Don't Let Them Destroy Our Union
by Frank Hammer
As the fate of the Detroit auto industry is being debated, the arguments and
positions are becoming crystal clear. There is now a chorus of right wing
ideologues who are pushing to let GM go into bankruptcy. No argument here
about "too big to fail." No regard for consequences like we heard when the
Congress approved the $700 billion stash for the banking and financial
industries. The Detroit Three are accused of mismanagement at a crescendo much
louder than the financial giants we had to save. Why the double standard?
The reluctance to bail out GM and the other Detroit automakers has everything
to do with the UAW, as if the impending collapse is the fault of the workers at
the bottom of the heap. The "free market" types want to use the current auto
industry crisis to force a "restructuring" of the companies' "relationships"
- principally with the UAW. We hear a chorus about "bloated UAW contracts",
contract terms that "GM can't live with," or references to "overpaid"
autoworkers, etc. Never mind that just one year ago UAW autoworkers agreed to
huge concessions in what President Ron Gettelfinger describes as a
"transformative agreement" (for which, in the Detroit media, he was heralded
"man of the year."). That agreement, according to Gettelfinger, was designed
to make the UAW labor force cheaper than their non-union brethren at Honda,
Toyota, etc. This from a once proud union which set the industry standard.
Before the 2007 agreements were negotiated, the average total UAW labor cost
per vehicle was $2,400, or a little over 8% of the price of a vehicle. UAW
workers then were among the most productive in the world, producing value added
worth $206 per worker per hour. This is far more than he or she was earning in
wages, even when benefits, statutory contributions and other costs are
included. The margin of difference in labor costs with non-union Toyota before
the transformative agreement was already then just $250-$300!
Autoworker Healthcare
The free marketers also complain about the "lavish" costs of autoworker
healthcare, obscuring the fact that the UAW accepted all the risk for their
retirees' health care when it agreed - to a "Voluntary Employee Beneficiary
Association," or VEBA at the Big Three's behest. To the forces which have
conspired for many years to establish a "union-free" domestic auto industry,
none of these concessions matter.
One of the reasons the free marketers love the non-union auto companies in the
Sunbelt is that they have no retiree pensions and healthcare obligations to
speak of. They ascribe this to the fact that they are "union-free." Unlike
the mature domestics, the newer plants erected in the South don't have many
retirees - at least not yet. The advocates of pure capitalism wish that the
domestics would cut free their retirees who, in their eyes, don't add value to
the corporate bottom line. Never mind that we retirees are now being swindled
of the companies' part of the bargain. The Detroit 3 got the value they wanted
from our decades of labor, but now the health care coverage that we got in
return…well, that's now another story.
The UAW in the Bullseye
Here are two quotes from the free marketers which make the real target of the
crisis very clear:
It is a mistake to use part of the $700-billion rescue package to reward
high-tax, non-right-to-work states such as Michigan, says Peter Flaherty,
President of the National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC). The automaker
bailout is actually a UAW bailout. The union will not allow companies to
deploy capital in ways that the market would dictate, such as closing plants
and layoffs."
The facts demonstrate how preposterous the last line is, considering the
absence of any protest by the UAW over the past twenty years of plant closures!
Here's what Colorado's "Grand Junction Sentinel" had to say:
"But the GM jalopy needs a complet e overhaul, and putting taxpayer funds into
the company as it now operates would do little but bump the problems down the
road while keeping destructive United Auto Workers union contracts in place."
"Destructive" UAW contracts, indeed!!! The deregulators are not satisfied to
dismantle government regulations so the financial market can run wild. They
must rid industries of contractual obligations negotiated by that other
democratic institution: workers' unions. The "destructive" contracts of which
they speak have protected many lives in the factories, enabled workers to enjoy
a good standard of living, and retire with dignity and security. Now this has
been made out to be un-American, even un-patriotic. "Joe Six-pack" is back to
being the villain. If these capitalists had their way, workers in Detroit will
be making the same wages paid in Mexico. That way, the remaining work could
stay here.
"Union Busting"
The financial catastrophe unfolding before our eyes is the means to thrusting a
dagger in what's left of the UAW's heart, long sought by American capital.
From the moment that autoworkers forced GM to sign an agreement in the midst of
the last "Great Depression," the union has been vilified as the interloper in
the company's prerogatives. Except today we in the UAW are now described as
interfering with the real wages that the "free market" would and should deliver
- as if the "free market" were ordained and ordered by God Himself.
