UAW

uaw.org 8000 E. Jefferson Ave.

Detroit, M I 48214 ®~105

PROPOSED RESOLUTION

Special Convention

on Collective Bargaining

4-25, Detroit, Michigan

Special Coaveation

oa Collective Bargaiaiag

March 24-25, Detroit, Michigan

RESOLUTIONS COMMITTEE

Name Local Region

T. J. Gomez Local387 Region lA Chairperson

Tracey Dye Local889 Region 1 Rec. Secretary

Jesse Riggs Local 723 Region lA

Sally Auer Local2256 Region lD

Susan Pratt Local2213 Region 2B

Rick Ward Local685 Region 2B

David Barker Local952 Region 5

Van Simpson Local2250 Region 5

Ernestine Dawkins Local8888 Region 9

Mike Phillips Local8275 Region 9

Henry Pires Local470 Region 9A

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PROPOSED 2015 COLLECTIVE

BARGAINING RESOLUTIONS

INTRODUCTION ................ ... ....... .. ............ ...... .. ..... 4 The UAW's Collective Bargaining Philosophy ....... ......................... 6 Key Issues in Bargaining .................. .... ..... ............ ..... .................... ...... 8

BACKGROUND Our Voice in the Workplace ..... .......... ..................... ........... ......... ..... 12 Coordinated Bargaining ......................... .... ................. ..................... 14 Working Together Globally .............................................................. l6 V-CAP ..... .......................... .................... ...................... ........................ 18

ECONOMIC ISSUES Wages and Salaries ............................................ .. ..... ...... .............. .... 20 Retirement Income................................................... ................... ... 21 Health Care.. .... ............................... ........................... ................ ...... 25 Long Term Care.......... ..................................... ............... ................ 2 7 . Group Insurance................................................................. ............ 28 Profit Sharing and Gain Sharing ................................................... 29 Work Schedules ........................... ........................... ......................... 32 Contingent and Temporary Work ................................................ 33 Work and Family. ............................................................................ 35

NON-ECONOMIC ISSUES Health and Safety ............................................................................... 36 Non-Discrimination .............. ........... ............. ................ .................... 44 Discipline, Grievance Procedure and Union Representation ...... 46 Member Orientation and Communication .................................. .49 Privacy and Surveillance .... .................... ........................................ 50 Violence in the Workplace .................................. ........................... 52 EAP and Drug Testing ...................................................................... 53 Education and Training ................................ ............. ..................... 55 Veterans Issues ....... ............................................. ............................. 56 Employee Discounts ......................................................................... 58

JOB SECURITY Organizing ...................... .................. ....... .......... ................. .... ..... .... .. 59 Investment Commitments ................... ................................... ......... 59 New Technology and New Jobs ....................................................... 61 Quality Goods and Services ............................................................ 62 Sourcing ........................................................................................ ··· 6 3 Skilled Trades and Apprenticeships .............................................. 65

OTHER ECONOMIC AND NON-ECONOMIC ISSUES Working with Employers ............................................................... 67 Unemployment Insurance ................ ..... ......... ................... ............ 68 Injured Workers and Workers' Compensation ........................... 6 8 Preferential Hire and Recall.. ........................................................... 69 Duration of Collective Bargaining Agreement.. .......................... 69 Electronic Data Collection ............................................................. 69 Environmental Responsibility .... ................................................... 70 Community Involvement.. ............................................................. 70

CONCLUSION: IT'S OUR TIME ............. .................................. 72

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INTRODUCTION

None of our collective bargaining gains over the years have been handed to us by employers. We've had to fight to win fair contracts con~istent ~ith the economic, social and political realities of the day: ~hlle haVIng skilled negotiators at the table has been important, It s been our strong activism and unshakable solidarity that have secured those gains in contract after contract. Even the blows from battles we've lost have been softened because we stood together to fight one more day.

These lessons in activism and solidarity also hold true in the political arena. We support candidates at all levels who share our values and concerns and will fight for us and all working people. But we ~lso kn.ow that they need our support to succeed in fights that ~re mcreasmgly difficult in the face of rich and powerful anti-worker mterests.

Today, our active engagement and solidarity are needed more than ~ver so we ~an effectively stand up to those who want to destroy effective collective bargaining and worker unions. When we act in com~on cause, we send a message that we want justice and equality not JUSt for ourselves but for everyone in our great country. And when we rally or lobby in solidarity, we make our mission on behalf of all workers clear. Our employer counterparts and our opponents see this and take note.

O~r histor.y and our country's history show that our greatest asset IS an active and engaged membership. Just as we must work in solida:ity to wi~ .at the bargaining table, we must take our rightful place ~n the. polttiCal arena and raise our voices together so that we can wm social and economic justice for our members and society as a whole.

Ev~ry four ye.ars we come together to discuss the key issues that we Will address m contract negotiations. As part of this process we develop and agree on shared principles through a comprehensive

resolution that will guide our bargaining demands and discussions. The bargaining issues we face and the solutions we propose are informed in part by the broader domestic and global economy and the challenges we face as part of a movement that is under constant, strategic attack by well-funded corporate interests.

At our 2011 Special Convention on Collective Bargaining, we were still dealing with the effects of the Great Recession. Today, the economy is growing and corporate profits are soaring but workers -including many of us - are still struggling. Job creation has picked up but the labor market is not yet where it needs to be.

With the economy growing and profits booming, it's our time to reap the gains from our labor and reverse the unequal distribution of growth. It's our time to fight to reverse the bargaining trends that were necessary during the downturn and improve our standard of living so that we can save for the future and not just make ends meet.

We know we can't win everything we want at the bargaining table, but our solidarity can provide the strength and numbers we need to take on the challenges we will face in upcoming negotiations as we bargain for our fair share of the wealth and revenues we helped create.

Make no mistake. The struggles we are facing are not tied to the ups and downs of the economy. We have a structural problem in this country that has shifted our political and economic systems away from working people to the wealthy. We understand better than ever Walter Reuther's compelling observation that "there's a direct relationship between the ballot box and the bread box, and what the union fights for and wins at the bargaining table can be taken away in the legislative halls?'

Today, we fight ever more aggressive and well-funded anti-worker campaigns in the halls of Congress and state legislatures across the country. The masterminds and funders of these campaigns will settle for nothing less than the complete dismantling of worker bargaining

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rights. We can already feel the effects these political battles have had on our quality of life and collectively bargained wages and work protections. So we must be as engaged in political fights as we are in contract fights, in solidarity with all workers - union and non-union - who are sick and tired of struggling to get by.

We face many political, social and economic challenges, but we are still among the fortunate 11 percent of workers in this country who have a seat at the bargaining table. In the next four years we must demand that employers bridge the gap where inequality exists in our agreements, win stronger job opportunities, provide safety and security for our members, and expand prosperity and respect for ourselves, our families, and our communities.

The UAW's Bargaining Philosophy

This Special Convention on Collective Bargaining is being convened during the UAW's 80th anniversary year. Not coincidentally, it is also the 80th anniversary of the National Labor Relations Act which "encourages" unionized workers and employers to resolve disputes over wages, hours and other employment terms "with an equality of bargaining power" at the bargaining table.

The blood, sweat and tears shed by the UAW's earliest members resulted in the realization of their bargaining power and social and economic gains that founded our country's middle class. Therefore, it is with deep pride, respect and honor that we approach upcoming negotiations.

During these proceedings we will vote on a collective bargaining resolution that will guide us in all negotiations and includes the bedrock UAW bargaining philosophy that was forged and wielded to impressive effect by our predecessors. That philosophy consists of three core principles.

First, our bargaining program is comprehensive so that it covers all sectors of our great union. A worker is a worker is a worker.

Workers in all sectors want respect and a fair day's pay for a fair day's work. We should be proud of good wages where they exist and strive to raise them where they are low. Certainly, unique economic, political and social factors inform each set of negotiations, but our comprehensive bargaining approach protected the interests of the brothers and sisters who came before us and it will protect our interests too.

Second, our bargaining program seeks to build on what we have won in prior negotiations. It's a building block approach that tries to continuously improve the economic and non-economic gains we've secured. Our strategy of seeking meaningful incremental contract improvements has allowed groundbreaking provisions to stand even in the face of enormous adverse economic, political and social pressure. It's an approach that we need to follow now, more than ever.

Third, our bargaining program establishes flexible wage and benefit patterns within comparable work situations. Many employers and pundits try to portray pattern bargaining as a relic of the past and detrimental to today's global and domestic economy. However, now more than ever workers need a way to take wages out of competition. Pattern wages and benefits, based on an understanding of the economics of the industry, are good for workers and sustainable for employers. And to our critics, we will be clear - pattern doesn't mean identical. We have rejected -and continue to reject- a "cookie cutter" approach that ignores an employer's financial, cultural and historical circumstances. But all things considered, pattern bargaining is a proven way for us to secure our economic and non­economic benefits and help grow a competitive economy.

We are confident that our bargaining philosophy will support us at the bargaining table as we join together to "bridge the gap" in our pay and working conditions and secure the American Dream for all.

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Key Issues in Bargaining

Our ability to win on key issues in this round of bargaining will have real economic consequences for us, our communities and our country. That's why we enter this round of bargaining with a sense of shared responsibility to achieve economic and non-economic gains that move us closer to our vision of equality.

But inequality is everywhere. It's in our work sites, where too many of us do the same work for unequal pay or benefits or both. And it's in our society, where the income gap between the rich and everyone else is wide and grows wider every day.

Collective bargaining laws were passed over the decades to address ~ncom~ inequ~ity, starting with private sector employees and later mcludmg pubhc employees. Collective bargaining was structured to allow workers to join together to demand job security and fair econ~~ic c~nditions that would narrow the inequality gap. UAW bargammg history and our country's economic history show that our unprecedented gains at the bargaining table created a middle class life for us and for others. UAW contracts set standards that would have to be followed by employers across the economy whether they were represented by a union or not.

But a gap started to appear decades ago when corporate power began to rise and union power began to wane. Today, a typical CEO earns over 300 times what hourly employees make. Management tramples worker rights with greater impunity. Anti-worker powerbr~kers a~d kingmakers spend obscene amounts of money to buy electwns, With the expected payback consisting of dismantled labor laws and weakened worker protections. Wages and benefits are slashed more easily, leaving workers struggling to find ways to make ends meet. Something is wrong in this country when spending is down because we can't afford to buy the products we make or the services we provide. The gap has become a chasm separating very few "haves" from millions of"have-nots:'

Enough is enough! It's time to bridge the gap. It's time to win a raise for all. It's time to eliminate two-tier thinking from our bargaining demands. And it's our moment in time to make this move.

