Dream realized for GM temps
Over 900 temporary employees made permanent, full time
DETROIT— General Motors’ worker Adarrey “Ace” Humphrey was blindsided Sunday. That’s when his life changed.
Humphrey, 27, has been a part-time temporary worker at GM’s Flint Assembly for the last three years. Sunday morning, he and about 250 of his coworkers crowded into UAW Local 598’s union hall. Most thought they were there for a routine meeting. But when the local’s president stepped to the mic, the room listened in awed silence.
“He said, ‘As of tomorrow, you guys are full-time seniority employees of GM,’ ” said Humphrey. “There was a gasp in the room for a few seconds. Some of us thought he misspoke.” On Monday, GM made about 930 temporary workers permanent full-time employees at 30 of its 52 UAW-represented facilities in the United States. There are more to come in the months ahead, it said.
Union documents show that at Flint, where GM builds its heavy-duty pickups, 255 temps became permanent. At Lansing Delta Township, where GM builds its midsize SUVS, it hired 103 temps. At GM’s smaller plants such as Bedford Casting Operations in Indiana,17 temps are now permanent.
Ford Motor Co. also moved 592 temps to permanent fulltime on Monday, the UAW said, and will do more conversions of temps next month. But Fiat Chrysler Automobiles is still working to implement its temporary worker conversions, said the UAW.
The action is in keeping with the terms struck in the 2019 four-year UAW contract that GM union members ratified in October after a 40-day nationwide strike. In it, temporary workers who gain at least three years of service will convert to permanent status starting this year. Their new wages are $21to $24 an hour. Ford and FCA union members ratified their new contracts with similar terms. Still, thousands remain temporary workers at GM facilities.
Conversations continue The UAW said it wants more temps permanently hired. “UAW members sacrificed during our 40-day strike to create a defined path for temporary workers to seniority members in the 2019 National Agreement,” Terry Dittes, UAW vicepresident General Motors, told the Free Press in an email. “We remain in conversations with General Motors at several locations where we believe additional members should be moved to seniority status under the agreement.”
This move is a good start, said Dittes, but the union will be “vigilant to make sure that all hardworking temporary employees see their advancement to seniority status.”
About 50 temps at GM’s Marion Metal Center in Indiana were let go recently when the pickup program they were hired to work on ended. GM said it warned the workers in early December that they would be released because the production of previous-generation pickup parts ended the week of Dec. 8. There are the newly hired temps, too, who have a long way to go to reach the three-year seniority mark. They also face contract pitfalls such as being laid off for too long, thereby derailing whatever seniority they’ve accrued.
More to come GM confirmed that it made more than 900 GM temporary hourly employees regular fulltime employees and said there will be more hiring at more locations and additional opportunities to attain permanent fulltime status later this year.
GM declined to provide a breakdown of how many temps were converted to permanent at each facility, but a person familiar with GM’s hiring process confirmed it did include Flint Assembly and Lansing Delta Township. Temps make up about seven per cent to 10 per cent of GM’s workforce over the course of any given year.
They accounted for about 4,100 workers at the end of 2018 and a similar figure at the end of 2019, a person familiar with the numbers said. Ford had about 3,400 temps at the end of 2018, and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles had 4,800, the UAW said.
Strike sticking point In 2018, UAW leaders surveyed members about the critical issues to address in 2019 contract talks. Hiring temp workers as permanent employees topped the list, union members said.
Temps are union members, but they often work alongside permanent employees, doing the same work for half the pay and far fewer benefits. The UAW agreed to let automakers increase the use of temps a decade ago as the Detroit Three headed into the Great Recession.