Each time the de-regulators have insisted on more de-regulation, it's been like
a crazy man pouring more gasoline on the already raging fire. It's only making
the financial crisis worse. Credit may flow again, but how many of the working
poor will be taking out loans for, say, a new car or a house? What will
trashing the UA W contracts get us? Fewer people to purchase the cars we
produce? More citizens confronted with foreclosures and being kicked out of
their homes? Even fewer sales at the local Mall? We are heading for a second
New Orleans (without the flood water) in the place once known as the "Arsenal
of Democracy?" This is the same mentality that governed the US military's
conduct in Vietnam: "destroying villages in order to save them."
UAW Must do More
The union must stand up for itself, or we will all face millions more of
so-called "low wage" earners as part of the growing class of the "working
poor." The UAW has done very well by the rest of US workers, even if they
don't know it. The media has pounded the UAW, taking advantage of flaws in its
organization and errors by its leadership. Not surprisingly, there's less
sympathy for the UAW than there once was. But it would be a tragic error if
working people turned their backs on the UAW now. Even the non-union workers
in Kentucky and Tennessee are benefiting from the wage and benefit standards
set in Detroit by the UAW. With a UAW diminished - whether by (a) the fine
print in a bailout agreement or (b) because GM is allowed to file for
bankruptcy - the devastating consequences will serve to even further
undermine the standards enjoyed by all working people.
This week UAW President Ron Gettelfinger is testifying in Congress to beg the
case of the auto companies and the UAW before unsympathetic Republican Senators
representing so-called "right-to-work" states. Apparently Alabama Senator
Richard Shelby and his friends think it's quite patriotic to have the foreign
brands produce, and make the profits, from the transportation that the USA
needs. There is a political subtext to all this, too. President-elect Obama's
victory was due in large part to the crescent of blue states stretching from
Minnesota through Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania right up to the tip of Maine.
Don't forget Michigan, where autoworkers rejected McCain/Palin and sent their
campaign scurrying. Why would Republicans now reward a hostile constituency,
when their remaining political base weaves itself through non-union workplaces
in America's "Sunbelt?"
With their younger workforces, the foreign brands manufactured here admittedly
enjoy a distinct advantage. The UAW agreed in the '07 negotiations to help the
Detroit automakers be "competitive" by freeing them of the responsibility of
the "legacy costs" of retiree healthcare with the VEBA in 2010. It's not been
a year, and it's already clear that it is a non-starter, as the automakers have
yet to pay into the trust fund as had been agreed. Besides, the value of the
Detroit Three's payments into the trust are tied to the value of their stocks.
GM's has plummeted from $42 to $5 in the year since the agreement was made. A
$25 billion "bridge loan" for all three companies can't shore up both the VEBA
commitments and the companies' need for liquidity. It is politically untenable
for the union to ask taxpayers to bolster the VEBA when so many workers are
doing without health care at all. If we are looking for real, lasting
solutions that will also help our economy, the parties must demand that
Congress pass HR 676, the single-payer national health insurance bill that
would cover not just UAW retirees, but the 45 million Americans who are doing
without. GM and the UAW agreed in principle to this approach back in 2005
modeled on the health care system in Canada . Making it happen here and now
would level the playing field for the Detroit Three.
This is a defining moment for the UAW, and the entire labor movement. 25
years ago PATCO was crushed by the deregulators' champion in the White House,
Ronald Reagan. Today we are faced with a much larger devastation at the hands
of the outgoing George W. Bush and his Republican friends. Testimony by the
UAW's chief along with emails a by members and retirees to their
representatives is fine, but it is not enough. We need to put a human face to
the devastation facing UAW members. There should be an imm ediate "media day"
at each of the UAW's regional offices to give workers and retirees a platform
to speak out in defense of their own jobs, pensions and health care. Other
unions, dealers, salaried personnel - you name it - should be invited as
well. There' never been a time when the saying "we're all in this boat
together" has been truer. The leadership should organize a car caravan around
the headquarters of the Detroit 3 or, with the help of the AFL-CIO, organize a
caravan to Washington, D.C. or even Wall St. There's no guarantee to what we
could achieve, but we should nevertheless proclaim, "Not without a fight!" We
are running out of time. Wouldn't having UAW members out in the streets be a
good way to let everybody know that we re not dead?