During the unprecedented financial crisis, we had to make choices and sacrifices. Today, the auto industry's rebound can be traced to those very choices and sacrifices made by our active and retired brothers and sisters who continue to sacrifice. In the public sector, we can feel a similar stabilizing effect as public employee sacrifices take root and result in steady and growing public employer revenue increases.

Now that employment in auto assembly and parts is increasing, and the economic conditions in many of our union's other sectors are stabilizing, we find ourselves in a position to make realistic demands for restored economic prosperity and job security.

Key bargaining issues in the coming years include:

• Bridging the gap for high seniority workers. Many higher seniority workers haven't had a wage increase in years. While we recognize that negotiated profit-sharing and other income supplements boost our income, it's time for management to recognize that long-serving workers also deserve a wage rate increase in recognition of the quality work we do with pride and commitment.

• Bridging the gap for newer workers. Newer employees de­serve equal pay and benefits for equal work. We must rethink entry level compensation and overall wage and benefit struc­tures so that everyone is on track to earn good wages and benefits that will sustain a middle class standard of living.

• Bridging the gap for temporary and contingent workers. The growth oflow-paying, precarious work is a problem here in the United States and around the world. Temporary and contingent workers contend with unfair compensation and

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working conditions for the productive work they do for the employer. These workers should be directly employed by the employer and placed in our bargaining units so that they can also have the protection and benefit of union representation and bargaining.

• Restoration of additional outsourced jobs in the private sector and privatized jobs in the public sector. We must build on past bargaining wins that insourced thousands of UAW-represented jobs because we showed the waste, productivity loss and inefficiency that resulted from that short-sighted management tactic.

• Protecting health care and retirement security for all UAW members - active and retired. We will continue to advance our belief that equal and affordable health care is a right, not a privilege. We will demand affordable, comprehensive health care for us in our contracts and all Americans in our civic work. We must demand larger employer contributions to retirement income benefits whether defined benefit or defined contribution plans. We will also demand that our federal Social Security system be protected, because its continued integrity is even more essential in a world where defined benefit plans are the exception and defined contribution plans are increasingly the rule.

• Protecting full private sector and public sector collective bargaining rights. Our collective bargaining rights are under threat. It doesn't matter whether you work in the private or public sector. Recent federal and state elections show us what happens when we don't vote. Well-funded anti-worker majorities in our Congress and state legislatures are working strategically to weaken or dismantle our basic federal and state representation and bargaining rights. We must recommit to steady civic engagement and reject all management and external efforts to diminish our union representation and collective bargaining rights.

• Protecting our workplace health and safety rights. A safe and healthy workplace is every worker's right. No one should go to work never to return home alive because management ignored our contractual health and safety rights and we didn't stand up to dangerous management workplace practices. We have made great strides in winning strong health and safety language in our contracts, but we must do much more to deepen and widen workplace safety provisions covering common and unique issues in all our sectors.

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BACKGROUND

Our Voice in the Workplace

Through our union we have a collective voice and we want to make sure it's heard throughout the organizations we work at, not just at the bargaining table. In the current political and economic environment, it is crucial that we assert our voice in workplace and business decisions. Why? Because UAW members, like all workers, hold a long-term stake in the success of their workplaces. In contrast, corporate executives and stockholders often prioritize short-term gains at the expense of long-term viability. A thriving, growing enterprise not only provides economic security to its workers, but also gives stability to families and communities and provides a foundation for further growth and prosperity. By exercising our voice we can advocate and help advance strategies that create stable, long-term jobs for the workers of today and tomorrow.

In many of our workplaces we have found ways to be meaningfully involved, and have been successful in helping direct business strategy. But, we also continue to look for new ways to engage, such as through the establishment of locals at Volkswagen in Chattanooga, Tennessee and at Mercedes in Vance, Alabama. By establishing these locals, we have already begun a dialog with the companies about issues of concern to our members.

Another successful model to guide our efforts is "co­determination:' The German co-determination model shows how the worker's voice encourages productivity, quality and responsiveness. Although America's labor laws are very different from Germany's, we can still negotiate for structures that fulfill the same function in our workplaces as establishment-level works councils play in Germany. For example, we can bargain for worker representation on boards of directors to extend co-determination to the highest reaches of corporate decision-making. And because our major employers are global corporations, we can also push for the creation of global

forums to bring together workers from an employer's worldwide operations to discuss issues of mutual concern.

As we seek to expand our engagement in decisions that affect us, we recognize that decisions should not be made in a vacuum. Genuine voice in the workplace means that worker representatives must have full access to all necessary and relevant business, operational and financial information. Only then can we be fully informed about the environment we seek to improve.

To amplify our voice in the workplace, our bargaining objectives include:

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Worker participation and representation in decision-making at the highest level of the enterprise. This includes corporate boards of directors and boards of public bodies and non-profit agencies.

Contract provisions which afford us regular access to relevant financial information, including not only financial statements with back-up data but also business plans, projections of fu­ture performance and models upon which such projections are based. We should also have the opportunity to discuss this information with management and representatives of the In­ternational Union.

Contract language that creates opportunities for a strong worker voice in decisions that affect our jobs, including investment and capital expenditure decisions, placement of product within our manufacturing workplaces, health and safety considerations, sourcing determinations and use of outside contractors.

Creating and strengthening employee involvement programs where we are true partners in deliberation and decision-mak­ing on job design, work processes, productivity enhancement and safety and health in the workplace.

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• Establishing, maintaining and enhancing joint labor­management programs. Joint programs that focus on deepening our understanding of the financial situation, business model and competitive environment in which our company, agency or organization operates helps engage us more meaningfully in enterprise organizational decision­making.

• Creating forums at the establishment level to provide an ongoing, structured vehicle for our involvement, and at the global level, to provide a voice for all of an employer's workers in corporate decisions. The costs of global forums should be paid by the employer.

Coordinated Bargaining

The UAW has a long history of coordinated bargaining and it is imbedded in our bargaining philosophy. We coordinate bargaining in virtually all of our sectors and we will expand this practice because our collective voice and resulting contracts are stronger when we bargain in solidarity.

Coordinated bargaining allows us to better protect each other from employer whipsawing attempts against ourselves and other unions. It also creates conditions for enforceable industry-wide wage and benefit standards that take compensation out of competition and focus employers on competing over productivity, quality and responsiveness. That result is good for us and good for our country.

We also coordinate bargaining because private and public employers do. In fact, management often knows more than we do about compensation factors at their other represented and unrepresented work sites. Then they use that valuable information to weaken us at the bargaining table and pit us and other workers against one another.

Coordinated bargaining is our best defense against these employer "divide and conquer" tactics. Through coordinated bargaining, multiple bargaining units at a single employer or within a single industry develop common bargaining proposals and strategies, share information and offer mutual support. Coordinated bargaining means that instead of weak and fragmented unions of workers, employers face a united labor movement.

We reaffirm our commitment to coordinated bargaining by:

• Working to achieve common expiration dates in collective bargaining agreements with a single employer or within a sector so that management has to bargain with all represented workers at one time. If management refuses, we will coordinate internally over bargaining proposals, information, and mutual aid and protection.

• Working to negotiate together at the bargaining table over common economic and non-economic issues. If management refuses, we will coordinate internally to reach the same goals that direct coordination at the bargaining table would provide.

• Involving unions here at home and around the world in our coordinated bargaining efforts to expand the impact of our bargaining positions and solidarity.

• Working with other represented units within the same employer or industry, even if they are not currently bargaining, so that we can share information and support.

• Participating actively in employer and industry councils.

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Working Together Globally

Corporations have become increasingly global over the past several decades. In 2013, U.S. investors held roughly $21 trillion in assets of other countries. Given this fact it is clear we cannot maintain economic justice at home without securing economic justice around the globe. To achieve this lofty goal, we must work together across borders to strengthen our position at the bargaining table with employers who have operations around the world.

Our global work is motivated by the idea of mutual aid: those who we help today will be able to help us tomorrow, and vice­versa. It ensures that companies make decisions about placing and moving production based on skill, experience and efficiency instead of cost-cutting that hurts workers and quality alike. Longstanding relationships ':"ith sister unions are a defense in the ever-changing global economy and a corporate landscape increasingly defined by mergers, splits, shell companies and other complex arrangements. Together, we can create an environment of corporate accountability and sustainability.

One of the ways we work together is through company-based union networks that unite workers who share a common employer. These networks strengthen our bargaining position by arming us with the kind of in-depth information that only unions can provide. They are also a crucial source of power, supplementing the unity and democracy of UAW members with a show of global unity, helping prevent employers from whipsawing workers across borders. With some companies the global networks can also make use of Global Framework Agreements as an additional tool for protecting labor standards around the world. These networks embody a new era of cooperation among workers that will help even the playing field in our bargaining and the bargaining of sister unions.

Much of our cross-border work is done through our membership in IndustriALL Global Union, the 50-million member global union federation. By bringing together unions from across the

metalworking, manufacturing, mining, chemical, textile and allied sectors, IndustriALL provides a unified voice for working people around the world and a venue for us to work together to raise the bar for everyone.

We and other IndustriALL affiliates developed a comprehensive Action Plan to put this idea into practice. From equal rights to build­ing union power, the Action Plan's goals form a roadmap for global economic justice. We wholeheartedly support the Action Plan and will advance it through our bargaining and transnational organizing. We also support IndustriaALrs 2013 "Charter of Solidarity in Con­fronting Corporate Violations of Fundamental Rights" to coordinate our response to labor rights abuses by transnational corporations.

To advance our global strategy and win social and economic justice for all, we will:

• Bargain for new global union networks, especially at transnational companies headquartered in the United States. We will work with our union partners to gain network recognition by the employer because il provides a space for positive labor-management cooperation and a sustainable venue to discuss problems with the company. Building on our work over the last several years, we will also use global union networks to exchange information, implement strategic cross­border organizing initiatives and work together to strengthen the bargaining position of all workers.

• Support the signing and enforcement of strong Global Framework Agreements with employers that have operations in the United States. We will review the progress of the Ford GFA since its signing in 2012 and work on further improvements.

• Continue to support and implement the IndustriALL Action Plan, which unites the global labor movement in working toward common goals that build union density and

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supplement our bargaining gains, helping us negotiate from a position of strength and international unity.

