“We don’t know what kind of deal they’ve struck with the breakaway dealerships”
IAM isolates striking Chicago car mechanics, seeks separate agreements
By
Jessica Goldstein
5 September 2017
Chicago-area auto mechanics, members of the International Association of Machinists Local 701, have been engaged in a bitter five-week strike against the New Car Dealership Committee (NCDC), which bargains for more than 100 Chicago-area dealerships. Rank-and-file mechanics are striking for better pay and working conditions, more efficient training programs and to beat back the dealership’s demands for givebacks on pension and health care benefits.
The mechanics on the picket lines remain militant in spite of intimidation tactics by the dealerships, but throughout the struggle, the IAM has worked to keep the nearly 2,000 mechanics isolated. It now appears that the union is seeking agreements with individual dealerships to weaken the unity of workers and pressure them to capitulate to management’s terms.
NCDC has accused the IAM of illegally soliciting deals with individual dealerships outside of the multi-employer agreements. On its website, the NCDC condemns the deals, saying it will take legal action against the union to stop the individual deals and “return to the bargaining table and negotiate in good faith to resolve this strike for everyone, not just a select few.”
The union has responded to this on its page by denying solicitations of individual deals. Instead, it claims some dealerships have broken with the NCDC and have asked the union to work something out with them individually to end the strike. On August 31, the union wrote that it defends its right to “selectively picket or not to picket dealers at its discretion” and “many of our members will…