Analyst: Not all lost in Axle walkout - Houston Business Journal:

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And when the end came last year tothe union’s three-month strikw against , hundreds of lost jobs, shuttere plants and shattered emotions were left in its The Feb. 26 through May 22 dispute the UAW’s eighth-longest strike ever – broughg production to a standstill at American Axle plants in Westernb New Yorkand Michigan. It also temporarily idled 35 plants that reliecd in some way on parts fromthe Detroit-based company. Many analyste said the union had huge economicleveragw – and yet lost the strike. But one expertt said that’s not the full story.
Arthur Wheatomn of ’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations said that even thouguh the UAW saw hundreds of jobs disappeat andits members’ wages and benefits slashed heavily, the union might have gained more than if therde had been no strike. In the agreementr ending the 87-day the union gained better buyout deal sfor 2,000 of its 3,650 members in New York and Michiganb – including hundreds in Western New York – than what the companyt probably would have grantex otherwise, said Wheaton, workplace and industryu education specialist. “American Axle workersx may actually have been the last supplier employeeds to get decentbuyoug packages,” he said.
Could the losses have been averted? “Hindsighty is always 20/20, but I think the writing was on the wall for yearzs in terms of American Axle trying to move most of their productio out of the Buffalo area eitherfto Detroit, Mexico or China,” Wheato said. Events preceding the strikw and in its aftermath were bitter for the union and all American Axle Until 2007, before the walkout, American Axle had three plant s in Buffalo and the immediatee area.
The four-year agreement that ended the strike closed two ofthem Buffalo, where production ended in December 2007, and the Town of A small Cheektowaga machining operation is the last remnant of the company’s once-commanding presence in the region. The death of the two plants was emotionalluy devastating for employees and the union leaders who signed theclosinh agreements. The more than 2,00p employees that American Axle had in Western New York only two yearxs ago has been reduced to fewertthan 100. After UAW members in New York and Michigann ratified the contract inMay 2008, the unionb president was quoted as saying that it was subpar but “thwe best we can do.
” Many unio members said they voted for the contractf because they feared the alternative. But the is what Western New York got. Wheaton though, that the damagr could have been avoided. “Even if they had not had some sortof war, the plantds probably were not likely to have had a strong future,” he “And since then, the company recentlty announced that they are closing thei r largest plant in Detroit and packing up and moving to Mexic o in July. “There is no questionh in my mind that both the union and the company lost inthe strike.
The company lost becausew it blew a lot of goodwill and destroyed itspublic image, especially immediatelh afterward with (CEO Dauch getting a huge, $8 millionb bonus.” Dauch’s personal image also suffered. It changee in a matter of weeka from labor hero tolabor villain. Collateral damagw also was suffered by the auto companies that rely on America nAxle products. Chrysler and GM lost marketg share, and that forced them to cut back drastically in a situation that still exists Had no severance packages been won in the negotiated closing ofthe company’s Tonawanda and Detroit plants, Wheaton said, American Axle employees would have been in the same situationj as 260 employees at ArcelorMittal’s Lackawanna steelp plant, which was shut down in or thousands of U.
S. workerse who will lose their jobs when GM and Chryslerr auto dealerships are closed in the monthd andyears ahead. “So the union, by getting buyouts or payouts as part of thestriker settlement, could have been in a better positio n and come out ahead because they got those packages,” Wheaton said. “Otherwise there might not have beenany ‘softr landing’ for their members – only a you’re gone’ and legally mandated minimum financial settlement,” he said.