Fifteen hundred autoworkers in Indianapolis made their New Year’s resolution public: unless Allison Transmission agreed to eliminate tiers in wages, benefits, shift premiums, and holidays, they would hit the bricks.

“The fight plan throughout negotiations was ending tiers,” said Phil Shupe, a ten-year assembler on tier two and bargaining committee member. “We weren’t going to accept anything from the company that had any more division. We stood firm that we all needed to be equal.”

Workers at Allison make commercial heavy-duty automatic transmissions for fire trucks, school buses, and tanks, as well as hybrid propulsion systems.