Union Stupidity

[otterinbham 0]

DETROIT - United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger kicked off his union's bargaining convention Tuesday with a warning for companies: Just because we've cooperated in the past, don't take that as a sign of weakness.

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In a speech at the start of the two-day national bargaining convention in downtown Detroit, Gettelfinger said the union will fight companies at the bargaining table, in politics and "if need be on the picket line."

Addressing 1,500 members from multiple industries who will help set the union's overall bargaining priorities, a defiant Gettelfinger said the union does not want to strike, but will if necessary.

"We will do what we have to do," he said. "Make no mistake about it. Collective bargaining is not collective begging."

The convention delegates, from more than 800 UAW locals in the U.S. and Canada, weren't expected to get into the nitty-gritty of what will be discussed with individual companies.

Still, crucial contract talks with the Detroit Three automakers loom. They begin officially this summer, although meetings already have started. The national UAW contract with automakers expires in September.

In his speech, Gettelfinger acknowledged that the UAW has faced continued challenges since its last bargaining convention in 2002, citing DaimlerChrysler AG's February announcement that it would consider selling its U.S.-based Chrysler unit.

"We have equity and hedge funds circling our head as never before," he said of potential buyers for Chrysler.

Gettelfinger accused the funds of "stripping and flipping" companies they buy.

"Our union is on guard to protect the best interests of our membership," he said.

But it was concessions of the past, and potentially of the future, that rankled some union members. Outside the convention center where Gettelfinger spoke, about 20 members and retirees carried signs in protest.

One delegate, Mike Parker, a worker at Chrysler's Sterling Heights assembly plant, made a motion to change Wednesday's agenda to set aside time for organizing local leaders to fight back against companies that are demanding concessions plant by plant.

"The problem is the locals are being left to bargain by themselves in dealing with the companies," he said in an interview.

The motion was shot down by a voice vote, but others made similar speeches about zero concessions and bringing an end to a two-tier wage scale in which new hires are paid far less than older workers.

One of the picketers, Martin Shawl, 53, a 28-year Delphi Corp. and General Motors Corp. worker from Bay City, said he doesn't believe the Detroit automakers are in financial trouble.

"It's voodoo accounting," he said, questioning the timing of the Chrysler Group's losses and GM's restatement of earnings due to accounting troubles.

He said the union shouldn't give back anything to the companies.

The UAW's main employers — GM, Chrysler and Ford Motor Co. — have lost billions during the past two years and are expected to demand major concessions from the UAW in contract talks this summer.

Among the issues are health care costs for active and retired workers, wages, work rules and the jobs bank, in which laid-off workers get most of their pay.

Gettelfinger said nothing directly Tuesday about potential concessions to auto companies, although he said the union would not respond to rumors or speculation from analysts and others about what the UAW should do.

He also called for universal health care for all, as well as for fair trade agreements.

"It would be a grave mistake to equate our actions to capitulation," he said of cooperation with employers in the past.

Although there were vocal calls to play hardball with the Detroit Three, others on the convention floor said concessions may be necessary in certain circumstances.

Darren Burgy, 32, a worker at a Jamestown Industries Inc. plant that supplies bumpers to a nearby GM plant in Lordstown, Ohio, said givebacks may be necessary to keep jobs.

GM has not said if the Lordstown plant will have a car to build when production of the Chevrolet Cobalt and Pontiac G5 ceases after the 2009 model year, and analysts say it is a big bargaining chip for the company.

"If there's no car in the next year, then there's no work for my plant, either," Burgy said. "We realize we're probably going to have to give a couple of things back."

Mark Caruso, who leads a UAW local at a former Ford and Visteon Corp. plant in Saline that is now part of a holding company awaiting sale or closure, said the union has to pick its battles.

"I would only be willing to give up what is necessary to have the company survive," he said.

Caruso and others are upset that companies pay bonuses to executives while losing money and then ask workers to give up pay or benefits.

Others called for the UAW to renew efforts to organize U.S. plants run by Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co., where the UAW in the past has had little success. Gettelfinger recently announced a drive to do just that.

The convention comes as membership in the union and others nationwide continues to decline.

UAW membership peaked in 1979 at 1.5 million, but has been dropping ever since. The union said it had an average of 576,000 members in 2006, down from 598,000 in 2005.

Last year, the number of unionized workers in the U.S. fell by 326,000 to 15.4 million. Unions represented 12 percent of U.S. workers last year, down from 12.5 percent in 2005.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the union membership rate has dropped steadily from 20.1 percent of the work force in 1983.

