With a 12-hour, seven-day schedule at Sterling Heights Assembly, UAW repudiates long battle for eight-hour day
The drive by Stellantis (formerly Fiat Chrysler) to impose a 12-hour, seven-day schedule for skilled trades at the Sterling Heights Assembly Plant (SHAP) near Detroit, with the support of the United Auto Workers (UAW), has evoked broad anger. Workers rightly see the new schedule, set to begin on April 5, as a move to eliminate basic rights, such as the eight-hour day, won by workers in over a century of struggle.
Workers at Sterling Heights Assembly Plant (Source: Stellantis Media)
The so-called Alternative Work Schedule (AWS) was first introduced in auto plants as part of the 2009 concessions imposed by the Obama administration in collaboration with the UAW during the forced bankruptcy and restructuring of the US auto industry. The new rules allowed shifts of longer than eight hours with no payment of overtime and the elimination of the traditional time-and-a-half rate f
But at age 80 Henry was not up to the job. He let Charles Sorensen his loyal aide of 40 years slip away, and came under the influence of the thuggish Harry Bennett, head of the Ford Service Department, a euphemism for the company police force. Ford Motor Co. had many military contracts and the government was concerned about its stability. To rescue Ford and keep a Ford at the helm, Edsel’s eldest son Henry Ford II was released from the navy in 1944 and brought in as Ford’s executive vice-president. Old Henry tried clinging to the presidency but his wife Clara and Edsel’s wife Eleanor “convinced” him to relinquish control, allowing Henry II to became president. Although only 27 and inexperienced, he had the right instincts; his first significant administrative act was firing Harry Bennett.