UAW Urges Automakers to Cut Reliance on Temp Workers
WENTZVILLE, Mo.—The use of temporary factory workers at the Detroit car companies has long rankled the United Auto Workers union, which wants fewer of them and a faster path to full-time status. Automakers say they need the flexibility that temp workers provide, especially as they manage a tricky and costly transition to electric vehicles and confront the ups and downs of factory production. The issue is a key point of debate at the bargaining table as the UAW’s strike against General Motors, Ford Motor and Chrysler’s parent, Stellantis, enters its seventh day.
Negotiations center on new contracts for about 146,000 U.S. auto-factory workers at the three car companies. Union leaders have been vocal in their opposition to temporary staff, arguing that it creates inequality on the assembly line with one worker making a much higher wage than another for doing the same work.
Temps, who are also UAW members, start at about $16 an hour. Full-time line workers start at about $18 an hour and can progress to roughly $32 an hour over eight years. Temps don’t have as many benefits or the job security of full-time positions, although General Motors and Ford are contractually required to convert them to permanent status after two years.
At Stellantis, these workers are eligible for yearly increases, maxing out at $19.28 an hour, and convert when full-time jobs are available. “My 15-year-old son makes $20 an hour installing septic systems with his grandpa," said Cheri Tucker, a temporary worker at the General Motors factory in Wentzville, Mo., near St. Louis, one of the three plants now on strike.
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