• Use negotiations and other tools to bridge the gap between precarious work and good jobs. We will collaborate with union allies to learn effective strategies to roll back temporary work, subcontracting and other employment practices that hurt workers, families and communities.

• Fight for justice in the global supply chains that are linked to our workplaces. This requires transparency from companies and accountability when using subcontractors and third­party sourcing. We stand for freedom of association, collective bargaining rights and good workplaces for all. When possible, we will use our strategic position in the supply chain and access to management to ensure fairness throughout the many operations linked to our employers.

• Support the formation and growth of broad-based, participatory and worker-driven unions. Only through a global labor movement can we move toward an international economy that benefits everyone. This is particularly urgent in low-wage countries where workers face enormous challenges including government repression, union-busting and undercutting by company unions.

• Defend International Labor Organization (ILO) standards and work for their full implementation in the United States. We will work with our allies around the world to support their struggles to achieve respect for basic workers' rights.

V-CAP

One of the best ways to ensure that working people are given a leg up in this economy is to see that pro-worker candidates are elected to represent us. Voluntary contributions help the candidates

we endorse get elected to federal, state, and local office. V-CAP is the UAW's political action fund made up of voluntary contributions by members, retirees, and their families.

Without these voluntary contributions, our ability to impact the outcome of important elections - and therefore the political and social landscape for years to come - would be greatly weakened.

The easiest way for us to support V-CAP is through V-CAP check-off. A V-CAP check-off clause allows us to contribute directly from our paycheck, to decide how much to contribute, and to adjust our contribution amount at any time. Consistent monthly check -off contributions are· where we raise the majority of our V-CAP funds and this method allows us to gear up for big battles ahead.

Now more than ever, we recognize the importance of electing candidates who will protect our collective bargaining gains and advance pro-worker legislation. To further this goal, we will pursue the following objectives at the bargaining table:

• V-CAP check-off language in all UAW contracts.

• Ensure V-CAP check-off language requires employers to pro­vide all needed information for a reasonable administrative fee.

• Ensure that employers provide V-CAP information in an ac­ceptable computerized format.

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ECONOMIC ISSUES

Wages and Salaries

It used to be the case that wages grew in line with productivity. In this way, workers' standard of living kept pace with growth in the overall economy. Unfortunately, in the past several decades, productivity growth and economic growth have not resulted in rising incomes for working people. Between 1979 and 2013, productivity grew almost 65 percent, while hourly compensation grew just eight percent. Productivity thus grew eight times faster than typical worker compensation. But while workers' wages have remained stagnant, pay for executives at the top has soared. In 2013 CEO pay was over 300 times as high as that of an average worker. In 1978, the ratio was 29 to 1.

Working people should be able to do more than just pay their bills and put food on the table. Through collective bargaining, we seek to ensure that people who work for a living can save money for retirement, send their kids to college, and enjoy quality time with their families.

As we sit down to bargain wages and salaries we will be addressing not just the inequality between working people and corporate executives but also some of the inequality that has made its way into our contracts. During the down turn we were often faced with difficult choices that resulted in accepting wage concessions for some or all of our members. We accepted these terms in order to survive the crisis and come back to fight another day. That day has come. The economy is bouncing back and corporate profits are strong. Now is our time to bridge the gap between the highest and lowest paid workers and share in the prosperity that our compromises enabled.

We resolve to bridge the many gaps in salaries and wages:

• We will work to establish wage and benefit standards so that employers cannot whipsaw workers across work sites, jobs or departments.

• Wage progressions must be based on objective, clearly defined measures.

• We seek to bridge the gap in two-tier pay structures by raising wages for lower paid workers and creating pathways to full pay levels.

• We seek pay equity between men and women to ensure that men and women receive comparable pay for comparable work and equal access to new job opportunities.

• We seek just rewards for workers' skills. Well-designed "pay for knowledge" systems offer workers an opportunity to increase their pay by expanding their skills through education and training. We will continue to address the issue of compression between skilled and production wages in order to maintain a fair balance between the two.

Retirement Income

The UAW firmly believes that all Americans deserve a dignified and secure retirement supported by an employer-provided retirement plan, Social Security and personal savings. Through the years, we have used a building block approach to negotiate and improve employer-provided retirement benefits, whether they are defined benefit pensions or defined contribution plans such as 40 1ks.

As we bargain over retirement income benefits, we must educate ourselves and seek technical assistance when needed because the legislative and political landscape is constantly changing. These dynamics can make bargaining challenging and give employers cover to change essential benefits.

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Traditional defined benefit plans provide us with guaranteed, lifetime monthly retirement income and we strongly support them.

We will address the following general pension issues in bargaining:

• Employers may demand to "freeze" our pensions. These freezes sometimes exclude new hires from participating in defined benefit plans; sometimes the multiplier is frozen and sometimes accruals are stopped. Defined benefit plan freezes have occurred despite adequate plan funding levels, or even when the employer's financial position was good. Pension plan freezes are often just a first step to plan termination.

• The Pension Protection Act of 2006 (PPA) has a significant impact on pension bargaining. This law was meant to strengthen the funding of defined benefit pension plans and reduce stress on the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC). However, some employers use the PPA as an excuse to dilute a defined benefit plan or refuse to bargain improvements. In the worst cases, employers use the law to threaten to freeze or terminate the plan.

• 1he PPA set a target of seven years for all single-employer plans to be fully funded for benefits earned to date. The target is 15 years for multi-employer plans. This means that benefit improvements in most plans will need to be funded in a fairly short period of time, making our benefits more secure.

• The PPA places restrictions on seriously under-funded plans. Depending on the level of under-funding, restrictions can range from prohibiting plan amendments that increase benefits to prohibiting workers from accruing future benefits. We must use our UAW pension experts to verify employer claims relating to these restrictions.

• A recent bargaining trend is for employers to buy out current retirees and institute lump sum options to new retirees. This practice is known as "de-risking:' We will assess any employer

de-risking proposal we receive under the standard of what is in our best interest.

• Some employers claim accounting issues require regressive changes in our pension plans or use them to justify de-risking. These claims must be independently verified.

• Defined benefit plans in the public sector continue to battle intense scrutiny and attack. Many plans are under-funded through no fault of workers and the solution most often proposed by elected officials and the media is a pension freeze. Although public pension benefits are protected by law, the city of Detroit's recent bankruptcy showed us all that courts are prepared to waive that legal protection.

• For years, defined contribution retirement plans, like 40lk plans, have been replacing defined benefit plans as the sole employer-provided retirement income benefit. Defined contribution plans allow us to change jobs and take our retirement savings with us, but we also bear the risk of making sure we have sufficient savings to support us throughout our retirement. We are alarmed that the percentage of employers offering matching contributions to defined contribution plans has declined in the last four years. Where negotiation of a defined pension plan is not feasible, we support a strong defined contribution plan that includes a significant employer contribution.

• Social Security has long been a target for anti-worker elements, which propose benefit cuts and the program's privatization. Make no mistake. Social Security benefit cuts directly impact our negotiated pensions. We must fight attempts to dilute the value of our Social Security benefits.

• With hundreds of thousands of retired members and their families currently receiving retirement benefits from UAW contracts, we must continue to improve retirement income benefits and shore up plan funding . .

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In bargaining over defined benefit pension plans, we will strive to:

• Resist employer efforts to abandon defined benefit plans for defined contribution plans.

• ~mprove ~ormal and early retirement programs through mcreases m basic benefits, supplements, and temporary benefits for both current and future retirees. Improvements can also be accomplished by providing additional benefits to protect and maintain purchasing power against inflation.

• Improve the funding status of our plans to improve the security of benefits and to avoid restrictions on our benefits.

• Encourage participation in multi-employer defined benefit plans for smaller bargaining units that lack pension plans or those faced with employer attempts to terminate existing pen­sion plans.

• Eliminate provisions allowing for the reversion of pension fund assets to employers when a plan terminates.

• Improve provisions providing for credited service for layoff, sick leave and designated categories of hazardous work.

• Eliminate pension reductions for retirees who elect a survivor benefit and the reduction in the amount paid to their survivors.

• Remove early retirement eligibility restrictions for those of us who are affected by full or partial workplace closings, spin­offs, sales, or other forms of employer restructuring.

When defined contribution plans are the sole retirement benefit, we will:

• Bargain employer contributions that are independent of em­ployee deferrals (which are personal savings).

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• Bargain higher contractually mandated employer contributions so that we can afford to retire at normal retirement age.

• Secure and improve employer-provided pre- and post­retirement planning and education.

• Demand special reimbursement payments at age 65 for the full amount of Medicare Part B and Part D (Medicare drug benefit) premiums for all Medicare-eligible retirees and spouses when appropriate.

Health Care

Health care benefits are an important part of our compensation and we are committed to preserving good employer-provided benefits for ourselves and our retirees. Passage of the historic Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) in March, 2010 means we are bargaining under a different set of rules when it comes to health care. Despite the continuous legal and political challenges the law has faced, a number of provisions have been implemented, many of which benefit workers and impact bargaining.

Current Problems. The ACA has been an important step in addressing many health care system problems, including increasing access to coverage and slowing cost growth. However, many issues remain and we may encounter employer resistance to our health care demands at the bargaining table. For example, the employer may propose that a spouse who is eligible for other health insurance coverage be excluded from our plan, or that we fully pay for dependent coverage.

Health care bargaining will also be informed by continued rising health care costs and employer solutions centering on cost shifting to employees. According to a recent report from the Center for Healthcare Research and Transformation, from 2002- 2012, the worker premium share grew, increasing from 24 percent of premiums in 2002 to 27 percent in 2012. In addition to larger premium shares,

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an increasing number of employers are pursuing high deductible plans. These plans primarily appeal to healthy people because they are too expensive for those with serious illnesses. Therefore it is not a real solution to control health care cost. It's just another way to shift cost to employees.

Prescription Drugs. Prescription drug benefits are also subject to cost pressures. To reduce cost, plans have instituted tiered benefits, with different employee costs for different categories of drugs. Plans may have five or more tiers. The more tiers, the less affordable the drugs become for workers with complex chronic conditions. We think there are better solutions to the problem of escalating cost and we will partner with employers to develop better tools to address pharmacy and health care issues. Solutions should be based on evidence-based medicine and quality must be controlled by addressing overuse, underuse, and adverse drug reactions. The health and well-being of ourselves and our family members is paramount in our negotiated benefits.

