Las Vegas – United Auto Workers president Ron Gettelfinger had a message Monday for those who say his 71-year-old union is losing its way, its will and its solidarity in the face of a historic downsizing of the domestic auto industry: The UAW isn’t going anywhere.
While acknowledging that the challenges facing his union are unlike any in the past, Gettelfinger said the UAW remains committed to protecting workers from forces that threaten to dismantle decades of hard-fought union gains.
“We’re not going to surrender,” Gettelfinger told 1,300 cheering delegates at the UAW’s 34th convention. “We’re not going to lower our sights, give up our dreams or give up our fight for a better world for our children and grandchildren.”
But, he said, the UAW may have to do more to help the U.S. auto industry restructure to compete against fast-growing foreign rivals.
“Like it or not, these challenges aren’t the kind that can be ridden out,” Gettelfinger said. “They demand new and farsighted solutions – and we must be an integral part of developing those solutions.”
The dueling messages – calling for both defiance and compromise – highlight the perilous tightrope Gettelfinger will have to walk as he prepares to enter a second four-year term atop one of the nation’s largest industrial unions.
Not only does he have to appease the members who put him in office and be true to the union’s history, he must grapple with how to help UAW employers compete in a global economy.
That balancing act is echoed in the theme of the UAW convention this week: “Honoring our past, forging our future.”
And it is on the minds of the hundreds of union delegates in Las Vegas, creating an undercurrent of anxiety at the convention, which wraps up Thursday. Gettelfinger’s “state of the union” speech came amid an unprecedented downsizing of the U.S. auto industry.
General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. have announced plans to cut 60,000 jobs and close all or part of two dozen U.S. factories in the next few years. Bankrupt auto supplier Delphi Corp. may eliminate another 20,000 jobs. Many other industries with UAW-represented workers – from aerospace to agriculture – also have struggled in recent years.
Since 2000, the union has lost 160,000 jobs in the automotive-parts industry alone, a loss that last year helped bring UAW membership to just under 600,000, down from its 1979 peak of 1.5 million members.
Despite the head winds, the UAW can emerge from this period as a healthier union better equipped for the decades ahead, said Harley Shaiken, a labor professor at the University of California, Berkeley.
“This is potentially a point of renewal, rather than defeat for the union,” Shaiken said. “It’s a crisis, and a crisis can mean opportunity as well as catastrophe.”
While Gettelfinger said organizing efforts have brought in 66,000 new members in the past four years, the gains have not been enough to offset the losses.
The full frontal assault has created a sense of helplessness among many union members.
“Things that once seemed rock solid – jobs we’ve done and done well, the retirement and health-care coverage we’ve earned, our right to a collective voice in our workplace – are threatened by many corporate CEOs, right-wing politicians and anti-union groups,” Gettelfinger said.
“What’s at stake is more than just our paychecks and benefits,” he said. “What’s at stake is our shared vision of an America that lives up to its promise of freedom, opportunity, dignity and social and economic justice for all.”
That idea is under attack from Bush administration policies that allow free trade with countries that manipulate their currencies and shortchange workers, weaken union organizing efforts and exclude millions of Americans from access to health insurance, Gettelfinger said. He urged union members to be active in midterm congressional elections this year with a goal of unseating the Republican majority.
With U.S. automakers struggling, the UAW last fall agreed to historic midcontract concessions on health-care costs at Ford and GM. The landmark deal will shift more medical expenses to hourly retirees and ask active workers to forgo future pay raises to help pay for their medical care.
Though Gettelfinger called it the “most painful decision I’ve had to make as your president,” the UAW may be asked to swallow deeper cuts at Delphi, the bankrupt auto supplier that was spun off from GM in 1999.
Delphi wants deep wage cuts and plans to close or sell 21 of its 29 U.S. factories.
Gettelfinger also took a shot at Ford and GM for laying off thousands of workers as part of broader restructuring plans.
“As we’ve said many times, these companies cannot downsize their way to profitability,” he said.
The fiery speech, frequently interrupted by applause and a handful of standing ovations, was what Craig Jeffrey wanted to hear.
“I agreed with everything he had to say,” said the 46-year-old delegate. “We have to come tighter as a people and as a workforce. If we don’t, they’re going to bring the Third World to us.”