[Ranger12 46]

Most unions have outlived their usefulness and they sure the heck are not the same as they were when they were first founded in the early 20th century. These days, the unions are part of the reasons some companies struggle financially, thus causing them to shut down. What good is a union if helps cause unemployment? This article points out how unions refuse to believe they are part of the problem. Instead they want to accuse the company of "voodoo accounting".

I saw firsthand how the union at Goodyear caused it to have to shut down some of its plants. The union there went to far in protecting the hourly employees. It so hard for an hourly employees to get fired that many of them became lazy and did nothing at all during their 12 hours shifts. I actually watched supervisors have to work the lines to make up for the lack of production they were getting from their employees.

I guess there are some unions that still do some good and work well with the management, but those are few and far between now.

[CCTAU 3,345]

Yep. When I read the voodoo accounting thing, I thought "What an idiot." He'll be the first one in line at the unemployment office. Auto companies are coming to the south and paying a good wage for folks to work. If you don't work, the company should have the right to fire you. Unions fight for the wrong employees.

[DKW 86 7,440]

Those quotes are why auto plants are heading to Alabama and other southern states. Those guys are so hopelessly out of touch with reality. Dont get me wrong, I will be the first to say and agree that some of the corporate honchos are horrendously overpaid. BUt to say that Wall Street and the shareholders are all morons and are accepting voo-doo accounting. That is crazy.

Please note that they are quoting GHWB 41. A man I never cast a vote for.

[Ranger12 46]

Yep. When I read the voodoo accounting thing, I thought "What an idiot." He'll be the first one in line at the unemployment office. Auto companies are coming to the south and paying a good wage for folks to work. If you don't work, the company should have the right to fire you. Unions fight for the wrong employees.

My father in law is an enginner and one of the maintenance supervisors out at Delphi here in Decatur, which is one of their plants on the market right now. He will tell you flat out that the wages negotiated by the union is what helped put Delphi in bankruptcy. The thing is that the wages and benefits that the hourly employees made at the plant here in Decatur, were negotiated for the cost of living and competitive wages in the Detroit Michigan area. That is why Delphi employees in Decatur, AL made up to 3-4 times more then the average hourly employee at all the other plants in Decatur. Heck the Decatur employees even got a week off for when deer hunting season started in Michigan, even though it had not started in Alabama yet, because that was negotiated in the union contract. So, Delphin had to blow money on wages and benefits in the Decatur plant that really was not applicable to it.

[Tiger in Spain 0]

Yep. When I read the voodoo accounting thing, I thought "What an idiot." He'll be the first one in line at the unemployment office. Auto companies are coming to the south and paying a good wage for folks to work. If you don't work, the company should have the right to fire you. Unions fight for the wrong employees.

My father in law is an enginner and one of the maintenance supervisors out at Delphi here in Decatur, which is one of their plants on the market right now. He will tell you flat out that the wages negotiated by the union is what helped put Delphi in bankruptcy. The thing is that the wages and benefits that the hourly employees made at the plant here in Decatur, were negotiated for the cost of living and competitive wages in the Detroit Michigan area. That is why Delphi employees in Decatur, AL made up to 3-4 times more then the average hourly employee at all the other plants in Decatur. Heck the Decatur employees even got a week off for when deer hunting season started in Michigan, even though it had not started in Alabama yet, because that was negotiated in the union contract. So, Delphin had to blow money on wages and benefits in the Decatur plant that really was not applicable to it.

and it is the unions raising holy hell about jobs being outsourced. Who can blame the companies for this? Why pay Billy Bob American $25 an hour to do a $12 an hour job. It makes no economic sense whatsoever.

These union fat cats are the ones putting the American worker into the unemployment lines. They have long outlived their usefullness, but for the lazy worker, there is no better friend. It takes a very special kind of idiot to get fired when you're a union man.

[Ranger12 46]

and it is the unions raising holy hell about jobs being outsourced. Who can blame the companies for this? Why pay Billy Bob American $25 an hour to do a $12 an hour job. It makes no economic sense whatsoever.

These union fat cats are the ones putting the American worker into the unemployment lines. They have long outlived their usefullness, but for the lazy worker, there is no better friend. It takes a very special kind of idiot to get fired when you're a union man.

I be dang! I can't believe that a swabbie and me have the exact same opinion on something. Who would have thunk it?

[Tiger in Spain 0]

Unions are da debil. Now go back to bed, Craig.

[Ranger12 46]

Unions are da debil. Now go back to bed, Craig.

I woke up just because I knew you would be online right now Glen. But, I think I am going to do as you say and go back to sleep. I can get in another hours worth before Monica has to wake up.