We, the members of the Warren Truck Rank-and-File Committee, condemn the mistreatment of temporary workers. It is time for workers to speak out! At Warren Truck, temp workers have had their hours cut and most have not gotten any work for two to three weeks.

The loss of paychecks is putting terrible hardship on our brothers and sisters. Everyone is struggling. Some don’t even really know if they have a job or not. To make things worse, some temp workers who have not been scheduled are being told they cannot collect unemployment benefits because they are not laid off. It is obscene that temps are responsible for paying union dues if they are collected the same weeks they are scheduled to work. 

Temporary workers don’t get profit sharing and have second-class healthcare. How can workers be called temps when they work sixty hours a week? Some have not missed a day for years, but still can’t get rolled over to full time. They are working side-by-side with employees making double the money and getting profit-sharing and bonuses that temps don’t receive. Shouldn’t we all be equal?

Temps are being fired for little things; they have been escorted out of the plant just for not checking the schedule. Some workers are being told their badges have been revoked.

This abuse is a deliberate attempt by management to make things hard and divide us. It is happening because the UAW leadership has allowed it due to the phony “stand-up” strike called by Shawn Fain. While a handful of our brothers stand on the picket line, the UAW has kept 112,000 out of 146,000 on the job, producing profits for the companies. He has not called out a single Stellantis plant in the Detroit area, which are some of the biggest moneymakers for the company.

In his weekly Facebook events, Fain has not told us what core demands he has abandoned. We know that the automakers are determined to maintain low-paid temps, who can be hired and fired at will. And, as long as the UAW bureaucrats can collect dues from them, Fain will agree to that too.

Everyone should remember that Unifor in Canada exploited temp workers to ram through a sellout contract at Ford Canada last month by a dubious 54 percent margin. After the deadline to register for an online ratification vote expired, union leaders kept it open for temps and sent out last-minute emails telling them they would get a $4,000 signing bonus if they voted “yes.” If you are living in poverty, that looks like a lot of money even though they take taxes and union dues out.

We know that temps want to fight for a good contract as much as everyone else. They support the full-timers, and we support them. But far from uniting us, Fain’s “stand-up” strike is a way to divide us. Instead of all striking together, we are still working, making money for the company, while our brothers and sisters are striking right now. We should not allow them to use us as scabs against our brothers and sisters on strike. All we are doing by working is helping the companies. 

This is not just happening to workers at Warren Truck. The same thing is happening at Jefferson Assembly in Detroit where many temp workers were laid off as of last week. Jefferson Assembly had been one of several large Detroit-area assembly plants that had been on “critical status” since July with mandatory 7-day work schedules. This brutal work schedule has been put in place with the agreement of the UAW. It has allowed Stellantis to build up the inventory of many of its more profitable vehicles to help get through a strike.

We have heard about similar things at Sterling Heights Assembly Plant. We have heard reports that General Motors laid all temp workers off at the GM Lake Orion Assembly Plant last week.

We should not be treated this way. Whether our status is supplemental or full-time, we all deserve to be treated with respect and equality. These negotiations have really shown the world a lot, that management does not care about us, just their profits. 

It looks like the UAW is being paid off by the company and that they aren’t in solidarity with us the way that they would like us to believe they are.

If everyone was striking, temps would at least be getting $500 strike pay, which is more than the weekly paychecks many of them earn.

It the UAW was really for us, all members who are laid off during the strike should be getting strike pay. Strike pay should be raised to $750 a week. The UAW can afford it because it has over $825 million in the strike fund, which we paid for with our dues money.

We need all of our demands met. We need a 40 percent pay increase and a full cost-of-living allowance. We need job security, a shorter workweek and pensions for all workers. Temp and tier work should be abolished. Equal pay for equal work.

We must all stand together, temp and full-time, Tier 1 and Tier 2, and not let them divide us.

We, the members of the Warren Truck Rank-and-File Committee, demand:

• Stop the attacks on supplemental workers
• Shut down all the Big Three plants. No more phony stand-up strike.
• Raise strike pay to $750 a week. The strike fund is our money. It is not a piggy bank for the UAW bureaucrats.

We call on all autoworkers to join and build rank-and-file committees in every plant to return power to the workers on the shop floor.

To contact the Warren Truck Rank-and-File Committee, call or text: 248-919-8448 or fill out the form below.