Axle workers face strict rules: Smoking, off-site breaks curtailed

By Jewel Gopwani

Jun. 4, 2008 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) --

Workers say morale has sunk at American Axle & Manufacturing, which they had expected when they returned to work after a 3-month strike.

But those at the company's Detroit plants also were confronted with new rules, as well as some old rules they didn't know about and didn't expect.

Some workers said they have been told they can't leave the plant during breaks or lunch time, a rule that had not been enforced for workers with paid lunch breaks.

"Before you were allowed to punch out once a day and now you're not allowed to punch out at all," said Doug Elliott, who has worked at American Axle for more than 12 years. Workers have been told that leaving the plants for lunch is a liability concern.

The new local contract in Detroit has banned smoking on company property, which has made it tough on workers who are discouraged from leaving during breaks.

The union and the company, however, are working on a solution to that issue, Axle spokeswoman Renee Rogers said.

"We're trying to be as productive as possible. We're trying to have a safe working environment," Rogers said. "We're trying to have a healthy work environment."

Many workers at American Axle returned to work last week after a 3-month strike protesting deep wage and benefit cuts that the company had proposed. The contract cut benefits, introduced buyout and early retirement offers as well as buy-downs, or cash payments in exchange for wage cuts.

Workers say the new and newly enforced rules illustrate a new strictness at the plant.

"We're really not allowed to have any freedom in the way that we work," Elliott said. The environment, he said, has made him feel "almost like I didn't belong there, like it was a new job."

The strictness could work against American Axle, said Harley Shaiken, labor professor at the University of California at Berkeley.

"A hard line after a strike isn't unprecedented, but it can exacerbate the tensions rather than ease them," Shaiken said.

The environment has some workers thinking about the future. Lisa Akra, a machinist, plans to open a hospice or a senior care center.

"Anybody that decides to stay," she said, "they just need to have a plan."