Bargaining for America
Good jobs are worth fighting for
Members of the UAW enter 2003 auto bargaining facing a unique set of challenges: A stagnant economy. A steady decline in unionized manufacturing jobs. A political environment more hostile than ever toward working families. And shrill – but familiar – complaints from industry observers who claim that the cost of UAW-negotiated contracts is too high in today’s competitive automotive marketplace.
In fact, the U.S. auto market has been highly competitive since the industry began 100 years ago. More than 60 years ago, when UAW pioneers organized General Motors, many people argued GM would never be able to operate under the “burden” of a union contract. They were wrong – just as wrong as those who now argue that UAW members are a drag on the 21st century auto industry.
Since the UAW became part of the U.S. auto industry, UAW-represented companies have enjoyed decades of tremendous vitality, benefiting workers, consumers and shareholders. Members of our union played no small part in creating this sustained economic growth.
Good contracts, strong consumers
Contracts negotiated by the UAW and other unions have set a standard that allows American workers to be active consumers, thus creating expanded demand for consumer products. This in turn leads to increased industrial capacity, higher productivity and a continued rise in living standards.
If there has been an interruption in this cycle of wage-led growth in recent years, it’s not because UAW wages are too high. It’s because wages elsewhere are too low.
In today’s global economy, auto companies and other manufacturers have the option of relocating production to countries where independent unions are prohibited by law or by the unethical practices of government and industry. Workers in those countries have no ability to bargain for a better standard of living, and often cannot afford to purchase the products they make.
Their surplus production winds up on U.S. shores, which is why the United States ran up a record-breaking $418 billion trade deficit in 2002. Other countries count on U.S. consumers to absorb their excess production, but this has become increasingly difficult:
- First, the U.S. economy is facing the most sustained period of long-term unemployment since the 1930s.
- Second, those who still have jobs face intense downward pressure on their wages when employers weaken unions and threaten to move jobs to low-wage locations.
- Third, many employers are taking advantage of weak U.S. labor laws to deny the basic, democratic rights that every worker should have: the right to organize and bargain for a better standard of living.
- Finally, many workers are seeing their incomes shrink because employers are shifting health care costs to employees. Such a strategy will never control the cost of health care, nor will it improve the quality of care received by consumers.
These factors are part of the terrain as we prepare to bargain new contracts in the auto industry. The difficulty of our task is matched by the importance of our goals: Improving our safety and quality programs. Enhancing job security for our members. Defending our health care and pension benefits for active as well as retired members.
We will continue to stand up for a decent and enhanced standard of living for American autoworkers. We recognize that the standards negotiated in our contracts affect not just our members but also workers in nonunion auto parts and assembly plants. In bargaining, as well as in the public policy arena, we will continue to advocate for policies that lead to sustainable, wage-led growth for workers, companies and communities.
Bargaining for safety: Nothing is more important to our members than safety on the job. We’ve demanded – and won – an industrywide commitment to reducing workplace hazards. We’ve never accepted the idea that workers have to risk life and limb simply to do their jobs. Our refusal to accept the status quo has led to a meaningful partnership and joint commitment to safety at the Big Three, Delphi and Visteon.
The result has been a sharp decline in work-related injuries and illnesses during the past seven years. The rate of workplace illnesses is dropping 1,100 percent faster in the automotive sector than in private industry as a whole; the rate of workplace injuries is dropping 426 percent faster. (See Health and safety).
Bargaining for quality vehicles: We’ve used our bargaining power to demand – and win – a role for union members to ensure that consumers receive the highest possible quality cars and trucks. We enforce this demand every day on the shop floors of hundreds of UAW-represented auto plants across the United States.
Admittedly the quest for quality in UAW-represented plants is still a work in progress. But we are making progress. Industry observers agree that the gap between quality at the Big Three and other automakers has narrowed significantly. And J.D. Power and the Harbour Report have recognized an ever-growing number of UAW-made vehicles and UAW-represented plants as top performers in their product class. (See Quality and productivity).
Bargaining for job security: UAW auto industry contracts include measures to protect job security, including limits on volume-related layoffs, a moratorium on plant closings and supplemental unemployment benefits (SUB). The job and income security structure of UAW contracts has helped transform the old boom-and-bust cycle of the auto industry. (See Job and income security).
While no labor agreement can totally prevent job loss associated with factors such as reduced market share, the available evidence indicates that the protections in UAW contracts mitigate the extent of job loss when compared to other manufacturing industries where such protections do not exist.
Bargaining for health care: Employer-paid health care for active and retired UAW members at the Big Three, Delphi and Visteon includes a comprehensive range of hospital, surgical, medical, dental and vision care services, including prescription drug coverage. (See Health care).
We believe every American should have access to quality health care. The answer to our national health care crisis is not to shift costs to workers or to decrease the benefits available to our members. It is to create a universal, single-payer national health insurance plan that covers every woman, man and child in the United States.
Bargaining for quality of life: UAW members have bargained some of the best wages and the best pensions available anywhere in American industry. (See Wages and labor costs and Pensions). We have also expanded our horizons to include bargaining for families and communities as well, achieving landmark programs in such areas as support for child care and elder care, tuition assistance and confidential and effective Employee Assistance Programs (EAP).
Bargaining for corporate responsibility: At a time when corporate malfeasance has left hundreds of thousands of workers jobless and/or with depleted life savings, we take pride that our labor agreements have created a balanced relationship between workers and management.
Our members have the opportunity to share in the success experienced by their employers. And after decades of hard work in a demanding industry, they can look forward to a secure retirement with decent health care. Some people look at this relationship and see unmanageable “legacy costs.” We see a legacy of fairness and a legacy of cooperation between labor and management that has benefited both sides.
Our legacy of progress, however, is under attack. Not just because work is moving overseas, but also because a growing share of auto production, both parts and final assembly, is performed in nonunion plants in the United States. These workers earn less – sometimes far less – than UAW members.
Some people think our union's declining share of auto industry production is not a problem anybody outside the UAW has to worry about. We disagree. Our nation's entire economy has benefited from the wage-led growth created by labor agreements in the auto industry and other industrial sectors. But as more manufacturing jobs become nonunion, we see a dangerous spiral heading in the other direction: Cuts in health care. Pensions eliminated. Wages forced down to the point where living standards and the spending ability of consumers to drive the economy are seriously impaired.
In the face of a rapid decline in unionized manufacturing jobs, we are keenly aware that our collective bargaining agenda cannot be separated from public policy issues that affect our members and society at large.
As Walter Reuther used to say, the UAW stands for more than “just another nickel in the pay envelope.” We stand for a broad range of quality-of-life issues that help build safer workplaces, stronger families and a more equitable society.
In the present era, it’s simply not possible for our union to protect the jobs, incomes and benefits of UAW members unless we join with others to address the circumstances faced by tens of millions of workers who are not part of the labor movement. A worker-friendly agenda for the 21st century requires a universal, single-payer health insurance plan. Equally important, we need fair-trade policies that boost wages and protect the environment in all countries, and a renewed defense of the right to organize here in the United States.
Our challenges in the public policy arena are just as difficult as those we face at the bargaining table. We take comfort in recalling that decades ago, many people predicted workers could never organize the U.S. auto industry, or that if we did, we would drive our employers out of business. We proved the skeptics wrong then. We’ve made a habit of doing so ever since, and we look forward to proving them wrong once again.
