OUR VIEW: Union faced no-win situation

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March 7, 2010

Staff report Glasgow Daily Times The Glasgow Daily Times Sun Mar 07, 2010, 03:55 AM CST

GLASGOW — There are situations that simply present a no-win solution. Take for instance the choice of union members who work for the Dana Corporation plant in Glasgow. The workers were forced to choose between gambling on promises that were made by plant managers that union members did not believe would be fulfilled or knowing they would lose their jobs.

Some within the public have been critical of the decision of union members at Dana over their decision to not accept concessions demanded by the company, in light of the recent announcement that the factory will close by the end of the year.

But based on the past history involving those employees and the lack of any significant guarantee that the factory would remain open if concessions were made, those who are criticizing the union members are misguided.

For years when the company was Eaton Axle Co., there was no interest from the employees in forming a union. The representatives who spoke with the Daily Times Tuesday stated “we didn’t need to.” This was not the case of greedy workers who had demanded exorbitant compensation from their employer. The formation of this union occurred after employees lost much of their retirement and severance in the changeover between Eaton and Dana.

The union members have stated publically they were willing to accept a pay cut, but were against the cut in severance pay since it did not include any promises the location would continue operation.

The feeling was that, if they gave up a severance package that included up to 26 weeks of pay for long-time employees and allowed for the elimination of seniority, Dana would simply fire older, higher-paid employees immediately and then close the plant anyway, costing them thousands in severance with little gain. Employees would have been left with four weeks maximum of severance if they had accepted the deal.

It easy to understand some in the public who state that workers should accept any deal in the current economy with the idea that any job is better than no job.

In this case though some employees were not just being asked to take less money, and in some cases the reduction would have been up to $5 per hour less, but they would have also have been turning over thousands of dollars in severance. No person is willing to give up a sizeable amount of money gambling they might get to keep their job. It’s simply not an intelligent gamble to make.

The employees offered to take pay cuts, but wanted each employee to take the same reduction in terms of dollar amounts, which the paper considers a fair compromise.

After watching Dana receive offers of incentives and tax breaks from state and local government, but still not receive any word that the plant was safe, employees were justifiably suspicious that Dana officials had already elected to close the plant and were just seeking to receive concessions from the workers.

The next step toward seeing if the union members were correct in their assesment of Dana will be in April when all union members employed at the facility are supposed to receive a $725 bonus. It will be interesting to see if there are a large number of layoffs prior to paying the bonus as expected.

The bonuses would cost less than $150,000 for the company, but many at the plant believe they will be fired before then.

Despite the negative impact on the city of Glasgow and the families involved over losing their jobs, it was better for Dana employees to take the safe bet instead of gambling for a future that was unlikely to ever come.

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