Buyer of GM Indianapolis plant demands 50 percent wage cut

[IndianaGreen]

Buyer of GM Indianapolis plant demands 50 percent wage cut

Who is JD Norman?

By Jerry White
24 August 2010

Workers at General Motors’ Indianapolis stamping plant continue to resist demands by the United Auto Workers and GM that they accept a 50 percent wage cut in order to secure a new buyer for the 80-year-old plant. GM previously scheduled the closure of the 2.1 million square foot facility by 2011 as part of its bankruptcy restructuring.

On August 15 Indianapolis workers threw UAW International officials out of their local union meeting and forced the cancellation of a vote on a new contract, which the UAW negotiated behind their backs with potential buyer Justin Dennis Norman. The deal would have scrapped the current UAW-GM contract, which contains a successor clause guaranteeing workers their current wages, job protections and transfer rights in the event GM sells the plant.

In a press conference last week, Norman reacted angrily to the rebuff by the workers and demanded a revote. He repeated the claims first circulated by UAW Region 3 Director Maurice Davison that only a small number of workers opposed the wage-cutting deal and insisted, “You can’t let a very loud minority take this facility down.”

Posing as a savior of the workers, he said, “I’m not going to apologize to keep a plant open and jobs going.” The factory would shut down and all the jobs would be lost, he said, unless there were “fundamental changes in the way the plant is operated.”

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/aug2010/norm-a24.shtml

Related thread:

Indianapolis workers denounce GM-UAW threats

By Andre Damon
18 August 2010

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=151x7683