Labor & Employment Law

Ruling a Major Win for UAW American Axle Workers

By James Parks

An arbitrator has ruled that American Axle and Manufacturing violated the job security clause in its agreement with the UAW and must make whole the workers affected by its decision last year to move work to Mexico.

The ruling, issued earlier this week by umpire Paul Glendon, found the company violated the terms of its 2008 National Agreement with the union when it moved its 8.25 axle production away from its plant in Detroit to a plant in Guanajuato, Mexico.

UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said:

This is a major victory for these workers, and we’re very gratified that the umpire upheld our strong outsourcing language reached in the 2008 agreements. Our American Axle members went on strike for three months in part to win this measure of job security.

Glendon ordered the parties to determine the exact number of workers affected by the outsourcing, how many were laid off because of it and how much those workers are due in wages and benefits. 

Under the 2008 National Agreement, the company retained the ability to adjust the size of its workforce in response to the economic downturn that hit the auto industry in late 2008 and 2009, but it was not free to outsource the work it had guaranteed for Detroit Axle.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on March 26, 2010 (boomark / email).