By Robert Tomlinson
News Director
THREE RIVERS — After 10 days on strike, United Auto Workers (UAW) officials announced that Local 2093 have reached a tentative agreement in bargaining contract negotiations with Dauch Corporation, also known as American Axle and Associates (AAM).
In a livestream video Wednesday night, UAW President Shawn Fain announced the tentative agreement, saying the fight with AAM would “go down in the history books.”
“After 18 years of sacrifice, these workers are finally winning back a big chunk of what was taken from them,” Fain said. “Ten days of sacrifice and solidarity to win back nearly 20 years of struggle. That’s because our labor is our power.”
The agreement, if ratified by the membership, would see workers at the Three Rivers plant make $30 an hour by the year 2030, one of the biggest goals the union said it had for negotiations.
“That’s more than a 36 percent increase for a top rate in four years,” Josh Jager, bargaining chair for Local 2093, said in the livestream. “This contract will change lives in Three Rivers and across southwest Michigan.”
In addition, Jager said, “legacy workers” who began at the company before May 31, 2008 would get an “immediate” $8 an hour raise, bringing them to the top rate. Jager added there were also no increases to healthcare premiums for the next four years, improved time off with more on Christmas, an extra nine days of vacation for everyone with at least one year of seniority, and Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Veterans Day would become new company holidays.
“There’s a lot more in this agreement, from added healthcare, safety language, maintaining our shift premiums for second and third shift, and much more that will be released soon, as soon as possible,” Jager said.
UAW Local 2093 workers at Dauch’s factory in Three Rivers had been striking ever since their current bargaining contract ended on May 31, picketing at all entrances to the facility. They have been joined on the picket line in the last week by a number of elected officials, other organizations, and candidates for office, most notably Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who briefly joined on Thursday, June 4.
“Michiganders deserve good wages to pay bills and keep food on the table. Today, UAW workers are on strike bargaining for better pay and stronger benefits. I will always stand with the hardworking men and women of the UAW,” Whitmer said in a social media post that day.
Other officials that have joined workers on the line in the last week include Three Rivers At-Large Commissioner Torrey Brown, Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed (who recently got an endorsement from the UAW in the primary), members of the Michigan Nurses Association, Michigan Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist, and many others.
According to WOOD-TV, UAW and Dauch had returned to the table late last week, and had been back multiple times since Monday to hash out the agreement. Fain said he was proud of the Local for their work.
“For years, they’ve prepared for this moment. Their leadership chose to fight differently. They communicated what was happening in bargaining with their members and their community. They took action to show the world they were ready to walk if they had to,” Fain said. “Local 2093 led the way, and this region led the way.”
Jager concluded his statement by saying that the bargaining committee “put all they had” into the agreement, and that they “couldn’t do it without any of you, the members holding that line.”
“I am damn proud of this agreement, and I’m damn proud to be a member of UAW Local 2093,” Jager said.
Robert Tomlinson can be reached at 279-7488 or robert@wilcoxnewspapers.com.