Therefore, in this round of bargaining, we will:

• Work to eliminate any gaps in coverage between entry level and legacy workers.

• Work to maintain and improve upon the gains brought about by the ACA by incorporating them into our contracts.

• Resist cost shifting and address employer efforts to increase deductibles and coinsurance to coincide with the maximum cost sharing allowed by the ACA.

• Support well designed, non-punitive disease management, care management and wellness programs.

• Update and expand coverages to reflect improvements in technology and knowledge in the health care delivery system such as accessible electronic medical records, and new medi­cal treatments.

• Demand longer, more comprehensive employer-paid cover­age during temporary and permanent layoffs and periods of disability.

• Work to secure and protect health care benefits for our retired members.

• Push employers to design pharmacy benefits that reduce barriers to care and improve quality of care. One way to do this is with free or low-cost drugs prescribed for chronic conditions to increase compliance with recommended care.

• Support evidence-based medicine to improve quality of care in the medical and pharmacy benefits. For example, support for procedures that have been shown to be beneficial for members with specific health issues.

• Work to protect employer provided coverage for spouses with inferior alternative coverage.

• Continue to work towards and support the establishment of national health care.

Long Term Care

Long term care encompasses a broad range of paid and unpaid medical and personal help for people who have difficulty caring for themselves due to aging, chronic illness or disability. Examples of self-care tasks include bathing, dressing, preparing and eating meals and managing medications. Long term services can be delivered formally by paid providers in institutional settings such as nursing homes and intermediate care facilities, or informally by unpaid care­givers (relatives and friends) in a person's home. Community-based settings also exist, such as group homes or senior living communities that offer varying levels of resident care.

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Over the last two decades there has been a shift toward caring for more people in their homes and in community-based settings rather than in institutions. This change is due in large part to personal preferences, and the greater cost-effectiveness of home and community-based services.

Long term services and supports are expensive, often exceeding what families can afford. Nursing home care averages $100,000 per year, while home and community-based options are less expensive and average about $24,000 per year. Nevertheless, either option imposes a major financial burden on individuals and their families.

Medicaid is currently the primary payer for most long term services; however becoming qualified for Medicaid requires beneficiaries to exhaust nearly all of their personal assets.

In this round of negotiations, we will address issues relating to long term care by:

• Demanding that employers provide options for the purchase of voluntary, individual long term care insurance.

• Securing commitments from employers to provide educational programs explaining the importance of this coverage and the benefits of purchasing policies as early as possible.

• Demanding that employers help facilitate the purchase of this coverage by allowing payroll deduction of the monthly premiums.

Group Insurance

Our jobs are an important source of economic security for our families. Without adequate company-paid benefits such as life and disability insurances and survivor income compensation, an injury or death can be financially devastating to a family. These group

insurances are often the lifeline our families rely upon to survive a hardship. When coverage is insufficient, we may be forced to exhaust our personal savings or rely on dwindling government resources or both.

These critical benefits were not handed to us. We fought for them and must not fall prey to employer cost-shifting and other attempts to eat away at these hard-won gains.

As we head into bargaining, we seek to protect and improve our group insurances in the following ways:

• All group insurances should provide adequate wage replacement and be paid for by the employer.

• We will resist attempts by employers to evade responsibility by reducing benefit levels, increasing our contributions, and replacing employer obligations with voluntary programs. Where we already have or seek to negotiate additional life and dependent life insurance benefits, we must have the opportu­nity to assess whether premiums are reasonable and fair.

• Disability benefits should cover all members, including part-time workers, payouts should be increased, wait times reduced, and should not include regressive definitions that allow employers to deny coverage for legitimate claims.

• Long term disability insurance should be extended to those of us who lack coverage.

• Life insurance coverage amounts for our retirees should be increased.

Profit Sharing and Gain Sharing

With the U.S. financial crisis in the rear view mirror, companies have returned to profitability, with many reporting record profits.

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Unfortunately, our contributions to these profits are too often not rewarded. One way for workers to capture a piece of the profits is through profit or gain sharing plans. In fact, during the past four years, many profit and gain sharing plans negotiated before or during the financial crisis generated record payouts for us and our families.

Profit sharing, gain sharing and other bonuses are not substitutes for decent wages and salaries, but they can be good supplements. With companies enjoying healthy profits, now is the time to establish plans where they don't already exist, or improve the plans we have so that we have a real opportunity to capture our fair share of the companies' financial successes.

In profit sharing plans, payouts are linked to financial success, which can include manyvariables outside the control of the bargaining unit. Gain sharing plans typically tie payouts to specific operating measures and targets, which vary from one location to another. Because every workplace faces different competitive challenges, there is no one-size-fits-all measure of "success:' Depending on the situation, either type of plan (or both in combination) can help workers share in their employer's success.

It is critical for us to have a strong voice in designing, implementing and reviewing these plans. In bargaining for creative progress in profit and gain sharing, we will be guided by the following principles:

• Plans should be transparent and understandable. We must have a clear idea of what payouts are based on and how targets are set. We must also have a meaningful voice in decisions that will impact a plan's performance measures. A plan is useless if performance targets are unrealistic and cannot be achieved.

• The definition of profits should be tied directly to the key profit figure that best represents the employer's true operational performance. This figure (or figures) should be the same one(s) by which company executives are judged and compensated. When workers and management use the same

profit figure, the risk of manipulation of the calculation goes down and the likelihood of payouts goes up.

• When dealing with publicly traded companies, the profit figure used for profit sharing should be the same figure the employer emphasizes in quarterly and annual reports to shareholders. We should not be penalized for non-operational "one-time items" which are often adjusted out of earnings when profit disclosures are made to Wall Street investors.

• Profit sharing calculations should always be based on audited data and/or official disclosures to the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC).

• Profit sharing and gain sharing should be expanded to additional sectors. Even in the public and nonprofit sectors where traditional profit sharing does not apply, plans can be devised to accomplish the same goal of allowing our public sector brothers and sisters to share in the public employer's success. Plans can use other financial measures, such as operating surpluses, budget performance, or other measures related to the employer's mission.

• We should be involved in the development of gain sharing measures, targets and formulas. Our involvement is the best way to ensure that goals are appropriate, achievable and well understood. We must also have the ability to verify calculations and payout amounts. A separate, well-defined dispute resolution procedure should also be part of any gain sharing plan.

• Gain sharing plans must not undermine other parts of our contract. For example, if health and safety measures are included in a gain sharing calculation, they must be crafted carefully to avoid creating incentives to cover up accidents or injuries.

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Work Schedules

Well-designed work schedules can increase productivity, ef­ficiency, safety, competitiveness and create new jobs at our work­places. The entire community also benefits when schedules allow for greater participation in social and civic life. We seek work sched­ules that promote a healthy work-life balance and a safe workplace.

Our approach to bargaining over work time and work schedules varies by industry and work site but is guided by the following goals:

• Creation of additional job opportunities tailored to spe­cific workplaces. Through compressed work weeks and other alternative scheduling approaches, we seek to increase em­ployment in UAW workplaces.

• Limiting excessive overtime. We support an upper limit on the total number of overtime hours worked. Overtime should not be used to avoid hiring new employees or recalling those who are laid off. Employers should be required to give the maximum possible advance notice of overtime and we should, to the maximum extent possible, have the right to decline overtime.

• Increased compensation for work on non-traditional or alternative shifts and days. We support premium pay for work on non-traditional work days and "off shifts" to compensate for the potential disruption to our rest time, family life and community participation.

• Consistency in compensation for paid-time off. When we work alternative schedules we should be compensated for the work hours missed due to bereavement, jury duty, short-term military leave and other leaves.

• Well-designed work schedules limit fatigue and injuries. They should include adequate job rotation and paid rest time. They must also allow for preventive maintenance and repair work.

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• Having a voice in the design and implementation of alternative or non-traditional work schedules. We seek input in the design and implementation of work schedules through good faith bargaining with employers.

• Increased break and relief time. This includes flexible break times that best suit our schedule and work load, where operationally feasible.

• More paid time off. To improve our quality of life outside the workplace and support our engagement in the community, we will seek additional holidays and increased vacation and per­sonal time. We support mechanisms and policies to encour­age the full utilization of vacation entitlements.

• Promote voluntary use of flex time or alternative work schedules. Where operationally feasible, we should be able to adjust our starting and ending times or work non-traditional schedules to meet our individual needs. Not only does this benefit us, but also it benefits the employer by expanding work coverage to better serve customers and increase productivity.

• Oppose the reduction of work hours. Especially when it is done to evade requirements to pay benefits such as health care.

Contingent and Temporary Work

Temporary and contingent work in the United States is at an all­time high. There are now more temporary workers in the U.S. than there are Big Three workers or Walmart workers around the globe, changing the very idea of what it means to have a job. We recognize that some jobs are temporary by their nature, but these jobs are not the ones driving the growth in temporary employment. The trend we see and oppose is the creation and maintenance of long-term tem­porary workforces as a way for employers to evade responsibility for

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obligations like workers' compensation and unemployment insur­ance. At many non-union companies, temporary agencies employ thousands of workers that labor alongside the employer's direct­hires. The problem with these jobs is that they are often highly inse­cure, with sub-standard pay and benefits, few employment protec­tions, and limited access to collective bargaining rights. This is true whether the job lasts six weeks or six years.

We seek to distinguish assignments that are truly temporary from the use of permanently precarious workers with few legal protections. If this practice is not reined in, it will jeopardize decades ofbargaining gains.

Our agreements should include strong limits on the use of temporary and contingent workers. When temporary workers are employed, they deserve a seat at the table with fair treatment and union representation. We must also assist other workers in the fight to organize and demand that their employers provide clear, achievable pathways to secure employment.

Our bargaining goals include:

• Limiting the use of temporary workers. We will seek specific language in our agreements limiting the conditions in which temporary workers are used, the number of temporary workers employed, the duration of their employment and by whom they are employed.

• Temporary workers should be employed directly by the company we already bargain with, not a temporary agency, and covered by a collective bargaining agreement. They should receive the same pay as other newly hired workers and have access to employer-paid union orientation.

• Temporary workers should have a path to permanent employment.

• Our agreements should provide increased security for contingent workers. In higher education, where contingent employment is widespread and deeply entrenched in the business model, we will pursue innovative agreements to provide workers with greater job security and stability.

