They have several weeks of vacation a year and generally have better job-loss protection than most other workers. It's all thanks to the UAW contracts. They wonder how union officials who get paid by the companies can possibly represent the workers' interests. More than the questions, though, are the lack of answers. Workers claim friends and relatives of union and company officials were given artificial starting dates that gave them more seniority than workers hired at the same time.
Seniority is important in auto plants, especially when it comes to laying off workers.
UAW Local 685 at DaimlerChrysler's Kokomo, Ind., transmission plants. FBI and federal labor officials have looked into complaints that UAW officials were paid by the automaker for hours not worked in return for ignoring safety complaints. More than 150 workers at the plant signed a petition asking for a federal investigation of their union local. UAW Local 2209 in Ft. Ind. Several workers at the GM truck assembly plant complained to the FBI that their local officials were paid for hours they didn't work.