Machinists’ union tries organizing LV mechanics

Grace Leong

Friday, Jan. 18, 2002 | 10:55 a.m.

The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers launched a national recruitment drive last week starting with nearly 5,000-Las Vegas area mechanics, who the union claims are underpaid compared with their unionized counterparts in California.

The union, which said it represents 45,000 auto and truck mechanics nationwide, is targeting 139 Las Vegas-area auto dealerships, repair stations and trucking companies by distributing union literature and publishing advertisements in Las Vegas newspapers and on billboards.

The union, which plans to expand its recruitment drive to Los Angeles, Boston, Baltimore, Orlando, Fla.; Seattle and Portland, Ore., said a Las Vegas union rally Sunday was "well-received" and that it hopes to file a union election petition soon with the National Labor Relations Board.

The union said it began looking into organizing Las Vegas mechanics in May after formerly union-represented mechanics in California moved to Las Vegas and complained to the union about allegedly lower salaries and an alleged absence of health and pension benefits for non-union mechanics here. The Machinists said they represent about 9,000 mechanics in California.

Boysen Anderson, the Machinists' automotive coordinator, said a Las Vegas mechanic is paid an average hourly rate of $19.22, compared with $25.46 an hour for California mechanics. Unionized mechanics in California also receive paid vacations, pension plans and health insurance, while their non-union counterparts in Las Vegas do not, he charged.

Overall, union mechanics in California earn about $17 more in wages and benefits at $33.64 an hour compared with $16.27 an hour for non-union mechanics in Las Vegas, a union advertisement says. The $16.27 an hour figure includes a deduction of $2.95 an hour for health insurance that Las Vegas technicians have to pay, union organizers said.

But Martin Andelman, a spokesman for the Southern Nevada New Car Dealers Association, which represents 48 auto dealerships in the Las Vegas area, cast doubts on the union's claims of higher wages for its members and said the $19.22 hourly rate quoted by the union was misleading.

"The $19.22 hourly rate is the lowest rate Las Vegas technicians can earn. The average hourly rate for Las Vegas technicians is about $22," he said. "But Las Vegas technicians are being paid on a flat rate basis as opposed to an hourly basis. This means they get paid the same amount for say, a three-hour job even if they finish it in two hours. This gives them the incentive to finish the work quickly and get more jobs."

"For example, a Las Vegas technician is paid a flat rate of $20 an hour for a six-hour job. Even if he takes four hours to finish the job he still gets paid $120, and if he gets another job that takes four hours to do but he finishes it in two hours, he still gets paid $80. He gets paid $200 for doing 10 hours of work in six hours," he said.

"Although the hourly rate may be a few dollars higher under a union contract, you're only getting paid on the hour, meaning if a technician finishes his work in six hours, he gets paid only $120, instead of $200 under a flat rate system."

The Machinists' union declined to provide the names of any local mechanics supporting the union so they could be interviewed for this story, saying mechanics favoring the union fear reprisals if they go public.

The Las Vegas Sun found a mechanic who opposes the union with the cooperation of his employer, Fletcher Jones Toyota.

Fletcher Jones technician Ronald Fessenden Sr., who said he was approached by the Machinists, questioned the union's wage claims.

"Why would I want to join a union when I'm already surpassing the wages and benefits they offer? I'm getting paid $24 an hour flat rate. For the past two weeks, I've worked about 80 hours but was paid for 105.9 hours under the flat rate system. I've earned about $2,541," he said. "But under a union contract, even if I get paid $28 an hour as a union representative had promised me and work 80 hours, I'll earn only about $2,240."

Lost wages resulting from a switch to the hourly rate from a flat rate are among the key reasons why Machinists have been decertified as the union for mechanics at various locations 228 times nationwide since 1989, Andelman said, citing information from the labor newsletter Labor Relations Ink.

"Since 1989, IAM was kicked out in 228 decertification elections and currently the union wins only 41 percent of all its elections nationwide," according to the newsletter that's published by the Labor Relations Institute, an Oklahoma group.

Andelman said the union's assessments were unfair also because it compared the highest salaries earned by mechanics in San Francisco's Bay area -- one of the most expensive areas to live in the country -- with the lowest salary earned by Las Vegas mechanics.

Rob Bekken, a labor attorney for the Fletcher Jones Management Group in Las Vegas, said most car dealerships in Las Vegas are aware that federal law prohibits employers from interrogating employees about their union activities and have dealt with the union's organizing efforts by using videotapes produced by outside companies to educate their employees about union representation.

"The Southern California Auto Dealers Association was able to use outside companies to do a video interview with Machinist technicians about what the reality of union representation has been, and there were mixed reviews in that video. One technician out of Chicago said in the video he lost about $900 a month in wages after he joined the Machinists," he said.

Meanwhile, the Machinists' Anderson charged that Las Vegas mechanics pay about 90 percent of their healthcare costs and their health plans are frequently changing.

"Some Las Vegas mechanics tell us that every 90 days their employer would change their health plans. If you have (healthcare) bills, some of these bills may not get paid because of the delays that happen while health plans are being changed," he said. "Some Las Vegas mechanics are co-paying up to $500 a month for health insurance. But dealers in California and Chicago are paying in most cases 100 percent of their workers' healthcare costs."

But Fessenden disagreed. "That's a lie. We do get paid vacations and my dealership is paying 90 percent of my healthcare premiums. I'll get to join the Fletcher Jones pension plan after I've been with them for six months."

"What I'm concerned about is the fact that the union representative kept avoiding questions I had about the amount of union dues I'd have to pay if I joined and what options I have if I was dissatisfied with union representation and wanted out. Also when I asked the union why I should work for less, he avoided my question," he said.

Andelman said the vast majority of car dealers in Las Vegas co-pay health insurance benefits for their employees, but don't fund co-dependent's coverage.

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