Essay: Union Blues - 3.2.09

You have to wonder how Ron Gettelfinger, the president of the United Auto Workers union, feels about his job these days. For decades, ever since General Motors first recognized the UAW in 1937, collective bargaining in the auto industry worked like this: The union would start out by demanding more. More pay, more holidays, better working conditions. The company would offer something less.

And then they would sit down at a table and argue. Sometimes one side or the other would pound the table. Sometimes one side or the other would walk out. Sometimes they would even go on strike, for days, weeks, or even a month or more. But in the end, they’d sign a contract, and the workers would end up improving their lot.

After a while, they got this down to a science, called “pattern bargaining,“ in which the union would do battle with one company, reach an agreement, and then the other companies would sign on to it, sometimes with minor modifications. That was how the game was always played, right up to Chrysler’s first death scare in 1979.

Now, however, everything is different. If I were Gettelfinger, I think I would feel like the American general who had to surrender the Philippines to the Japanese after a few months of fighting.

Except in this case, it is sort of a death of a thousand cuts. Cuts and givebacks. Last week, the current president of the UAW sent a letter to every one of the forty-two thousand Ford Motor Company hourly workers who are still on the job.

He recommended that workers vote for concessions that include giving up cost of living pay increases and cash bonuses.

Plus, giving up the Monday after Easter as a paid holiday. The jobs bank will be suspended, and other unemployment benefits modified. “Without substantial restructuring and change from all stakeholders … Ford cannot survive,” he told his members.

The workers knew this was coming. The Detroit Free Press interviewed one minor union official who was sure it would be approved, because they had expected it would be even worse.

What was perhaps more alarming is what is going on with retiree health care. Two years ago, the UAW agreed to take over this responsibility, in exchange for billions in cash payment from the companies. There was some concern at the time that the companies weren’t putting in enough money to fund it, long-term.

Now, the automakers want to put in even less, in large part because they don’t have it. A week ago, the UAW announced they’d reached a tentative agreement to give Ford the option of using stock for up to half their required future contributions to the fund.

This comes at a time when much of Wall Street is saying that these automakers’ stock is, essentially, worthless. If you think that’s bad, General Motors and Chrysler have indicated they are likely to need even more concessions than Ford. Hundreds of thousands of current and former autoworkers are facing a new world out there.

Here’s hoping they are sufficiently brave.

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Comments

[Thrasher]

What is interesting about the meltdown of the automotive sector from the management to the union is the total lack of competent leadership on both sides of the equation. The Big 3 CEO's are lousy and so is the UAW leaders worthless...

The protrait of the automotive industry is nothing but empty frames of impotent men with shallow skills and myopic vision.

Not only was the American auto industry being destroyed by Asians, Germans, and now Koreans but our own ceo's managers, union shop leaders were taking a dive as well...

This is truly a cluster fuck saga..

[Anonymous]

Prof. Shaiken mentions in passing "The Employee Free Choice Act."

Listeners should understand what that dubious and ironically-named legislation stands for. In part, it stands for "card check," in which union-recognition elections among non-unionized workers are no longer conducted by secret ballot, but instead there is a "card check" in which everyone - your employer, your fellow employees, the very large union agents standing out in the parking lot with baseball bats - EVERYONE; knows whether or not you favor union representation.

To most Americans, the concept sounds like something from Soviet-era Eastern Europe, or Red China. To Democrats in Congress, eager to please their union donors, it sounds like "The Employee Free Choice Act."

It must not pass, and it will not pass as currently proposed. People across the country will soon find out what "The Employee Free Choice Act" is really all about. It is all about Employee Pressured Choice.

[Thrasher]

Nonsense no one is forcing anyone to check off any boxes...More propaganda and disinformation from nobodies who post under Anonymous...