Frank Hammer is a retired UAW-GM Dept In ternational Representative & Past
President and Chairperson, UAW Local 909, Warren, Michigan
Return to Davey D's Hip Hop Corner
by Frank Hammer
As the fate of the Detroit auto industry is being debated, the arguments and
positions are becoming crystal clear. There is now a chorus of right wing
ideologues who are pushing to let GM go into bankruptcy. No argument here
about "too big to fail." No regard for consequences like we heard when the
Congress approved the $700 billion stash for the banking and financial
industries. The Detroit Three are accused of mismanagement at a crescendo much
louder than the financial giants we had to save. Why the double standard?
The reluctance to bail out GM and the other Detroit automakers has everything
to do with the UAW, as if the impending collapse is the fault of the workers at
the bottom of the heap. The "free market" types want to use the current auto
industry crisis to force a "restructuring" of the companies' "relationships"
- principally with the UAW. We hear a chorus about "bloated UAW contracts",
contract terms that "GM can't live with," or references to "overpaid"
autoworkers, etc. Never mind that just one year ago UAW autoworkers agreed to
huge concessions in what President Ron Gettelfinger describes as a
"transformative agreement" (for which, in the Detroit media, he was heralded
"man of the year."). That agreement, according to Gettelfinger, was designed
to make the UAW labor force cheaper than their non-union brethren at Honda,
Toyota, etc. This from a once proud union which set the industry standard.
Before the 2007 agreements were negotiated, the average total UAW labor cost
per vehicle was $2,400, or a little over 8% of the price of a vehicle. UAW
workers then were among the most productive in the world, producing value added
worth $206 per worker per hour. This is far more than he or she was earning in
wages, even when benefits, statutory contributions and other costs are
included. The margin of difference in labor costs with non-union Toyota before
the transformative agreement was already then just $250-$300!
Autoworker Healthcare
The free marketers also complain about the "lavish" costs of autoworker
healthcare, obscuring the fact that the UAW accepted all the risk for their
retirees' health care when it agreed - to a "Voluntary Employee Beneficiary
Association," or VEBA at the Big Three's behest. To the forces which have
conspired for many years to establish a "union-free" domestic auto industry,
none of these concessions matter.
One of the reasons the free marketers love the non-union auto companies in the
Sunbelt is that they have no retiree pensions and healthcare obligations to
speak of. They ascribe this to the fact that they are "union-free." Unlike
the mature domestics, the newer plants erected in the South don't have many
retirees - at least not yet. The advocates of pure capitalism wish that the
domestics would cut free their retirees who, in their eyes, don't add value to
the corporate bottom line. Never mind that we retirees are now being swindled
of the companies' part of the bargain. The Detroit 3 got the value they wanted
from our decades of labor, but now the health care coverage that we got in
return…well, that's now another story.
The UAW in the Bullseye
Here are two quotes from the free marketers which make the real target of the
crisis very clear:
It is a mistake to use part of the $700-billion rescue package to reward
high-tax, non-right-to-work states such as Michigan, says Peter Flaherty,
President of the National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC). The automaker
bailout is actually a UAW bailout. The union will not allow companies to
deploy capital in ways that the market would dictate, such as closing plants
and layoffs."
The facts demonstrate how preposterous the last line is, considering the
absence of any protest by the UAW over the past twenty years of plant closures!
Here's what Colorado's "Grand Junction Sentinel" had to say:
"But the GM jalopy needs a complet e overhaul, and putting taxpayer funds into
the company as it now operates would do little but bump the problems down the
road while keeping destructive United Auto Workers union contracts in place."
"Destructive" UAW contracts, indeed!!! The deregulators are not satisfied to
dismantle government regulations so the financial market can run wild. They
must rid industries of contractual obligations negotiated by that other
democratic institution: workers' unions. The "destructive" contracts of which
they speak have protected many lives in the factories, enabled workers to enjoy
a good standard of living, and retire with dignity and security. Now this has
been made out to be un-American, even un-patriotic. "Joe Six-pack" is back to
being the villain. If these capitalists had their way, workers in Detroit will
be making the same wages paid in Mexico. That way, the remaining work could
stay here.
"Union Busting"
The financial catastrophe unfolding before our eyes is the means to thrusting a
dagger in what's left of the UAW's heart, long sought by American capital.
From the moment that autoworkers forced GM to sign an agreement in the midst of
the last "Great Depression," the union has been vilified as the interloper in
the company's prerogatives. Except today we in the UAW are now described as
interfering with the real wages that the "free market" would and should deliver
- as if the "free market" were ordained and ordered by God Himself.
