[Marxism] Detroit Diesel workers strike

["Charles Brown" <cbrown@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Detroit Diesel workers strike

About 1,300 employees in Redford seek assurances that they will get to build
a new diesel engine.

By Brett Clanton / The Detroit News



About 1,300 workers at DaimlerChrysler AG <javascript:companybox('DCX')> 's
Detroit Diesel Corp. plant in Redford went on strike Tuesday night after
negotiations broke down over a new labor contract.

Workers have been without a contract covering wages and benefits since Oct.
31, when a current 6-year pact expired.

The United Auto Workers union, which represents the workers, and plant
management are deadlocked over whether DaimlerChrysler will build a new
diesel engine at the Redford plant and preserve jobs for years to come,
according to plant workers.

DaimlerChrysler also is pushing to cut health care benefits for current
workers and retirees, reduce cost of living wage increases and implement new
factory work rules to improve productivity, striking workers picketing the
Redford plant said Tuesday night. "We've been promised new work for years,
but there's always another hurdle," said Larry Trpovski, 42, a 10-year
Detroit Diesel veteran.

The strike could spell trouble for DaimlerChrysler's Freightliner Group, the
largest manufacturer of commercial vehicles in North America, by
interrupting the flow of heavy-duty diesel engines to the truck builder and
cost millions of dollars in lost production time.

Chris Brandt, spokesman for Detroit Diesel and Freightliner, said the
company has taken precautions to ensure engine production continues.

"We have a contingency plan in place," said Brandt, declining to provide
details.

About 300 Detroit Diesel workers picketed the plant Tuesday while labor and
company leaders were negotiating inside.

According to workers, the contract that expired Tuesday, included a two tier
wage agreement that paid new hires less money than veteran workers, reduced
their health care benefits and provided a 401(k) retirement plan, but no
pension.

"Now they want to take away more," said Keith Jarvinen, 34, an assembly
worker with 12 years at the plant. "We gave up a lot on the last contract on
the promise of new work."

UAW Local 163 President Larry Long did not return several calls for comment.


Workers said they have been refusing voluntary overtime since the contract
expired, which has led to a slowdown in production.

The Freightliner plant most vulnerable to the work stoppage is in Cleveland,
N.C., said Howard McKerracher, a 55-year-old assembly worker who has been at
Detroit Diesel for 27 years. He said the Redford plant supplies 85 percent
of the engines to Cleveland, which makes heavy-duty trucks. Other affected
Freightliner plants are in Portland, Ore., and Mexico, McKerracher said.

The work stoppage signals that the relatively new marriage between
DaimlerChrysler and Detroit Diesel is having trouble.

DaimlerChrysler bought the remaining shares in Detroit Diesel in 2000 from
racing mogul Roger Penske to bolster the automaker's commercial truck and
engine business.

The $423 million deal made Detroit Diesel the exclusive provider of diesel
engines to DaimlerChrysler's Freightliner Group, which builds trucks under
the Freightliner, Sterling and Western Star brands.

Detroit Diesel workers such as Mike Flaherty viewed the transaction
favorably at the time, believing it would bring more jobs to the plant. But
since the takeover, DaimlerChrysler has cut nearly 2,000 jobs throughout
Detroit Diesel's North American operations, leaving it with 4,800 workers
today.

"It will be just a continual spiral downward if we don't get some new work
in here," said Flaherty, 38, a skilled tradesman at the Redford plant.

Detroit Diesel faces stiff competition from U.S.-based Navistar Corp. and
Cummins Engine Co., as well as Asian and European rivals.

Besides the engine building plant in Reford, Detroit Diesel operates five
other engine remanufacturing plants in North America, including one in Grand
Rapids, and a parts distribution center in Canton, Ohio. The other
remanufacturing facilities are in Utah, Kansas, Ohio and Mexico. The strike,
however, only affects the Redford factory.

In Redford, Detroit Diesel's primary product is the Series 60 diesel engine
for big commercial trucks. It also makes diesel engines for marine, military
and industrial uses.

A major source of uncertainty with plant workers is whether DaimlerChrysler
will decide to build a replacement engine to the Series 60 in Redford or
elsewhere, perhaps overseas.

Losing the engine would be a major blow, especially now, as diesel engine
demand surges.

Compared to the first nine months of 2003, U.S. sales of medium- and
heavy-duty trucks rose 32.4 percent through September of this year,
according to WardsAuto.com.

DaimlerChrysler has said it will have a cleaner-burning, heavy-duty diesel
engine on the market by 2007, and workers say engineering work for the new
engine has begun in Redford.

But DaimlerChrysler has not told Redford workers they will build the engine.


Paul Krell, spokesman for the United Auto Workers International in Detroit,
would not comment on contract negotiations.

"We've been promised new work

for years, but there's always another hurdle."

You can reach Brett Clanton at (313) 222-2612 or bclanton@xxxxxxxxxxxx





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