{"id":11237,"date":"2023-10-03T01:10:43","date_gmt":"2023-10-03T05:10:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tempestmag.org\/v01_2020\/staging\/?p=11237"},"modified":"2023-10-09T23:01:21","modified_gmt":"2023-10-10T03:01:21","slug":"let-them-eat-steak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/test02\/2023\/10\/let-them-eat-steak\/","title":{"rendered":"Let them eat steak"},"content":{"rendered":"

O<\/span>n the afternoon of September 26, I visited a UAW picket line at a G.M. parts distribution center in Rancho Cucamonga, CA. The workers there belong to Local 6645. Because the center only employs sixty workers, and they are deployed to the picket lines in rotating shifts, there were only about six people walking the line that afternoon. I spoke to five workers at length about the strike, the reasons behind it, and what they hoped to achieve.<\/p>\n

On the question of tiers<\/h4>\n

Everyone agreed that the biggest issue is a tiered wage structure that starts and caps newer employees\u2019 salaries unfairly low relative to longer-term employees.<\/p>\n

A worker who asked to be called Sarah M. is a picker in the facility. Although she has worked there for six years, she earns just 17 dollars an hour and maxes out, given her occupying a lower tier, at $25. \u201cWe\u2019re out here to get rid of tiers,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Michael Reed, a machine driver, told me, \u201cYou got some people doing the same thing as me, driving the machine around. They can pay people who\u2019ve been around 37 [dollars an hour], and another person will get 24. You don’t want to be doing the same work as somebody over there and getting half your pay.\u201d<\/p>\n

Workers emphasized how the tier system is not only unjust, it also divides the workforce. Charles Dones, a worker with 46 years on the job, told me, \u201cTraditionally, when you hired in and you did your 90-day probation, then you were equal to the guy who had five years. You were all one family. Now the disparity in pay creates an innate friction.\u201d<\/p>\n

The picketers were clear in blaming the company for the tension created by the tier system. Lou Varga, president of the Local, commented, \u201cIt\u2019s kind of like a divide-and-conquer strategy. They use every tactic in the book to keep us divided. Tiers are unfair in principle. But they also keep people divided from one another.\u201d<\/p>\n

Francis (no surname provided) echoed this thought: \u201cThe thing about it is that you can\u2019t have people doing the same job and getting different money, because then you get a little bit of animosity going on. That\u2019s just unfair.\u201d<\/p>\n