Sept. 25, 2007

Transcript of UAW News Conference

Ron Gettelfinger takes questions from the media at a news conference at Solidarity House.

The following is the transcript of the UAW news conference held at Solidarity House, Detroit, at 12:15 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 24, 2007.

Good afternoon everyone, I am Ron Gettelfinger with the UAW. Of course you know Vice President Cal Rapson, and we have all of our national negotiating committee here. The first thing I want to do is applaud our national negotiators for the long hours and dedication and commitment and the hard work they put in to trying to reach an equitable agreement with the General Motors Corporation. As you are aware, we opened negotiations with DaimlerChrysler on July 20. On July 23 we opened negotiations with General Motors and then we proceeded to Ford Motor Company.

As we got closer to Labor Day, it became apparent to us that we thought the best place for us to go to get a contract was General Motors, and immediately after Labor Day we started moving more and more in that direction. And I just want to step back and say to you that going into these negotiations, if we go back to the `03 national negotiations our membership took the line item off the cost of living, which amounted to 8 cents an hour at the end of the contract. Additionally we gave up an immediate 2 cents per quarter that continues to this day. Additionally, we worked with General Motors on every issue that came before them. In `05 we worked out the VEBA to help them with their health care obligation that’s $18 billion right down, $3 billion in annualized expenses and a billion dollars in cash. Additionally, we worked with them on an attrition program and their restructuring announcement, and just as importantly we worked through the issues at Delphi.

We were very disappointed in this round of negotiations to discover as we moved forward that it was a one-way set of negotiations. It was going to be General Motors’ way at the expense of the workers. We honestly believed that when we got to the contract expiration date and then we extended the contract, that General Motors would come to the bargaining table and work hard with us to get an agreement. They gave us every reason to believe that would happen.

On Thursday night we had a meeting with them wherein we made it clear that we expected to see movement on the subcommittees. There had been a lot of talk and a lot of leading up to what was going on.

From Thursday night when we had that discussion until Friday night the company moved on one issue and that was the issue where they had put a cap on profit sharing, and in that period of time that was the only issue. And we knew then that we were headed to a difficult conclusion to these negotiations. We continued to meet with the company over the weekend. We went in early yesterday morning — I think yesterday was Sunday — yesterday morning, and we stayed all night. We worked all night; we worked up until the deadline.  As you are aware, we did give the company a deadline on Sunday night and we said it was a firm deadline, that this bargaining committee was here to represent their membership and that we would not deviate from that deadline. The company walked right up to the deadline like they really didn’t care. And as a result of that we called a strike at 11 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time this morning.

 

Ron Gettelfinger's responses to questions from news media:

And we were going to go back and see if the company has indicated they want to meet. They contacted Vice President Cal Rapson and we will be going back to the bargaining table today. However, the frame of mind we’re in right now, we would expect that the company would move rather expeditiously on the open issues that are in front of us. As we discovered more and more as these negotiations progressed, it has to be a two-way street. The company was willing to meet as long as we were willing to give them something. But when it comes to them giving something back, it becomes more and more difficult. So from our standpoint we are ready to go in and wrap this strike up and wrap and conclude these negotiations.

* * *

Job security is very important to us, and without going into the specifics that is one of the major open items.

* * *

Let me be very clear: The VEBA is a permissive subject of bargaining. This strike is not about the VEBA in any way, shape or form. But since you raised the VEBA I would like to point out a couple of things. To this day I am puzzled why General Motors walked away from the VEBA in ’05. We have not really gone out and talked about it publicly but we proposed a VEBA to them that would relieve them of their OPEB obligation. They did not want it and chose to go with a smaller VEBA. Had they had taken that then it would be over $2 billion a year and around $1,000 a vehicle, somewhere in that neighborhood. Why they didn’t take it then I don’t know because that was our proposal to them. So they did raise the VEBA this time and we were more than eager to discuss it aside from the mandatory subjects of collective bargaining.

* * *

We feel like we have made a lot of progress. We put that out in writing but there are tough issues that we have to address and we expected those issues to be addressed. This bargaining committee and Vice President Cal Rapson were more than responsible — took very responsible positions. From our standpoint the company viewed these negotiations as one-way.

* * *

Well, I don’t think our retirees have any reason for concern, and in fact, had the VEBA come about, that would even have been more security for them from our standpoint. But, again, if I were a retiree I wouldn’t be concerned at this point in time.

* * *

Active workers, we are in there negotiating on their behalf and when this strike is concluded we will reach a fair and equitable agreement for them.

