UAW Reality-Check

A New York Times story, which is related to the previous post on the Delphi buy-outs, reports on statements made by UAW president Ron Gettelfinger during the union's convention.  In describing the bleak outlook for the auto industry in the near future, Gettelfinger points the finger of blame at bad management, declining auto sales, and auto workers' generous health-care benefits.  That's right, the UAW president stated that health-care payments--benefits that many unions, including the UAW, have fought tooth-and-nail to protect (think the grocery strike in California among many other examples)--were one of the structural challenges facing the industry.  According to the NY Times, Gettelfinger said that:

    The situation facing the companies is "unlike any we have faced in the past" . . . and the extensive   
    health care benefits for union members and retirees, coupled with Detroit's declining fortunes, had
    created a situation that was "unsustainable" — a reason the U.A.W. [recently] agreed to . . .
    benefit concessions.  "That reality was painful, but it was the reality," Mr. Gettelfinger said in the
    report.  Further, he argued, "We can be proud that our union doesn't shy away from making tough
    calls and even prouder of our members' willingness to make sacrifices for those who preceded them
    and those who will follow."

The article notes that Gettelfinger's comments were intended, in part, to defend the UAW's recent concessions, which he described as "probably the most difficult backward step to take in the history of our union," and to prepare the membership for more such concessions in the future.  However, as also noted, this type of honesty about economic realities is apparently a Gettelfinger hallmark, and a refreshing one at that.  It is rarely in a union's best interests to help sink an employer and this degree of forthrightness makes bargaining with employers and getting the membership to go along far less difficult.

Prof. Gary Chaisson from Clark University is quoted extensively.

-JH