Teamsters demonstrating at a California dealership before the maker agreed not to replace union workers with low-cost contract employees.
BMW has bowed to union pressure and agreed to extend for six months the contract at its parts distribution facility in Ontario, Calif. The maker had planned to fire 68 Teamster workers and replace them with non-union contract employees.
BMW management also committed to work with the Teamsters during this period to reach a mutually acceptable solution that addresses long-term employment for the current workforce at the warehouse in California, according to the union.
Teamsters Local 495 represents 68 workers at the Ontario parts distribution facility. BMW had planned to fire all its Ontario-based employees at the end of August, and immediately re-open the facility with an outsourced, low-paid managerial, clerical and warehouse work force.
“This agreement shows what Teamsters can do when we stand together and fight back,” said Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa. “Teamsters across the country, and unions that represent BMW and supply-chain workers across the globe, took part in numerous solidarity actions this summer in support of these workers. I am hopeful that the contract extension signals a new path for BMW and the Teamsters.”
The German automaker’s move to reinstate its union workers – some of whom had been employed by BMW for decades – comes as it faces mounting pressure to allow the United Auto Workers Union to organize its assembly plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina. That facility is one of many so-called “transplants” that the UAW is eyeing in its bid to increase its plunging membership rolls.
The controversy over the California workers threatened to shift sentiment in South Carolina in favor of the UAW, inside sources tell TheDetroitBureau.com, because it would suggest that even well-paid assembly plant workers could be fired at the company’s discretion.
The timing of the planned outsourcing of the Ontario operation was troubling, said Bob Lennox, Secretary-Treasurer of Teamsters Local 495. “They were facing foreclosures on their homes and loss of their health insurance at a time of record unemployment in Southern California.
“BMW had hired union-hostile law firm Jackson Lewis to outsource these jobs, but I am confident that BMW will honor its promises to find a solution to keep their longtime, dedicated workforce and ensure that these jobs remain good, middle-class jobs,” he added.
The German automobile giant Bavarian Motor Works AG is America’s most popular automaker for luxury-class autos. BMW had the highest earnings ever in its 95-year history last quarter, with global sales of almost $81 billion in 2010, or about $848,000 per employee, ranking it number 82 on Fortune’s Global 500 list.
The Teamsters enlisted political figures such as Sen. Barbara Boxer (D.-Calif.), along with other unions such as the UAW and the Longshoreman’s union to help with their campaign, which included demonstrations at BMW dealerships in several cities in California — which is BMW’s single largest market in the U.S.