Work and Family

Today's work and family bargaining agenda extends far beyond a decent paycheck and dependent health care coverage. Our members and their families also need access to quality child care that meets their needs without breaking their budgets. They need a ready source of information about the resources available to them as they struggle to care for loved ones who are frail or disabled. They need time, as well - time to nurture a newborn child or to finalize an adoption, to care for a sick spouse, to visit their child's classroom, to spend a relaxed weekend with friends. They need the flexibility to handle life's small emergencies, from snow days to sick babysitters to playground accidents.

To achieve this goal, we will:

• Bargain to curtail the excessive use of mandatory overtime.

• Negotiate creative and flexible work schedules, shorter work­weeks and other arrangements tailored to specific workplaces.

• Support fair and stable schedules for all workers. To reinforce our bargained language we will continue to support legislation such as the Schedules that Work Act that seeks to protect workers from irregular and unpredictable employer scheduling practices.

• We will bargain leave time that extends beyond the 12 weeks currently provided under the FMLA and for the right to use sick leave for family illnesses.

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• Enhance the financial viability of taking leave by pressing employers to provide paid leave and to continue all benefits and seniority accrual during leave periods. In addition, we will bargain anti-retaliation provisions to protect those seeking leave under the FMLA or the contract.

• Expand child and elder care assistance programs. We will negotiate resource and referral services to provide information and support options. We will also seek to expand our child and elder care choices through on-site and near-site centers or through the creation of multi-employer efforts to build quality child and elder care programs in our communities. Because high costs are a significant barrier to quality care, we will bargain for direct employer subsidies, family care funds and tax-advantaged dependent care assistance plans to help workers pay for quality child and elder care.

• Value all families. We will push for full benefits for domestic partners and for an expanded definition of "family" to include same-sex partners, extended family members and in-laws for the purpose of bereavement and family leave. We will also bargain for employer-provided adoption subsidies for workers who adopt children.

NON-ECONOMIC ISSUES

Health and Safety

Every year 144 American workers leave their families, go to work, and never return horne. These workers are the victims of workplace fatalities. When you add in workplace violence and illnesses, almost 50,000 workers die every year. Americans also suffer more than 4 million non-fatal, on-the-job injuries every year. Beyond the reported data, the true toll is believed to be two to three times greater, about 9 to 14 million injuries each year. This is unacceptable.

The value of our high road health and safety practices is clear. Between December 2012 and June 2014, we went almost eighteen months without a fatality. Unfortunately, the five months that followed saw five UAW fatalities. The key to protecting workers and eliminating hazards is increasing our involvement in a safety process based on hazard identification, evaluation and elimination or control. This process must be implemented, maintained and expanded at all UAW workplaces.

We are committed to making our workplaces safer and now is the time. We must bargain stronger health and safety language where it is weak and we must pursue vigorous enforcement of our language everywhere. With strong contracts we can protect ourselves through our union instead of waiting for an overworked government inspector to show up to enforce weakened safety regulations.

In this round of bargaining, we will maintain and strengthen health and safety protections in the following areas:

Health and safety training- All UAW members should receive health and safety training. Our priorities are:

• Maintaining existing jointly administered, employer-financed health and safety training programs, and committing more employers to jointly determined and employer-funded training.

• Making courses in health and safety available to all members whose employers have not established joint training programs.

• Developing training focused on the hazards faced in the type of work performed, including lockout procedures for repair workers, protection from bloodborne pathogens for health care workers, and ergonomic improvements for everyone.

• Involving more of us in the delivery of health and safety training. There is no substitute for peer-based training.

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Research - Employer-funded, jointly administered research has improved health and safety conditions for both unionized and non­unionized workers. We must expand employer-funded research to include:

• Equipment design and work organization problems that increase risks, and evaluate programs for prevention.

• Methods to establish injury prevention programs. Studies on limiting exposure to health and safety hazards, including the unique hazards faced by workers in office, health care, gaming, education and service sector jobs.

Injury and illness reporting- We must bargain contract language that encourages reporting. Injury and illness reports, including near­miss incidents, can be important warning signs of work hazards. We oppose and will seek to eliminate management practices that discourage reporting, including:

• Threatening, discriminating against or firing workers who report workplace injuries and illnesses.

• Monetary incentives or other rewards or punishments that are based on reported injuries.

• "Behavior-based safety" schemes that focus solely on worker actions and not on hazard identification.

• Drug testing or discipline triggered solely by filing or asking to file an incident report.

Protection against hazardous work - We seek strong contract language protecting and enforcing the right to refuse and report dangerous assignments, and we will fiercely defend the right when it is exercised. We must be informed of and encouraged to exercise this right, and be protected from retaliation when an assignment is contrary to training or when we believe a hazard might exist.

Medical treatment - When a member is injured or becomes ill on the job, management must provide quality, professional medical treatment on a timely basis. Our agreements should establish objective criteria for quality of care, including emergency response times, waiting times and staffing levels.

Emergency response - Every work site must have an emergency response plan, continuous training and regular emergency drills. Worker involvement must be part of this program.

New technology- We must be involved in evaluating hazards and designing safety protection at the earliest stages of process and equipment design. To that end:

• Management must provide advance notice at the earliest stages of planning to review potential hazards.

• When new technologies or systems of work organization are introduced, production standards must be re-evaluated to ensure that safety is not compromised. Complete and thorough training on risk assessment and safe job design must be provided.

Preventive maintenance - Every work site needs detailed plans for preventive maintenance of health, safety and environment­related items, encompassing:

• All relevant regulatory, code and standard requirements for machinery, processes and equipment, as well as continual evaluation of records maintenance. Deficiencies must be immediately corrected.

• Training for skilled trades members on codes and regulations to enable them to evaluate operations during preventive maintenance and repair tasks.

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Ergonomics - Poor ergonomic conditions cause the majority of our injuries. The dismantling of ergonomics standards at the federal level and continued attacks in some states make it more difficult to achieve improvements at the bargaining table. For example, changes in OSHA record keeping requirements mean that employers are reporting fewer musculoskeletal disorders than actually occur, hindering efforts to identify and fix ergonomic hazards. Our bargaining agenda for improved ergonomics must include:

• Demanding employers fix jobs that are known to pose a hazard.

• Establishing funding for ergonomic improvements.

• Demanding that all reports of symptoms of ergonomic injuries be investigated.

• Insisting that employers follow ergonomic best practices.

• Requiring that all new equipment meet appropriate ergonomic design standards.

• Involving us in the design and implementation stages whenever new equipment and processes are put in place.

• Safety equipment adequate for all sizes of people.

• Specific provisions to protect those of us in the health care sector who lift and move patients.

Noise - To improve our workplaces we will:

• Bargain for jointly-administered noise abatement committees as a means to reduce noise hazards.

• Call for increasing the use of engineering controls instead of personal protective equipment.

• Seek to reduce noise levels to 80 DbA, a safer level than the OSHA limit, and push for language that requires companies to purchase equipment below 80 DbA.

Hazardous energy (Lockout) - Lockout procedures and safeguards are essential to protect those of us who are involved in equipment repair and service. To that end:

• Specific lockout procedures must be developed, updated and frequently verified through a structured program, with our full involvement.

• Safeguarding and safety devices must be added or designed into equipment. Equipment should be re-engineered so lockout is simple or automatic, with built-in safeguards for workers doing troubleshooting and minor servicing.

• Workers whose jobs require them to operate or use equipment when servicing or maintenance is being performed under lockout must be provided with equipment -specific training and annual retraining.

Vehicle traffic - We will demand improved safety protections in highway work zones, where vehicle traffic is a major cause of serious injuries and fatalities.

Working alone - We will demand attention to the hazards of working alone including non-routine maintenance and skilled trades work and in classifications requiring home visits and off work site client interaction. When buddy systems are not feasible, communication devices must be provided to workers with isolated or field assignments. In other situations, special equipment such as portable ventilation equipment may be necessary.

Biological hazards - We need effective procedures to protect those of us working in healthcare from exposure to bloodborne pathogens and communicable diseases including Ebola and other infectious conditions.

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Chemical hazards - To reduce illness and injuries caused by workplace exposure to toxic chemicals, we will seek protections tai­lored to the specific dangers faced by our members in diverse set­tings. We seek:

• Reduced use of toxic chemicals, through substitution or other methods.

• Exposure limits more protective than OSHA's limits.

• Inspection, maintenance and upgrading of ventilation sys­tems.

• Improved indoor air quality, including protection from exposure to environmental tobacco smoke.

• Improved exposure measurement, including assessment of intermittent exposures in maintenance and service activities. We will seek our increased involvement through the expan­sion of innovative programs such as UAW Industrial Hygiene Technicians.

Hazardous waste and the environment - The toxic substances we sometimes work with may find their way into our communities through waste material or accidental release. We will seek to address these environmental issues at the bargaining table by proposing:

• Our involvement in the development and review of environmental protections at the work site.

• We must receive all data related to environmental release and protection programs.

Health and safety hazards of outside contracting and inadequate staffing levels - Contracted work can pose safety and health hazards to everyone at a work site, while inadequate staffing levels in healthcare and the public sector put us and the public we serve at risk. We insist:

• Contractors must be held to the same requirements as we are and, work must be stopped if it violates standards or safety and health rules.

• We must receive all reports related to contractor safety incidents, including serious injuries and near misses. We will insist on strong reporting and enforcement provisions to ensure contractor accountability.

• Staffing levels must be adequate to protect us from hazards associated with extreme workloads or caseloads. There is a direct relationship between staffing levels and workplace safety. In the service sector, adequate staffing levels also protect our patients and clients.

Health and safety implications of outsourcing and privatization - When outsourcing or privatization mean our employers compete against low-road employers with dangerous work practices it puts pressure on the high- road health and safety practices in our workplaces. In this way, outsourcing puts pressure on the high-road health and safety practices of our employers. We will demand:

• Supplier and contractor health, safety and environmental practices be a key element in sourcing and privatization decisions.

• Access to domestic and foreign supplier plants or vendors for health and safety investigations.

• Management must collect safety and environmental information from all suppliers and vendors, and provide this information to us.

Changes in legislation or standards - Under the Obama Administration, we have seen several advances in efforts to improve workplace health and safety language and practices. Our contracts should reflect these changes. They include:

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• OSHA's Severe Violators Enforcement Program, which is aimed at employers who demonstrate indifference to the health and safety of their employees through willful or repeat­ed violations of the Occupational Safety and Health Act. The program targets high -emphasis hazards, facilitates inspections across multiple work sites of the same resistant employer, and provides Regional and State Plan offices with a nationwide referral procedure. It produces Enhanced Settlement Provi­sions that require employers to go above and beyond basic hazard abatement to ensure compliance at the cited facility and at other related facilities.

