Teamsters’ auto transport division heads voted unanimously Thursday to recommend an interim agreement for 3,000 auto transport drivers, mechanics and shipyard workers. Ballots will be mailed out on June 26, with voting on the National Master Automobile Transporters Agreement (NMATA) scheduled for July 12.
Union officials called the agreement “the most lucrative car transport agreement”. But the terms of the settlement do nothing to offset years of real wage cuts and leave workers vulnerable to the ravages of inflation. The contract also preserves a number of concessions made by the Teamsters in previous agreements.
Auto transporters are determined to end decades of concessions and reap significant profits in conditions where their wages are being eroded by rising costs of food, fuel, utilities and other essentials. The drivers’ willingness to fight was demonstrated by the nearly unanimous strike vote they cast before the contract expired on May 31. However, the Teamsters canceled the planned strike hours before the deadline and announced a settlement, but declined to give details.
According to a video statement announcing the confirmation posted online, the three-year interim NMATA includes wage increases of 9 percent retroactive to June 1, 2022, a 5 percent increase in 2023 and a 4 percent increase in 2024, officials claimed there were unspecified improvements to the current and absurdly inadequate inflation adjustments, which are currently capped at 10 cents an hour.
Teamster officials claimed the full agreement would be posted online, but full details were still unavailable as of late Thursday night.
With the current inflation rate of 8.6 percent expected to persist through at least 2023, or likely to increase further, the deal guarantees a significant further pay cut over the contract term. The prices of groceries, fuel and other necessities are up well over 9 percent, with gasoline costs up 48 percent year-on-year.
The first-year increase doesn’t make up for losses the auto haulers suffered from the one-year extension of the Teamsters’ signed contract from 2015 to 2021, which included a miserable 1.8 percent wage increase.
There is widespread opposition to the sell-out agreement among workers. This was expressed on Teamsters’ own Facebook page. A car transporter responded to the reported pay settlement: ‘Please explain how good 9% is when the inflation rate is above that. Basically, the way I see it, with the raise, we’re still going to make less than last year because we don’t even agree [the] Inflation rate.”
Another rider commented: “We’ve lost 17% in the last year and you guys made that up? 9-5-4 really? Fuck contract, if you vote that crap, then I’ve lost all hope in you!”
This was announced by a driver from the Cassens car transport company in Detroit World Socialist Web Site that the standard of living was under siege. “Gas and food are extremely high. The government has billions for a war we’re not even fighting. At the same time, they are cutting programs like mental health when they are needed more than ever.”
The treaty amends the hated Article 22, which allows hauliers to pay half the standard car haulage rate for loads previously delivered by non-union drivers, but leaves it in place. In the name of “defending union jobs,” the union has essentially accepted a two-tier pay system, with drivers receiving half wages for handling new “union business.”
Union officials routinely blame drivers for lost business as automakers have shifted the bulk of their deliveries to rail and non-union companies. Article 22 is intended to increase the profits of the two largest unionized companies, Jack Cooper and Cassens, while increasing the contribution base for the Teamsters union.
Drivers are tasked with transporting vehicles away from their home terminals and must expend their own resources, and most importantly, sacrifice time away from their families to increase the companies’ profits.
Under the new treaty, language workers reportedly have the right to individually ‘negate’ Article 22 and union officials can prevent companies from ‘abusing’ the language as if Article 22 as a whole was not an abuse.
On Facebook, many drivers reacted angrily that the Teamsters had failed to fully repeal Article 22. One driver wrote: “Obviously someone didn’t listen to the drivers. You lost many of us because of this. It’s a NO vote. Nice try, but maybe they have to listen to us…”
Another wrote: “I understand how to secure work but they just kind of abuse it[icle] 22 I think most people would love this change more than the actual raise…if I do 2 rounds every week I’m giving up $300-$500 a week on art[icle] 22 loads in my opinion that is BS”
Another motorist said: “I’m sorry I didn’t hear anything as monumental as you were trying to have us believe. Article 22 is still there. It’s a fucking no from me.”
The last auto transporter strike was in 1995. Since then, the number of auto transporters covered by the Teamsters agreement has fallen from 12,000 to just 3,000 today. During that time, the union has agreed to the steady erosion of wages, pensions and working conditions in a bid to “save jobs”. During Allied’s and Cooper’s bankruptcy restructuring, the Teamsters sponsored “pro-union” investors who were already cutting pensions and downsizing jobs.
Now, after two years of a deadly pandemic and the worst inflation in 40 years, workers are saying, “Not anymore.”
The few details available at the time of writing make it clear that this agreement is a sell-off that must be firmly rejected. It also shows that the new Teamsters President, Sean O’Brien, who has the full backing of fake dissident faction Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU), is just as degenerate as his predecessor James P. Hoffa.
As more information becomes available, the World Socialist Web Site will continue its analysis and provide a platform for workers to speak out and organize in opposition.
To wage this struggle, workers need their own independent organizations, grassroots committees, democratically run by the workers themselves. These committees allow for the broadest and most open discussion to craft a program and strategy for struggle based on what workers actually need, not what pro-corporate Teamsters leadership dictates.
These committees can serve as a basis for the development of a powerful working-class movement to reverse decades of concessions and defeats. Networks of such committees are needed to unite car hauliers, auto workers, logisticians, health workers and broader sections of the working class worldwide in a common struggle against the transnational corporations.
That World Socialist Web Site is a publication for the working class. We encourage auto transport workers to get in touch using the form below.
What are your thoughts on the contract and the issues surrounding this fight? What would you like to say to other drivers? Make yourself heard!