Hardest job in Detroit: Gettelfinger's burden

[nadepalma]

This is the second part of the series that start with this story from yesterday. Now the focus is on Gettelfinger himself - NADP

Source: http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll...606090416/1148

UAW: CAN IT SURVIVE? | SECOND IN A THREE-PART SERIES
Hardest job in Detroit
Gettelfinger's burden: Protect workers, keep Big 3 afloat


There's little doubt United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger -- praised for his pragmatism and work ethic -- will be re-elected to a second four-year term as union chief next week, but the big question is whether he can stanch the loss of jobs, pay and benefits.


The MGM Grand Convention Center in Las Vegas went dead silent as Ron Gettelfinger took the stage as the new president of the United Auto Workers on June 6, 2002.

To many of the 2,000 UAW members gathered, Gettelfinger was an unknown quantity, a soft-spoken Southerner who had headed the union's Ford division.

But as soon as Gettelfinger opened his mouth, the new voice of the UAW emerged. Pounding the podium with his fist, Gettelfinger issued a call to arms that rang through the hall.

"We need to feel the passion of the union movement in our heart," he said. "Each one of us should ask ourselves what is it that we have done to make our union stronger, and we must be honest with ourselves when we answer."

Few question that Gettelfinger has backed up the words of that first speech every brutal day of the last four years. But even his most loyal backers couldn't deny that he has presided over an unprecedented retrenchment of the proud union.

Next week, Gettelfinger will again take the podium at the UAW's 2006 Constitutional Convention in Las Vegas, where he is expected to be re-elected to a second four-year term. And this time, he will be staring at an even more challenging set of issues.

The union's membership has fallen to an all-time low. Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Corp. are cutting 60,000 jobs and closing plants. Bankrupt auto supplier Delphi Corp. is axing another 20,000 positions. Foreign-owned auto plants are thriving in the non-union South, and auto companies of all sizes are relocating factories to Mexico, China and other low-wage countries to dodge U.S. labor costs.

No matter what he does, Gettelfinger's second term -- just as the first -- will see more downsizing of the domestic auto industry. And there will be even greater pressure on him and on the thousands of U.S. auto workers he represents to make unparalleled concessions to help Detroit pull out of its death spiral.

It's easy to see why his position is often called the hardest job in Detroit.

Leader must strike delicate balance

He has to preserve the jobs, wages and benefits his union has fought to achieve over its 71-year history. But he can't be so rigid that he sends the companies off a cliff. And he can't give too much, or he risks losing the backing of his members.

Since he took office in 2002, Gettelfinger has earned a reputation for being both a feisty and principled protector of union workers and a fact-driven pragmatist who will cut a deal when he has to.

But in his next term, he will have to summon a career's worth of experience -- and all the political support he can muster -- to hold together the union at what could be a historic turning point for the labor movement and for the dwindling U.S. auto manufacturing industry.

That such a lofty task falls to a straight-laced former chassis-line repairman from a microscopic farming town in Indiana only deepens the plot and adds to the intrigue around him.

While Gettelfinger's critics say he has gotten too close to management and is more willing to grant concessions than send workers out on the picket line, people who have worked closely with him through the years paint a picture of a fair and hard-working leader committed to doing the right thing.

"The ones of us in the know just thank God every day that he's where he is," said Rocky Comito, president of UAW Local 862, which represents workers at a Ford plant in Louisville, Ky, where Gettelfinger got his start. "I can't imagine how it'd be with someone else there."

In many ways, his humble background and hard-driving ascent through the union's ranks have uniquely prepared him for what lies ahead.

He grew up one of 12 children on a farm in Frenchtown, Ind., a quiet settlement about 20 miles west of Louisville, Ky., so small that it doesn't appear on some maps.

A handful of unionized auto plants sit nearby and the town's best-known landmark is a Catholic church, which helps explain why locals joke that Frenchtown is full of Catholics and Democrats.

Gettelfinger's first exposure to labor unions was through his father, Paul, who took a job a DuPont Co. rubber plant in Louisville to supplement his farming income. But it wasn't until Paul and his co-workers went on strike for better pay that the role of unions hit home with Ron.

After starting his formal education in a two-room schoolhouse, Gettelfinger went on to graduate from Indiana University Southeast in 1976 with a business degree. He would have finished sooner, but he dropped out to join the Marine Reserves when college bills mounted.

Along the way, he also took a job as a chassis-line repairman at a Ford assembly plant in Louisville, taking college courses as he could. And in 1978 he was elected bargaining chairman of the plant.

