At
the June 2010 convention of the United Auto Workers (UAW)
it is anticipated that current Vice President Bob King will
be elected president of the union. King, with the reputation
in many circles of being a progressive, is confronted with
some dramatic choices with a union in dire circumstances.
The United Auto Workers, in the late 1970s, commenced a process
of retreat. It was a retreat both from a bold external
approach toward societal change that transcended the formal
union movement, but also a retreat within its core industries—the
automobile industry in particular (with the membership dropping
from approximately 600,000 auto workers to approximately
120,000)—based on an entire philosophy that associated concessions
to employers with something they called “partnership.”
With each concession, the leadership of the union assured
the membership that a closer relationship with the Big Three
employers (Ford, GM, Chrysler) was improving. With each
concession, however, the circumstances facing the younger
workers and the newer workers worsened.
When the UAW made the dramatic concession, just a few years
ago (2007), to assume healthcare, pension and unemployment
responsibilities for its members through a mechanism known
as the Voluntary Employee Beneficiary Association (VEBA),
there was a gasp from auto worker activists and their allies.
This meant that the liability no longer fell to the auto
industry but, instead, fell to the union. In fact, if the
VEBA collapses, it is speculated that as many as one million
auto company retirees could lose their health coverage.
Former UAW President Doug Fraser was reported as saying,
at the time of the agreement, that he prayed that there
would not be a major economic downturn, otherwise, the UAW
itself would be unable to cover the costs of the VEBA.
To put it another way, the UAW was walking through a minefield
blindfolded.
By the way, a major economic downturn took place less than
a year later, for those who did not notice, and every auto
worker has his/her fingers crossed.
The UAW has been generally unsuccessful in developing an
organizing strategy. While foreign auto makers have established
manufacturing plants in the USA in order to get cheap, non-union
labor, the UAW has not constructed an approach that takes
into account the strategy of the auto makers. These auto
companies, e.g., BMW, Toyota, have moved to non-union areas
of the USA, particularly the South and, despite often being
unionized in their home countries, have gone out of their
way to convince workers that unionization will be contrary
to the interests of the workforce. So far this has succeeded.
The UAW has done precious little to reach out to African
American communities in the South, for instance, and turn
their unionization campaigns into broader campaigns for
economic justice.
Instead, the UAW has been distracted with organizing targets
that are not key to their core industries (auto, aerospace,
farm instruments). Three examples that come to mind are
teacher assistants at universities, casino workers and public
sector workers. While these groups desperately need unions,
it is far from clear why the UAW should be using limited
resources organizing these workers rather than concentrating
on organizing the millions of manufacturing workers who
still are very much part of the US economy, including but
not limited to workers in the auto parts sector.
If/when Bob King is elected he will have to make a number
of decisions. Will he preside over the slow but continued
death of a union that was, at one point, one of the most
dynamic unions on the US scene? In the alternative, will
he chart a new course? Is the philosophy of concessions
and partnership so central to the culture of the UAW, or
is there a consensus that exists to make a break in the
direction toward active and broad-based struggle?
As I watched the attacks on the auto industry in 2008 – 2009,
and the manner in which the political Right dismissed the
notion of economic aid to this industry while they were
quite silent about assisting the financial industry (at
least initially) it led me to understand one thing and question
another. What I understood was that the political Right
was attacking the auto industry not because of any contempt
that they had for the GM, Ford and Chrysler Boards of Directors,
but rather their contempt for the workforce. The auto industry,
at least the Big 3, is too unionized and has too many workers
of color to warrant any sort of governmental assistance,
as far as the political Right is concerned.
Yet here was my question. In the face of the attacks that
the auto workers were receiving, including but not limited
to attacks on the UAW, why did the UAW not mobilize? Why
were there no major demonstrations in cities with auto plants?
Why did the UAW not march on the offices of the right-wing
politicians who were prepared to consign the auto industry
to death? What was the UAW waiting for? Had the philosophy
of concessions and “partnership” so permeated the union
that they had concluded that resistance was futile?
Bob King may be the last chance for the UAW. If he is prepared
to take the union in a different direction, he will need
allies. He will need forces outside of the UAW who will
support a more activist and confrontational UAW. But he
will also need these forces, including but not limited to
community-based organizations, as real partners rather than
friends of the moment.
I am not sure that I even want to speculate on the future
of the UAW if King decides to go the ‘safe’ route. The
‘safe’ route is one that might protect the bureaucracy of
the UAW—at least for a while—but it is one that ensures
that auto workers will continue their decent into economic
hell.
BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board member, Bill Fletcher,
Jr., is a Senior Scholar with the Institute
for Policy Studies,
the immediate past president of TransAfrica Forum and co-author
of, Solidarity Divided: The Crisis in Organized Labor and a New Path
toward Social Justice (University of California Press), which examines the crisis
of organized labor in the USA. Click here to contact Mr. Fletcher. |
Jun
3, 2010 - Issue 378
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