DETROIT — The leader of the United Auto Workers union has rejected a third tier of lower wages for members who make auto parts.
Speaking Wednesday at the union’s national bargaining convention, president Dennis Williams said the UAW already has too many tiers of lower wages.
Williams was responding to reports that General Motors Co. and Ford Motor Co. may propose a third tier of pay. He already is under pressure from union members to end a second tier of wages that’s about half the $28 per hour made by longtime workers.
He told delegates that he heard people talking about the third tier — which would pay less than the $15.28 starting wage for second-tier workers — on their way in to the convention center Wednesday morning.
“I’m thinking they got too many damn tiers now,” said Williams, who received a standing ovation.
Actually, a third tier of wages already is in place at several General Motors factories in the Detroit area for a small number of workers who build battery packs and place parts in the right sequence to be assembled on cars. Without the lower tier, the work may have gone to Mexico or another country with lower labor costs.
Williams told members about bridging the gap in wages, an apparent reference to the first and second tiers. But he also said they’re competing in a global economy.