In that role, he pleaded with Ford not to close the underperforming facility, and won a six-month stay of execution to see if the plant could turn around. With prodding from Gettelfinger, it did and Ford rewarded the efforts by agreeing to build the new Ford Ranger pickup at the plant.

Vigor, hard work won attention

His work ethic, upbeat personality and dogged devotion to the union gained the attention of UAW leaders outside Louisville. And soon he rose to director of Region 3, which represents UAW workers in Kentucky and Indiana.

It was in that job that Douglas Fraser, UAW president from 1977 to 1983, remembers first meeting Gettelfinger. In a car ride from the airport to a speaking engagement, Fraser was struck by Gettelfinger's enthusiasm and vigor.

"My first impression of him was that he was exceedingly hard-working."

Fraser remembers asking Gettelfinger if he was interested in coming to Detroit to work at the union's headquarters. But Gettelfinger turned him down, explaining that he was content where he was.

That's no surprise to Elmer Blankenship, a retired assistant director of UAW Region 3, who worked with Gettelfinger when he was head of UAW Local 862 in Louisville.

"Ron was always happy with the role he was playing," he said. "It was others who were urging him to move up."

After six years as Region 3 director, Gettelfinger in 1998 was elected vice president of the UAW's aerospace and Ford divisions, one of the union's top positions.

Just four years later, he would find himself in the president's office in Detroit, the hand-picked successor to outgoing chief Stephen Yokich.

Straight-laced chief a breed apart

It became clear that Gettelfinger was a different breed of union boss. A devout Catholic and workaholic, who shunned cigarettes and alcohol, frowned on golf outings and took his wife Judy with him on out-of-town trips, he cut a unique profile in the salty organization.

Gettelfinger's reputation for being a straight arrow has been with him from his earliest days in the auto industry, said Steven Stone, benefits representative at Louisville's Local 862, who was on staff when Gettelfinger was local president.

"When you get into an assembly plant, you're going to hear a lot of cursing and joking or whatever," he said. "You never heard that out of Ron. I don't think I even heard a 'dam' from him."

Yet it was Gettelfinger's balanced approach to problem-solving that won him the respect of company executives who have sat across from him at the bargaining table.

"I don't think I've come across a more dedicated protector of the interests of workers than Ron," said Joe Laymon, Ford's group vice president of corporate human resources and labor affairs. "He looks at what is in the best interest of the UAW, even if he may not be around to reap the benefits."

Gettelfinger's endurance during marathon negotiations is also legendary.

SEE FULL ARTICLE AT LINK ABOVE


UAW Vice President Richard Shoemaker, center, and Gettelfinger, in blue shirt, march with union retirees outside General Motors Corp. headquarters in 2003.


Gettelfinger addresses the media in June 2003 at the UAW's Solidarity House in Detroit to state the union would not accept a labor contract that shifts health care costs to workers. That stance has since changed as woes mount industrywide.


General Motors Corp. Chairman and CEO Richard Wagoner, standing from left, Troy Clarke, then GM VP of labor relations, UAW Vice President Richard Shoemaker, and UAW President Ron Gettelfinger are all smiles as they open talks in 2003.

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About this series:

Thursday : As UAW leaders prepare to meet in Las Vegas next week, the union is struggling to hold the line in the face of unprecedented challenges.
Today : Ron Gettelfinger, a tough, pragmatic former line worker, is leading the imperiled union at a time of great change and uncertainty.
Saturday : From Grand Rapids to Kokomo, Ind., a grassroots dissident movement is challenging the direction and leadership of the UAW.

Ron Gettelfinger

Age: 61
Title: President of the UAW since 2002
Career: Joined the UAW in 1964 when he went to work as a chassis line repairman at Ford's Louisville plant. Served on the UAW-Ford bargaining committee in 1987; president of UAW local from 1984 to 1987; chairman of local UAW bargaining committee from 1978 to 1981 and from 1984 to 1987, through the 1984 and 1987 local negotiations. Named director of UAW's Region 3 in 1992, representing UAW members in Indiana and Kentucky. In 1998 was elected vice president of the UAW, in charge of the Ford department; also oversaw bargaining at UAW's aerospace units. Elected UAW president in 2002.
Personal: Indiana University Southeast graduate. Married, two adult children.