• OSHA's Salmon letter, which reaffirms the right of non­union employees to choose a qualified union staff member to represent them in OSHA complaints and inspections.

• A new OSHA rule, which requires employers to report to OSHA any severe incident that results in a single hospitalization, amputation or loss of an eye. Previously an event was not reportable unless three people were severely hurt.

• EPA implementation of a provision of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments, which allows employees and their representa­tives to participate in EPA inspections aimed at preventing catastrophic explosions and/or chemical releases.

• The incorporation by EPA of the industrial hygiene hierarchy of controls in Significant New Use Rules under the Toxic Substances Control Act.

Non-Discrimination

Our union's history is rooted in social activism and the pursuit of equal opportunity and social justice for all working people. We have always rejected and opposed discriminatory practices, wherever they occur.

At the bargaining table, even before our nation passed laws to require non-discrimination in employment, we demanded equal rights based on race and sex, winning landmark protections for all of our brothers and sisters and showing the world what democracy and equal protection in the workplace look like.

Nevertheless, despite decades of legal and contractual protection against discrimination in the workplace, we still have much more work to do to guarantee civil and human rights for ourselves and all workers. Our nation's dialogue today over race relations, women's rights, sexual orientation, and immigration serves as a stark reminder that fear and ignorance still inform the perceptions and beliefs of too many.

In our upcoming negotiations, we will continue our proud history of leading the way to crush discrimination in all its forms by:

• Demanding broad nondiscrimination clauses that ban workplace discrimination based on race, sex, religion, creed, color, national origin, age, disability, sexual orientation, marital status, political affiliation or union activity.

• Contract language must be applied equally to all members.

• Rejecting employer proposals that make arbitration the exclusive remedy for worker discrimination claims. We oppose proposals that require us to waive a worker's legal right to pursue federal and state discrimination remedies outside the contract's grievance and arbitration procedure.

• Requiring employers to provide education and training on discriminatory practices, workplace rights, and our shared responsibility to help eliminate discrimination and harassment in all its forms from the workplace.

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• Advancing a process to determine whether wage disparities exist between jobs of comparable worth. This process should include an assessment of comparable skill and responsibility to remedy unfair wage disparities.

• Demanding a comprehensive program to eliminate sexual harassment which includes a confidential complaint process, mandatory prompt investigation, counseling, and anti-retali­ation provisions to protect those who come forward to report their or another's harassment.

• Requiring employers to eliminate work safety hazards and physical demands that prevent members with disabilities from staying on the job or returning to work.

• Demanding the right to bargain over identification and im­plementation of reasonable accommodations that keep work­ers employed during periods of temporary or permanent dis­ability.

• We reject all attempts by the employer to directly deal with workers who need such accommodation.

Discipline, Grievance Procedure and Union Representation

The grievance procedure is a cornerstone of our collective bargaining agreements. Because we have effective representation when workplace disputes arise, these issues can be resolved in a timely fashion using an established, organized procedure that provides due process for the grievant.

By replacing arbitrary, management-controlled policies and procedures with a well-defined system of dispute resolution, a properly functioning grievance procedure brings greater fairness to the workplace. It also contributes to an atmosphere of mutual

respect, essential to creating and maintaining a high level of quality and productivity.

Collectively bargained grievance procedures co-exist with federal, state, and local laws that protect against various forms of employment discrimination. A grievance procedure must not replace our individual rights under these discrimination laws.

Our bargaining strategy will focus on establishing and enhancing key aspects of the grievance procedure, including:

• Clear and complete descriptions of the grievance procedure so that it is easily understood and applied.

• Language that gives our stewards, committee members and other representatives the necessary time, paid for by the employer, to fulfill their responsibilities and provide effective representation.

• Language requmng the employer to provide our representatives with all information needed to administer the agreement and evaluate and process grievances.

• Clear and enforceable time limits so that grievances move through the system and are resolved quickly.

• Provisions for fair and impartial resolution of disputes, including adequate due process guarantees and an opportunity for the union to make a full presentation of its case.

• An option for the union to demand expedited arbitration, even if only in certain cases, such as policy grievances and serious discipline or discharge situations.

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• Language providing for special mechanisms - such as pre­arbitration mediation - to alleviate grievance backlogs.

• Provisions requiring an appropriate amount of interest be included in all back-pay awards.

• Increased union representation as needed to ensure that our agreements are administered on a timely and effective basis.

• Language recognizing that the UAW Constitution sets out a detailed procedure for internal union review of grievance handling matters, and that when such a review determines a grievance was improperly handled or that new evidence changed the outcome, the employer will reinstate the grievance into the procedure.

• Protection for our right to seek redress for violations of our individual legal rights outside of the grievance procedure.

In disciplinary cases, we will seek:

• Just-cause provisions requiring an employer to follow fair procedures and have a reasonable basis for its actions.

• A progressive discipline system which requires the employer to notify the employee of the consequences of continued misconduct and provide the employee an opportunity to correct his actions.

• Clearly stated penalties that are appropriate to the misconduct.

• An accelerated grievance procedure to permit early resolution of discipline and discharge cases.

• Provisions that require disciplinary records be removed from the worker's personnel file after a reasonable period.

• Provisions keeping a worker on the job until charges are proven, except in instances where health and safety in the workplace is jeopardized.

Member Orientation and Communication

As one highly paid "union avoidance" consultant said recently, "[R] egardless of the timeframe, powerful employee communication is always key to remaining union-free:' And it is.

Websites, politically charged infotainment programs, YouTube videos, Facebook pages, Twitter feeds and other communication tools influence union members and working people every day. The influencers are well-funded, strategic, and relentless. And many of them don't like us.

Unfortunately there are fewer and fewer union members to counter the barrage of anti-union messaging. Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows the percentage of workers represented by a union has steadily declined from 20.1 percent in 1983 to just 11 percent today. This means that our members are less likely to be from a union household where organized labor's benefits and solidarity were discussed and honored. It also means that our members may hold notions about us based on information from the aforementioned, unreliable, cynical sources.

Because it's essential for us to successfully welcome our new members and communicate regularly with all members, we will bargain:

• A new member orientation clause providing adequate employer-paid time for the union representative and new employee to meet and engage in an effective new member orientation program.

• Regular access to the employer's workplace communication systems to facilitate regular member outreach and interaction.

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• Timely employer-provided notice of newly hired employees and other pertinent information, including job classification, employee identification number, and work location so that new members can be welcomed early in the employment pro­cess and new member orientation can be timely arranged.

• Access to employer facilities and employee workspaces to al­low the union representative to engage freely with employees and without improper employer interruption or interference.

Privacy and Surveillance

While advancement in electronic communication has contributed to our workplace productivity and efficiency, it has come at a significant cost. The employer's ability to monitor us inside and outside of the workplace continues to grow, as technological advances increase the scope and depth of possible employer surveillance techniques. The UAW strongly supports personal privacy and we will work to preserve personal privacy during non-working hours. We are opposed to intrusive monitoring practices during working hours.

Today, nearly all employers use some form of workplace monitoring. Employers monitor our workplace electronic mail and internet use and some employers try to monitor our off-duty social media and online networking use. Global Positioning System (GPS) technology allows employers to monitor our exact movements and video surveillance has moved from the parking lot and interior corridors of a workplace into new areas, including locker rooms and restrooms.

Aside from the intrusion on our personal liberties, the loss of workplace privacy has a negative impact on our health, productivity, and morale. Numerous studies of workplace surveillance show that workers subject to these invasive techniques exhibit increased levels of stress and a greater frequency of physical problems which can

raise medical costs and cause other expenses for employers, such as lost time and absenteeism. Quality can also be adversely affected as workers feel pressure to increase their volume or productivity.

Because intrusive or pervasive workplace surveillance creates more harm than good for us and management, we must address workplace privacy issues with our elected officials and at the bargaining table by:

• Preventing general employer monitoring of our electronic communication use, with clearly defined and limited exceptions and privacy safeguards.

• Prohibiting employer surveillance of our off-duty electronic communication - including use of social media and networking sites - and prohibiting the employer from using directly or indirectly obtained information for discrimination, discipline or termination.

• Forbidding employer policies that require or encourage us to "friend" the employer on social media and networking sites, give our passwords to such sites or otherwise give the employer access to our non-public profiles or site content.

• Preventing intrusive employer surveillance such as video monitoring of employee restrooms and break areas.

• Prohibiting the use of GPS or surveillance technologies that can monitor our movements.

• Forbidding the use of "monitored" employee information to set production standards or discipline employees.

• Requiring employers to provide "monitored" information to the union for the purpose of effectively administering contract provisions that touch on workplace privacy matters.

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• Forbidding employer maintenance of "monitored" information involving those who have been found innocent of an infraction or whose discipline has been removed from their personnel file.

Violence in the Workplace

Violence is a major problem in workplaces across the United States. Our workplaces are not immune to this national problem. According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, every year nearly 2 million American workers report having been victims of workplace violence. Unfortunately, many more cases are unreported. Homicide is the fourth leading cause of fatal occupational injuries in the United States.

Women are especially impacted by workplace violence. Homicide is the second leading cause of occupational fatality for women after vehicle crashes. Women are also at much greater risk than men for non-fatal workplace injury.

While the public thinks most workplace violence occurs between co-workers, in 2013 only about 18 percent of such fatalities fell into this category. Sixty percent of workplace fatalities were caused by robbers or other assailants. For women, only 15 percent of violent fatalities were caused by co-workers while 36 percent were caused by relatives or domestic partners.

To reduce conditions that lead to workplace violence, our collective bargaining agreements should have:

• A written workplace violence prevention program that includes training.

• An emergency response program, including a response to violent incidents.

• An active Employee Assistance Program (EAP) to help members under stress which is often the root cause of the

dangers we face at home and at work. Members must have access to targeted mental health and counseling referrals.

• Policies which regulate weapons in the workplace to reduce the potential for injury or death.

• A management requirement to react swiftly and seriously to all violent incidents and credible threats of violence. Menacing behavior, including but not limited to use of a weapon, must not be tolerated.

• We must have equal participation in investigations of job­related complaints and incidents involving actual or potential violence and abuse.

• A provision forbidding the use of profiling to predict the like­lihood of a violent act or to question a member about an inci­dent of workplace violence.

