BUFFALO, N.Y. – UAW members say they are disappointed and surprised that American Axle CEO Dick Dauch has announced that the company intends to close its Cheektowaga, N.Y., gear-making plant in February.

“This latest plant closing announcement from American Axle is deeply disappointing” said UAW Vice President Cindy Estrada, who directs the union’s American Axle Department. “Our members who have worked proudly for American Axle made great sacrifices and helped the company avoid bankruptcy. Even after the company returned to profitability workers in Cheektowaga offered to give back more in concessions to maintain this as a viable operation in Buffalo-area community.” 

The closing will eliminate jobs for the 66 workers at the plant now and erase opportunities for any work in the future. In the past, the plant has been a place where workers from one generation to the next have found jobs. 

“The members of UAW Local 846 are disappointed and frustrated,” said Estrada. “The company relayed to us that its goal was to achieve a market competitive labor cost structure. We have continued to negotiate in that manner and American Axle has relayed to Wall Street that our contracts have helped keep the company viable.” 

In late July American Axle even released figures showing that its profits soared to $47.9 million from $25.3 million a year ago. 

Prior to 2008, the average American Axle worker’s total wage and benefit package was about $73.48. In 2008, following an 87-day labor dispute, employees at three American Axle facilities ratified a new agreement that included frozen pensions, numerous work rule changes and wage and benefit packages that were cut down to $43.21 an hour. 

That July, Dauch told Wall Street, “AAM’s new labor agreement will help AAM achieve a market competitive labor cost structure which is what we needed. This will help us with our U.S. locations. These new agreements will also help us restore profitability at the location that we will continue in the U.S., and also support the economic viability of sustainability for our company. In addition, AAM can now convert the formally fixed legacy labor cost structure of the continuing U.S. location to a highly flexible, variable cost structure.” 

“When the company asked for cuts in 2008, our members were reluctant but agreed,” said Scott Adams, director of UAW Region 9, which includes western New York. “Again in 2009 and 2010, our members sacrificed wages and benefits; they did what it took to keep those jobs in this community. Between 2009 and 2010, workers sacrificed again and saw their hourly wage and benefit packages cut to $36.48. In the recent round of bargaining, total wages and benefits combined were to drop again, this time below $30 an hour. On July 31, Cheektowaga workers said enough was enough and voted 98 percent in favor of rejecting cuts that left them with less than a livable wage.” 

“This is heartbreaking for the community,” said Greg Birkemeier, Local 846 shop chairperson and a third-generation UAW member and American Axle worker. “Our members have worked hard to produce quality products, meet shipping deadlines and do everything we could to make this company successful.” 

American Axle already has closed other U.S. plants, including another facility in Buffalo and a forge plant in Tonawanda. It has announced plans to close its Detroit plant in February as well. As plants in U.S. communities have been closed, the company has shifted those jobs to other countries.

"Perhaps this is a pattern of corporate greed and anti-union tactics shopped from one neighborhood to the next,” Adams said. “We are left wondering if the company intended to close the plant all along. Certainly we would hope that would not be the case, but there does seem to be a pattern that in the end devastates communities.

“Our members came to the table in good faith, but in the end, maybe this company had already set its agenda: Close the plant and blame the union,” Adams said.