is your support. They need your solidarity,” Zuckschwerdt said.
Three Rivers Mayor Angel Johnston then spoke, talking about her family’s union background and how “good jobs come from unions.”
“Three Rivers is a strong community,” Johnston said. “You deserve good wages, you deserve safe conditions, you deserve great healthcare, you deserve job security, and what’s good for unions is good for everyone else.”
A couple of other current elected officials, Chris Swanson, the current Genesee County sheriff and a Democratic gubernatorial candidate, and Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist, who is running as a Democrat for Michigan Secretary of State, spoke to the crowd, offering their support for the local union.
The negotiating committee for UAW Local 2093 in Three Rivers raise their fists in solidarity during a rally Sunday at Three Rivers High School amid union contract negotiations with American Axle.
“I’m coming to tell the big blue box, also known as American Axle, these are the people that made you a billion-dollar business and traded on the stock exchange. These are the people who, when your stock was making 40 cents a share, took food out of their kids mouth to make sure you had your hat,” Swanson said. “These are the people who build American Axle. Do not forget, these are the men and women that have earned fair wages and healthcare and a contract that’s longstanding and generational retirement.”
“In this moment, this negotiation represents a crossroads for the relationship between working people and the billionaire class, between working people and corporate America,” Gilchrist said. “There are people standing alongside you and behind you, not just in Michigan, but across this entire country. I want you to know we are there with our hands held high and pushed out forward to hold you up, to make sure you’re strong, and if y’all got to go and strike, we’re going to be right there with you on that line.”
A couple of current union members, Mark Hicks and Emily Pierce, then spoke, detailing their time with AAM and what they’re hopeful for with the negotiations.
“In the 40-some years I’ve been here, I’ve seen a lot of things: Wages lost, benefits disappear, holidays disappear. It’s kind of disheartening,” Hicks, who has worked at the Three Rivers plant since 1985 at Hydromatic, said. “Now it’s our time to take back what we’ve lost. All of these years, I’m tired of the crap.”
“Those of you that haven’t been there in a while haven’t seen the sacrifices that our people took in ‘08,” Pierce, who has been with the company for 12 years, said. “We have people on the shop floor that still haven’t recouped from ’08, and I just want all of us to be on the same page. Today is our time, because we have solidarity.”
Region 1D Director Steve Dawes then spoke, using a nautical analogy to describe what the union is looking for with negotiations.
“I’m a firm believer that we’re in this big bay of water, and as we sit, the company’s over here floating in their big yacht, and we’re all over here in this little dinghy,” Dawes said. “If the tide has to go down in order to make the company survive, maybe our dinghy’s gotta go down too. Just the opposite when the tide rises. All we want is our dinghy to go up with the yacht, but that’s not happening. They’re floating while we’re still down here.”
Finally, the stage was turned over to Fain. He recognized the union members’ “massive sacrifices” in 2008 and said while it wasn’t different from a lot of places during that time, it came down to the “same problem.”
“Every one of those plants, and this community, has been waiting for 18 years to get back to where we were in 2008,” Fain said. “I want to ask a simple question: What was that sacrifice for? Why did we give up all these things to save this plant? I’ll tell you right now, I sure as hell know it wasn’t to pay the CEO $111 million in the last decade. … The sacrifice wasn’t for corporate executives, the sacrifice wasn’t for shareholders, the sacrifice was made for the people.”
Fain then said the workers have worked for the past 18 years, “so that someday we can make things right.”
“Local 2093, I’ve got good news: That day is coming,” Fain said. “Mark your calendars for May 31, 2026, because we have two options: We can either have a square deal, or, as your Local 2093 committee likes to say, we can square s*** up. We’re done living to fight another day. Another day is here, that day is today. This is the fight.”
He finished his speech with a Martin Luther King, Jr. quote about lives beginning to end the day people become silent about things that matter.
“For the past 18 years, the silence has been deafening. Today, we’re breaking that silence,” Fain said. “I want to ask American Axle one question: can you hear us now?”
In an interview following the rally, Fain said the main goal for the upcoming contract negotiations is for a “decent standard of living.”
“All we’re asking for is, these workers don’t want to be millionaires. They’re not asking to be rich. They’re asking just for a decent standard of living,” Fain said. “Look at what’s going on, it’s everything that’s wrong with this country. You have a corporation that’s making billions and billions of dollars off the backs of their labor, and they always find tens of millions of dollars and billions of dollars for shareholders and CEOs. But when it comes time to take care of the people that work their butts off every day, they always say there’s nothing for you.”
Jager said he is hopeful Local 2093 will be able to secure a fair contract for its members.
“I think we have a pretty good chance of getting what we’re asking for because we’re not asking for anything that’s unreasonable,” Jager said. “As long as our CEO can come to the table with a level head, we won’t have any issues. We’ll get where we need to be.”
Robert Tomlinson can be reached at 279-7488 or robert@wilcoxnewspapers.com.