• Individuals who commit violent acts or make credible threats of violence should be dealt with by law enforcement with strict adherence)o the contract.

• We do not have an obligation to defend the actions of a member clearly guilty of a violent act or threatened act of violence. However, our duty of fair representation requires us to ensure equal treatment among members and protect the privacy rights of the victim and accused alike.

EAP and Drug Testing

Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) offer confidential help to workers whose personal problems are adversely affecting job performance and everyday life. In recent times, many employers targeted EAPs to cut costs, which proved to be detrimental to our members.

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When a troubled worker's problems are not addressed, everyone suffers. The worker's negative behavior can lead to discipline and job loss. The employer loses an experienced worker and runs the risk of lost work time, poor quality and depressed morale among the other workers.

With the economic conditions of our employers improving, we must demand that our employers restore a comprehensive EAP or strengthen an existing program by creating new confidential vehicles to help troubled workers get the help they need and keep their jobs.

In this round of negotiations we will seek to:

• Negotiate effective joint EAPs where they do not exist, and expand and improve existing EAPs. Quality EAPs should include the following services: mental health, substance abuse, addiction counseling, family counseling, financial counseling, legal service referrals, child and elder care resource and referrals.

• Establish and implement a training and certification process for work . site EAP representatives to provide uniform and consistent EAP services across UAW work sites.

• Continue to support and advocate for a full range of inpatient and outpatient programs to deal with mental health and substance abuse and addiction issues.

• Insist that proposals for employee drug testing be subject to collective bargaining. While we remain opposed to random drug testing, where some form of testing is inevitable the UAW administrative letter entitled "UAW Substance Abuse Policy" should serve as the guideline for those who test positive.

• Seek reasonable accommodation from drug testing for employees who are registered medical marijuana users in

states that permit possession of marijuana for health reasons. Employees who use medical marijuana legally, off duty and are not impaired on the job should not be disciplined or discharged just because they may have detectable levels of marijuana in their system.

Education and Training

The UAW has long led the fight for worker education opportunities, including access to college, work training and skill-building through employer paid programs.

For us workers, there are many benefits of education and training. Job related education and training affords us the opportunity for higher pay, promotions, and increased job satisfaction. Union skill-building helps us in bargaining and contract enforcement by enhancing our ability to voice concerns on the job and develop solutions to workplace issues.

For our employers, it's well-documented that solid training programs and educational opportunities improve work performance and productivity, help reduce worker turnover, absenteeism, and keep the employer's competitive edge sharp by improving quality. Research shows that private sector employers that invest in high­quality and sustained training for their employees reap higher returns for their shareholders through reduced labor costs and boosted effectiveness and efficiency.

Given the clear benefits of a trained, skilled workforce, it's unfortunate education and training are often the first items on the chopping block when it's time to cut costs. However, the short-term cost-savings are countered by the long-term expense of employee turnover. A recent survey showed that 40 percent of workers who get poor job training quit that job in the first year. In the meantime, the cost to replace an employee can cost as much as $2,500. Cutting education and training is not a winning strategy for management or labor.

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With the economy improving, now is the time to seek new and improved education and training opportunities by demanding:

• Labor and management collaboration to identify training opportunities for greater career development. Joint activities geared toward improving the way we do our jobs and run our organizations are especially valuable.

• Tuition assistance for off-site education and skills training that adequately covers coursework and culminates in a degree or certificate.

• Improved access to training and certification programs. This includes removing barriers to participation by adding more flexibility in course scheduling and completion in light of work and family demands.

• Education leave to allow us to complete coursework or explore new subjects. Education leads to new ways of thinking and new perspectives that can be applied in the work site for employer-wide impact.

• Union education leave that allows us to take classes that build our negotiation and problem-solving skills to enhance the union's effectiveness in dealing with workplace issues.

Veterans Issues

We honor the contributions made by UAW members who have served and are serving in the U.S. military. We know that their service has come at a cost and requires specific contract language to address their needs. Since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, over 2.8 million men and women have served in the United States military. Among them, over 6,000 have died and over 50,000 have

been wounded in action defending freedom and democracy in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The newest veterans of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars have sustained physical and psychological injuries that require costly, long-term treatment and special job protections. Young veterans are also struggling to find jobs and are facing higher unemployment than their civilian counterparts.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs addresses many returning veterans' needs by providing housing, educational, career, and medical assistance to returning veterans. But our veterans and servicemen and women also need good jobs with supportive employers.

That's why we are proud to continue our tradition of bargaining effective contract protections that support fair treatment for our active military and veteran brothers and sisters by:

• Continuing to bargain military duty leave provisions that require employers to pay the difference between our members' military pay and benefits and their work pay and benefits when called to active duty.

• Demanding additional improvements in pay and benefit practices, coverage eligibility and administrative procedures affecting military leave, including timely payment of all wages and benefits for returning military personnel.

• Advancing protections greater than those required by the Americans with Disabilities Act and Family and Medical Leave Act so that those with physical and mental injuries due to their military service can work with dignity and security.

• Urging employers to join our efforts to support full funding for veterans' health care programs and expansion of low-cost TRICARE coverage for all National Guard and Reservists and their families, with the Federal Government paying most of the premiums.

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• Negotiating job preservation provisions that keep good jobs here at home and afford us a middle class life so that our fellow UAW military members can return to civilian life and enjoy the freedoms they fought so valiantly to defend.

Employee Discounts

We take pride in the goods we make and the services we provide. We also work hard and deserve recognition for the quality work we do. One way for the employer to recognize our effort is through employer product and service discounts.

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In bargaining we should improve and expand our discount programs. Discount programs should be offered to all UAW members as well as America's servicemen, servicewomen, and veterans.

Such provisions must also meet all of the UAW's policies and practices, including the Ethical Practices Code.

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JOB SECURITY

Organizing

Our bargaining strength is tied to union density. When density is low there are lots of non-union work sites where low road practices can prevail. High UAW or union density in our bargaining sectors ~nables us to compel the employer to recognize our just demands m the areas of compensation, job security, health care, workplace safety, and retirement benefits.

We can organize and sustain our hard-fought wins at the bargaining table by requiring the employer to recognize non-union workers as UAW members.

To continue to grow our union at the bargaining table, we will:

• Negotiate employer neutrality and card-check provisions that apply to the employer's new facilities, subsidiaries and joint ventures and newly acquired operations.

• Insist on neutrality and card-check provisions that provide for a smooth and coercion-free process. The process should include access to the workplace, accurate worker contact

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information, and a speedy resolution mechanism to resolve 1

legitimate disputes.

• Require UAW employers to use all lawful means to inform vendors and suppliers of their desire to work with vendors and suppliers that respect labor laws including the right to organize through employer neutrality and card check procedures.

Investment Commitments

~ur job security depends on malting products and delivering serv1ces that customers value. To ensure that high-quality products

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and services are produced and delivered competitively we need continued investment in our workplaces. GM's Spring Hill assembly plant was brought back to life after we negotiated for new investment in the plant. That is why we will bargain for new investment in our

work sites.

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• Building improvements, research and development, and new and upgraded equipment and technology. All are important to produce high-quality products and services ef­ficiently. These investments should include advanced tech­nology. We want employers that are keeping up with the tech­nologies of the future so that we will have jobs now, and in the long-term.

• We can only be as efficient as our workplaces allow. Outdated equipment, or poorly designed computer systems will hurt our ability to compete in the global economy. Having cutting­edge systems is an important part of producing high quality goods and services.

• New products and services. We need to ensure we are producing the products and services of today and tomorrow.

• Increased input in investment decisions. We are typically as familiar with the employer's operations as management is. Our contribution to these discussions is enhanced when management shares additional information about our operations. When an employer is working within a budget, we can identify areas where additional investment is needed, and where it may not be as necessary.

• Increased input in initiatives and government policies that stimulate domestic investment by all employers. Issues to address should include infrastructure, education, the environment, green energy, health and safety, trade and

workers' rights.

New Technology and New Jobs

Technological changes continuously reshape our workplaces. To ensure that technology leads to work improvements and increased job security, we must advance proposals that guard against employer attempts to use technology to de-skill, outsource, layoff, erode our bargaining units, diminish our power, or lower our compensation.

Our jobs are more secure when the goods and services we produce are competitive in the marketplace. Through the collective bargaining process we can embrace technological change as an opportunity to improve our ability to efficiently produce quality goods and services. We can bargain for smart investments and innovation at our work sites-whether it's new technology on the assembly line or at the office. We want our work sites to grow. We want to improve the skills we already have and learn new ones. We want to make new products and provide new services. We want to serve new markets. We want to improve quality and take pride in our work.

Our bargaining program for New Technology and New Jobs will seek:

• Union involvement to implement new technology and workplace restructuring. We will demand a voice in how new jobs are created, established and expanded. We must be involved from the earliest planning stages through the entire process of workplace restructuring and technology imple­mentation.

• Protection from layoff. We will bargain for protection from layoff for those of us impacted by technological change or workplace reorganization. When we help management use technology to improve our work system and improve the bot­tom line, we should not have to worry about losing our jobs.

• Protecting and expanding the bargaining unit. Sometimes employers use technological change as an excuse to move

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work out of the bargaining unit or outsource it. We seek strong contract language to prevent this shortsighted and inefficient maneuver. We will also demand the inclusion of new jobs and new work in our bargaining units because the high­skilled jobs of the 21st century secure our future and growth.

• Workforce education and training. We need the skills necessary to meet the challenges of constantly changing workplaces including new technology, regulations, work rules, and production systems.

Quality, Goods and Services

Our employers demand that we produce quality goods and services. We know the importance of quality in keeping customers happy, and we embrace our role as quality advocates and innovators. However, to effectively address quality concerns we need to be included in decisions about work organization, supplier selection

and staffing levels.

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Therefore, in the area of product and service quality we demand:

• Worker input into product design, production processes and work organization to ensure consistently high levels of quality, efficiency and effectiveness.

• Proper staffing levels in all our sectors so that we can work in a safe and healthy environment to produce goods and services at the level of quality customers expect.

• Receipt of full and timely information supported by input on quality goals and specifications, including full access to quality evaluation data.

• Access to up-to-date and properly functioning tools, equipment, hardware and software, as well as all necessary training to achieve top-quality results.

• Jointly established quality resolution procedures.

• Continued and expanded use of the UAW quality certification mark.

