UAW Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

GM Union Agreement Could Put Martinsburg Facility Back To Work

Though it wasn’t official Monday, various news organizations reported a tentative agreement between GM and the United Auto Workers.

A tentative agreement between General Motors and its workers union could put an Eastern Panhandle facility back to work.

GM and the United Auto Workers reached a tentative deal on Monday to end a nearly six week strike that idled a distribution center in Martinsburg.

The GM deal is expected to be similar to ones reached with Ford and Stellantis, the parent company of Chrysler.

About 100 employees in Martinsburg have been part of the strike for five weeks.

Workers at all three companies would have to ratify any agreement, which is expected to include a pay increase and more generous retirement contributions.

GM’s largest plant in North America, in Spring Hill, Tennessee, joined the strike on Saturday.

Auto Workers Strike Expands To West Virginia GM Distribution Center

Workers at the General Motors distribution center in Martinsburg walked off the job on Friday.

They were among 38 GM and Stellantis distribution centers in 20 states that joined the United Auto Workers union’s strike at GM, Ford and Stellantis assembly plants.

Stellantis is the parent company of Chrysler. The Martinsburg center employs about 100 workers. Last week, 13,000 workers walked off the job. On Friday, 5,600 joined the effort.

The companies say they’ve laid off another 6,000 workers as a result of the shutdowns.

Among other changes, the UAW seeks a 36% increase in wages over four years. The union also wants a 32-hour workweek for 40 hours of pay and to restore traditional pension plans for newer workers.

The union cites record profits and executives making tens of millions of dollars in compensation. The companies say they face new costs in the transition from conventional cars and trucks to electric vehicles.

In a statement, GM spokeswoman Tara Stewart Kuhnen, called the move “unnecessary” and accused the UAW of manipulating the bargaining process.

Still, she said, the company “will continue to bargain in good faith with the union to reach an agreement as quickly as possible.”

A Stellantis site in Winchester, Virginia, also joined the picket lines on Friday.

General Motors Workers In Martinsburg Strike For Nearly A Week

For nearly a week, 90 workers from the General Motors Martinsburg Distribution Center have been on the picket line demanding better pay and benefits, as well as an updated promotional system for new employees.

The Martinsburg General Motors Distribution Center employs a little more than 100 people. Ninety of those workers have been on the picket line since Sunday — joining other UAW members across the country. The Martinsburg facility is the only GM distribution center in West Virginia.

The entrance into the Martinsburg General Motors Distribution Center is along Caperton Boulevard.

Vanessa Banks is the president of the Local 1590 chapter of the UAW.

She said every four years GM negotiates a new contract to decide what pay, healthcare and other benefits will look like for its workers.

“We don’t know all of the details until they come up with a tentative agreement, and then we can go vote on it,” she said.

The latest GM-UAW contract ended last weekend on Sept. 14, 2019. Negotiations for an updated agreement have been ongoing since July.

Banks said she and her fellow union members plan to be on the picket line until an agreement is made.

May 9, 1970: Labor Leader Walter Reuther Killed in Plane Crash

Labor leader Walter Reuther was killed in a plane crash on May 9, 1970. He was 62.

Reuther was born in Wheeling in 1907. His father, Valentine, was president of the Wheeling brewers union and led the city’s Socialist Party.

As a teenager, Walter began working as an apprentice tool-and-die maker at Wheeling Steel. He soon moved to Detroit and became one of the highest-paid skilled workers for Ford Motors. Frustrated by his union activities, though, the company fired him. He and his brother, Victor, then bicycled through Europe and worked at a Ford-built plant in the Soviet Union. Reuther returned to Detroit when industrial unionism was becoming a major force and became president of a powerful United Auto Workers local.

Reuther’s national reputation grew rapidly. By 1937, he represented 30,000 workers. He helped develop strategies, including the sit-down strike, that won major union contracts. In less than a decade, he became national UAW president and achieved cost-of-living increases, productivity pay raises, and unemployment benefits for his workers.

Walter Reuther was arguably the most influential labor leader in post-World War II America.