Each time the de-regulators have insisted on more de-regulation, it's been like
a crazy man pouring more gasoline on the already raging fire. It's only making
the financial crisis worse. Credit may flow again, but how many of the working
poor will be taking out loans for, say, a new car or a house? What will
trashing the UA W contracts get us? Fewer people to purchase the cars we
produce? More citizens confronted with foreclosures and being kicked out of
their homes? Even fewer sales at the local Mall? We are heading for a second
New Orleans (without the flood water) in the place once known as the "Arsenal
of Democracy?" This is the same mentality that governed the US military's
conduct in Vietnam: "destroying villages in order to save them."
UAW Must do More
The union must stand up for itself, or we will all face millions more of
so-called "low wage" earners as part of the growing class of the "working
poor." The UAW has done very well by the rest of US workers, even if they
don't know it. The media has pounded the UAW, taking advantage of flaws in its
organization and errors by its leadership. Not surprisingly, there's less
sympathy for the UAW than there once was. But it would be a tragic error if
working people turned their backs on the UAW now. Even the non-union workers
in Kentucky and Tennessee are benefiting from the wage and benefit standards
set in Detroit by the UAW. With a UAW diminished - whether by (a) the fine
print in a bailout agreement or (b) because GM is allowed to file for
bankruptcy - the devastating consequences will serve to even further
undermine the standards enjoyed by all working people.
This week UAW President Ron Gettelfinger is testifying in Congress to beg the
case of the auto companies and the UAW before unsympathetic Republican Senators
representing so-called "right-to-work" states. Apparently Alabama Senator
Richard Shelby and his friends think it's quite patriotic to have the foreign
brands produce, and make the profits, from the transportation that the USA
needs. There is a political subtext to all this, too. President-elect Obama's
victory was due in large part to the crescent of blue states stretching from
Minnesota through Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania right up to the tip of Maine.
Don't forget Michigan, where autoworkers rejected McCain/Palin and sent their
campaign scurrying. Why would Republicans now reward a hostile constituency,
when their remaining political base weaves itself through non-union workplaces
in America's "Sunbelt?"
With their younger workforces, the foreign brands manufactured here admittedly
enjoy a distinct advantage. The UAW agreed in the '07 negotiations to help the
Detroit automakers be "competitive" by freeing them of the responsibility of
the "legacy costs" of retiree healthcare with the VEBA in 2010. It's not been
a year, and it's already clear that it is a non-starter, as the automakers have
yet to pay into the trust fund as had been agreed. Besides, the value of the
Detroit Three's payments into the trust are tied to the value of their stocks.
GM's has plummeted from $42 to $5 in the year since the agreement was made. A
$25 billion "bridge loan" for all three companies can't shore up both the VEBA
commitments and the companies' need for liquidity. It is politically untenable
for the union to ask taxpayers to bolster the VEBA when so many workers are
doing without health care at all. If we are looking for real, lasting
solutions that will also help our economy, the parties must demand that
Congress pass HR 676, the single-payer national health insurance bill that
would cover not just UAW retirees, but the 45 million Americans who are doing
without. GM and the UAW agreed in principle to this approach back in 2005
modeled on the health care system in Canada . Making it happen here and now
would level the playing field for the Detroit Three.
This is a defining moment for the UAW, and the entire labor movement. 25
years ago PATCO was crushed by the deregulators' champion in the White House,
Ronald Reagan. Today we are faced with a much larger devastation at the hands
of the outgoing George W. Bush and his Republican friends. Testimony by the
UAW's chief along with emails a by members and retirees to their
representatives is fine, but it is not enough. We need to put a human face to
the devastation facing UAW members. There should be an imm ediate "media day"
at each of the UAW's regional offices to give workers and retirees a platform
to speak out in defense of their own jobs, pensions and health care. Other
unions, dealers, salaried personnel - you name it - should be invited as
well. There' never been a time when the saying "we're all in this boat
together" has been truer. The leadership should organize a car caravan around
the headquarters of the Detroit 3 or, with the help of the AFL-CIO, organize a
caravan to Washington, D.C. or even Wall St. There's no guarantee to what we
could achieve, but we should nevertheless proclaim, "Not without a fight!" We
are running out of time. Wouldn't having UAW members out in the streets be a
good way to let everybody know that we re not dead?
Frank Hammer is a retired UAW-GM Dept In ternational Representative & Past
President and Chairperson, UAW Local 909, Warren, Michigan
Return to Davey D's Hip Hop Corner