Sourcing

When we lose our work to outside contractors or non-union workers in our work sites, our jobs and right to bargain effectively are at risk. Depending on the sector, we refer to this practice as outsourcing or privatization. We made the case against outsourcing and privatization a long time ago. Now, some private and public employers that embraced this practice are having second thoughts about whether it really saves costs.

Some manufacturing employers have come around by learning the hard way about the hidden costs of outsourcing and offshoring. They have literally paid the price when cargo that spent weeks at sea arrives containing products with quality problems such as damaged or substandard goods. Remedying the problem means expedited air freight costs, which erases any alleged savings gained from using cheap labor.

Many public employers have also learned the hard way that well­trained workers who are invested in the employer's mission are best for the job and cost less in better efficiency and effectiveness over the long term. A recent example of this "penny wise, pound foolish" approach exists in Michigan, where public food service workers in the state's prisons were laid off and replaced by cheaper, untrained private food service employees, resulting in expensive security issues and dangerous work conditions.

We must also pay attention to management purchasing decisions. We can bargain for the right to participate in sourcing decisions that involve the products and services we use in our work. By demanding a role in sourcing decisions we can ensure our products are high quality and can support good jobs and wages at the same time.

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There are many ways to fight outsourcing and privatization in our contracts. In the Big Three agreements, we have been able to main­tain a Moratorium on Sourcing which means what it says: no more outsourcing. This provision has protected countless jobs and helped us negotiate investment and product commitments at UAW-repre­sented facilities. This understanding has also been an important part of a related sourcing process which allows local work sites to bargain for work to insource. These models can be applied at UAW work sites in both the manufacturing and service sectors.

In bargaining, we will protect our jobs and help support high labor standards throughout the economy by proposing contract language to:

• Where possible, prohibit the outsourcing or privatization of bargaining unit work without mutual agreement.

• Require the employer to notify the union as early as possible when the potential for outsourcing or privatization exists and to provide access to all management outsourcing/privatization analyses, including comprehensive cost information.

• Secure the right to participate in purchasing decisions so that high quality goods and services are produced by fairly treated, well-compensated workers whose employers respect and honor organizing and collective bargaining rights.

• Agree in advance on a jointly developed methodology for the analysis of future sourcing or privatization decisions, including a process for insourcing new work.

• Require the use of public employees for any new public programs.

• Secure ongoing discussions and forums with employers to identify insourcing opportunities.

• Establish the right to strike over violations of our agreements regarding outsourcing, and in the public sector establish this right where permitted.

Skilled Trades and Apprenticeships

Our workplaces are changing and employers are placing new demands on skilled trades workers. That's why it's more important than ever for us to have the training we need to meet new industry challenges and protect the work we have performed historically.

With high numbers of our skilled trades brothers and sisters at or near retirement age, we need many more new members to enter apprenticeship programs so our employers will have enough skilled trades workers. This is also an opportunity to encourage women and people of color to enter apprenticeship programs.

For our existing skilled trades members we must bargain for jointly developed continuous training programs that compliment apprenticeship programs and ensure that our skilled trades members are prepared to work with new technologies, techniques and engineering processes.

We recognize the direct relationship between job security and the skill levels maintained by our members. We will continue to fiercely oppose and resist any attempts by management to eliminate jobs and erode our bargaining unit work through inadequate training of our members.

Therefore, in our contracts we must:

• Require that skilled trades members graduate from a bonifide apprentice program, or have eight years of verifiable work experience in a basic trade.

• Work with our employers to jointly develop apprenticeships that advance our ability to obtain skills required by new

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technologies. We should also work with employers to encourage groups to join apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship programs.

• Provide continuous classroom and hands-on training and education for our existing skilled trades members.

• Ensure that skilled trades workers are equipped and trained to safely perform all work assignments within their skilled classification.

• Require advance notice of any new or successor technology so that training can be provided in a timely manner.

• Protect work that has traditionally been performed by UAW skilled trades members in the worksite.

• Restrict the use of outside contractors for repair and maintenance of machinery or equipment and project work.

• Require employers to maintain and provide sufficiently operable equipment and machinery so that skilled trades members can successfully perform our jobs and protect our work.

• Require regular communication about planned work so that we can discuss how best to utilize our skilled trades with management.

OTHER ECONOMIC AND NON-ECONOMIC ISSUES

Working with Employers

Throughout this resolution we identify many issues typically left to management's discretion where our involvement will lead to better outcomes. When we work with employers on sourcing or organizing or employee involvement initiatives, we do so to improve the quality of our lives on and off the job, to build our union and to inject new levels of democracy into the workplace.

Our experience working with employers on cooperative activities has taught us that these programs work well when they honor our union's long-standing goals. Experience has also taught us that joint activities fail when management abandons its commitment to working with us and reverts to "my way or the highway" tactics.

We will continue to bargain for and support joint activities as long as they are done in true partnership. In weighing our participation in these programs we will use the following criteria:

• Joint activities must not erode our job security.

• Joint activities should be developed and administered only with the union as a full and active partner.

• Joint activities should not infringe on or substitute for collective bargaining.

• When joint activities result in new practices or procedures that advance our interests they should be put in our collective bargaining agreements.

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Unemployment Insurance

Many laid-off workers only get a fraction of their lost income or run out of benefits from state-administered unemployment insur­ance programs before they find a new job.

Therefore, our collective bargaining program includes:

• Maintaining employer-funded programs that provide short­term supplemental income to our laid-off co-workers. We will also advance new employer-funded programs where they don't already exist.

• Working with employers to secure Trade Adjustment Assistance benefits for eligible workers who lost their job due to competition from imports or the movement of work to another country and have exhausted unemployment compensation.

Injured Workers and Workers' Compensation

The Workers' Compensation system is the primary source of eco­nomic security for workers injured on the job. Like unemployment insurance, workers' compensation programs are administered by the states. We will defend these programs from attempts to reduce ben­efits and create obstacles to compensation for occupational diseases.

In our collective bargaining and representation we will advance the following protections:

• The right to receive relevant data from workers' compensation claims to identify potential hazards and patterns of injuries at our work sites.

• Contract language that guarantees injured or restricted workers the right to "light -duty" work assignments.

• Union representation and prohibition of employer harassment or retaliation against members who file workers' compensation claims.

• A negotiated process to challenge employer practices that rou­tinely result in the denial of workers' compensation claims.

Preferential Hire and Recall Language

It is a priority to give preference in hiring to our members who are laid-off or separated from closed facilities . We will bargain for preferential hiring programs that bring our laid-off co-workers back to work before hiring new workers from the outside. If training or skills development is required, the employer shall provide it.

Duration of the Collective Bargaining Agreement

Many factors need to be considered in determining the length of a collective bargaining agreement. Those factors include the gains achieved in the contract, the current and future economic condition of the employer, expiration dates at competing employers, and the prospective bargaining relationship between the parties, to name just a few. The Union must also consider the overall pattern of expiration dates and whether such dates will enhance the Union's bargaining position in the future.

In the final analysis, the duration of our collective bargaining agreements depends on what is in the best long-term interests of our members.

Electronic Data Collection

Accurate data lists are essential for effective communication with

UAW members, accurate monetary reporting, success in political

action and mobilization. In bargaining we need to negotiate for

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company-provided electronic employment and membership data. This should include a complete list of all represented employees,

demographic information, dues, VCAP and retired workers dues/

pension data files. These data files must be in a format that is compatible with local union membership and dues systems as well as the International Union, UAW information systems. Data files must be provided at regular intervals as directed by each local union or

International Union.

Environmental Responsibility

Labor and management share a duty to address the impact that the employer's operations and our work have on the environment. To address this responsibility, we will press management to:

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• Support workplace recycling programs and meet with the union to discuss the recycling process and identify new materials for recycling.

• Negotiate telecommuting, carpooling, and employer­subsidized mass transit bus pass programs to reduce auto pollution and traffic, as well as energy and fuel consumption.

• Work with us to identify ways to boost energy efficiency in our work sites, including reducing electricity use and using alternative power.

• Purchase UAW-made high fuel efficient vehicles.

Community Involvement

Union-community coalitions are at the center of our effort to improve the quality oflife for all workers and their families by building a global middle class. Alliances between unions and community organizations strengthen the voice of all workers. Union-community coalitions can extend our reach through shared resources, broaden

community support for workers' issues, and create relationships that engage, mobilize and empower community members into action.

Working together to build union-community coalitions, we will clear roadblocks to bring about environmental improvement, social justice, economic opportunities, jobs and a global middle class. To build sustainable communities, we will build the relationship between unionized working people and working-class community organizations by educating participants on our common challenges. Communities are built on connections, and so we will work to improve the connectivity between union and community organizations.

Most of the UAW's community-building work is undertaken by our members in their non-working time. Our collective bargaining program seeks to remove barriers to our members' full engagement with their communities. We seek:

• An Election Day holiday, to allow all workers an opportunity to participate fully in the democratic process. When it is not possible to negotiate a holiday, we will seek paid voting leave, allowing workers time to vote before or after their workday.

• Community service leave, to allow workers to use paid time away from work to participate in volunteer activities in the community.

• School participation leave, to allow workers to take part in field trips, classroom programs, parent-teacher conferences and similar activities - or to volunteer their time to work with schoolchildren in the community.

• Civil service leave, to allow members to run for office and serve in elected or appointed government positions without losing seniority or accrued service credits.

We strongly encourage all our members to give back to their communities. By working together, we can create a better and more just society.

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Conclusion

"It's Our Time!"

During the next four years we will negotiate contracts that will impact tens of thousands of us and our families. And when we're at the bargaining table, we know we're also negotiating for the unorganized and their families. Our efforts at the bargaining table, in organizing, with allies, and in politics, will bring about the good society we deserve.

To guide us in our work we have this resolution. It is a guide to bargaining that we will use every day and it is how, step-by-step, we will reach our goals. This resolution is more than a guide book, it also reflects our vision of a work world that includes respect and a real voice, a secure job in a safe environment, and fair compensation. The path to this vision is not well mapped. Pursuing this vision will not be easy, but our moral compass will keep us moving in the right direction.

If we protect one another in brotherhood and sisterhood, and come together to demand our rights at bargaining tables across the country, we will succeed.

Now is the time for us to take our seat at the bargaining table and make our demands. While we know that it is impossible to promise specific bargaining results, and we would be foolish to even try, our unified bargaining resolution is a blueprint for all of our sectors to win social and economic justice for ourselves and all Americans.