* * *

Let me just make one thing clear, so we are very clear: This strike is in no way about VEBA discussions.

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We have no intention of removing the workers off the picket line.

* * *

We have always talked about that, John, and I just went through from what we did from ’03 up until now and I could go back before then. Obviously we are very concerned about this company. And I just remind everybody here, in ’05 in the middle of a contract, we went in and negotiated a VEBA that helped that corporation. We’ve worked on the attrition program, we have done a lot of things to help that company. But look, there comes a point in time where you have got to draw a line in the sand and we were most responsible throughout these negotiations. What went on in the bargaining room will stay in the bargaining room. We will go back and iron it out there or slug it out or whatever it takes to get there.

* * *

You look at safety, look at quality, look at productivity and what our membership has done for that corporation. In fact, I think the corporation is number three when it comes to safety, safety in the country. I believe maybe DuPont and Alcoa, and then they would be third. And GE may be in there, and I am not sure whether they would be third or fourth. But that’s one area. But then everything else that the workers have done: They have given up the 3 percent annual wage increase in ’06 — those kinds of things. The COLA diversions. All of those things add up. But it does seem odd to us that as much as workers do, workers can’t do enough. And as much as executives get, they cannot get enough. So that’s kind of like where we are at in that regard.

* * *

We just said earlier that the number one issue here is job security. That’s one of our primary concerns. We are talking about investment, we are talking about job creation, we are talking about product being committed into the plant. We are also talking about what our workers deserve out of this contract from an economic standpoint. We are also fighting to preserve workers’ benefits. So there’s a number of issues that are out there and that’s what we would want our membership to know.

* * *

We made a commitment throughout negotiations that we wouldn’t go public with it. We enjoyed reading some of the stories; occasionally they were way off the mark. But by the same token we felt like collective bargaining is best done in the bargaining room.

* * *

Our membership does have a right to know. We will drafting communications that will get out into the local unions. In fact we will try to get this done as soon as we conclude this press conference. So we do owe our membership that, but I want to mention this about our membership. They have been most patient, most supportive, they show 100 percent confidence in our bargaining committee. This is nothing that we wanted. Nobody wins in a strike. But there comes a point in time where somebody can push you off a cliff and that’s exactly what happened here.

* * *

There have been a few moments where it might have been a little bit tense at the bargaining table but we think our way through.  The bargaining committee has input in what we do, Vice President Cal Rapson and our International Executive Board. So we just knew Friday that things didn’t look good, but we knew were weren’t going to strike over the weekend. And when we didn’t see any more progress than what we did over the weekend, that’s when we made the decision at that point in time to give the company a deadline, with the hope — and I guess the naive belief — that they were serious about negotiating a contract.  But they made it very clear as we moved closer to that deadline that they had no intentions of sitting down and working out something that was equitable for our membership.

* * *

Our goal right now is to get back to the bargaining table at General Motors and try to bring, as quickly as we can, a resolve to this situation that we are in right now.

* * *

I think we owe our membership an answer to why they are out there. And we love the news media and we know that you guys have been kind of chomping at the bit to get some stories so you can help us communicate with our membership, so that’s really why we are here today. But we do…look, this is as serious as anything that any of us do, There is not person on this stage, not one member of our International Executive Board, not one member of our staff that wanted to see these negotiations end in a strike. Who wins in a strike? But again you can be pushed off a cliff, and that’s what we feel like happened here.

* * *

Setting the VEBA totally aside, we were under no obligation at all to discuss that and the `05 settlement took us through to 2012. So again, when the company approached us about discussing it, we were most willing to do that. But, again, this strike has nothing to do with that VEBA.

* * *

We are on strike, we stand ready 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to go back to the bargaining table. However, we intend for those discussion to be productive if we do go back.

* * *

We will go back after this press conference. And we are serious: If they want to sit down and talk about resolving this issue, this bargaining committee, Vice President Rapson, myself and our staff we are ready to go. You get energized after a while. You stay up, you kind of get your second wind and you are ready to go, so as soon as we are done here we will head back over. And I think we are getting ready to get done. You have to make decisions based on the facts, based on the circumstances in which you find yourself.

* * *

We extended this contract going into our tenth day. Never before in the history of this union have we extended a contract that long. We extended it on an hour-by-hour basis.  So do we consider this serious? Yes we do. Did we want to strike? Absolutely not. But there comes a point in time where you have to draw the line. You can only be pushed so far. We were pushed into a strike and that’s where we are at.