Biggest challenges

1. Delphi bankruptcy: The UAW's thorniest issue may be blunting the blow of job and benefit cuts at Delphi, which wants to slash more than 20,000 jobs and trim wages to $12.50 an hour from $27.
2. Contract negotiations: In 2007, the UAW will negotiate new contracts in what are expected to be contentious talks with Detroit's Big Three. The automakers will be pushing for terms to make them more competitive against foreign rivals.
3. Shrinking membership: As U.S. automakers downsize and workers at foreign-owned plants resist organizing, Gettelfinger must effectively manage the shrinking ranks without sacrificing the union's influence and bargaining leverage.
4. Rebuilding the ranks: With membership at an all-time low and poised for further decline, the UAW is actively organizing workers outside the auto industry, a trend that is likely to continue to ensure the union's future.

[mbukukanyau]

Tell your people the truth.. In a global economy, you cannot compete with $2.00 a day Chinese and Indian Engineering graduates on the factory floor..

[nadepalma]

At the end of the day, however, it may all just be shouting into the wind. Despite Ron Gettelfinger's best efforts, he may be helpless to protect a way of life that has already begun to fade away.

You have to respect Gettelfinger for sticking to his guns, etc. -- but this last line of the article says it all. As we debated yesterday in the first part of this series, the Union MUST change or it's all over for the UAW. They've fought and fought for every inch they've recieved from management, but it's a whole new world today and they must conceed some points or be relegated to the history books.

[nadepalma]

Originally Posted by mbukukanyau

Tell your people the truth.. In a global economy, you cannot compete with $2.00 a day Chinese and Indian Engineering graduates on the factory floor..

I agree you -- but he'd argue that if it wasn't for globalism and liberal trade policies that try create economic zones like NAFTA or CAFTA or bi-lateral free trade with Australia, etc. we wouldn't be in this mess. I don't buy that, but that would be what he'd argue. And to the general public and union workers who really don't understand international trade or how markets work (not that I'm an expert), it's much easier to blame those policies than fully explain the reality of the situation.

In a political context I find this whole thing kinda amusing.

[McG]

For the UAW, it's all over but the cryin'.

[Havasavana]

Originally Posted by nadepalma

You have to respect Gettelfinger for sticking to his guns, etc. -- but this last line of the article says it all. As we debated yesterday in the first part of this series, the Union MUST change or it's all over for the UAW. They've fought and fought for every inch they've recieved from management, but it's a whole new world today and they must conceed some points or be relegated to the history books.

I think it's $12.50 an hour Miller has said he wants the workers to accept; at least very close to that. How does that compare to the cost of labor in China or even Mexico? There is simply no way a person in the US with US cost of living can compete with workers in the lowest cost areas of the world. Unless we have national policies and laws leveling the 'playing field', the erosion of jobs here will continue and expand up the skill ladder. IBM announced within the last few days that it will triple its investment in India within the next three years. IBM now employs 46,000 people in India and 125,000 in the US. The article stated: "IBM executives said the company will invest in new software labs and centers that develop products and services as well as test and deliver them to customers." So these are not menial jobs and will surely result in many well educated and skilled people in the US being let go. In the auto industry it's been mostly blue collar so far, but design will go too unless something is done.

Someday someone will look back on this period and wonder why no meaningful action was taken on this and other important issues. Bush has said he opposes the Kyoto treaty because it would 'harm our economy'. Another article in the WSJ today dealt with an effect of melting glaciers other than rising sea levels: "The reason is that one cubic meter of ice weighs just over a ton, and glaciers can be hundreds of meters thick. When they melt and the water runs off, it is literally a weight off Earth's crust. The crust and mantle therefore bounce back, immediately as well as over thousands of years. That "isostatic rebound," according to studies of prehistoric and recent earthquakes and volcanoes, can make the planet's seismic plates slip catastrophically, and cause magma chambers that feed volcanoes to act like bottles of shaken seltzer." The word is 'catastrophically', as in San Francisco and/or LA going down. Wonder if that might 'harm our economy'.

[IROCNROL1]

Originally Posted by Havasavana

Someday someone will look back on this period and wonder why no meaningful action was taken on this and other important issues. Bush has said he opposes the Kyoto treaty because it would 'harm our economy'. Another article in the WSJ today dealt with an effect of melting glaciers other than rising sea levels: "The reason is that one cubic meter of ice weighs just over a ton, and glaciers can be hundreds of meters thick. When they melt and the water runs off, it is literally a weight off Earth's crust. The crust and mantle therefore bounce back, immediately as well as over thousands of years. That "isostatic rebound," according to studies of prehistoric and recent earthquakes and volcanoes, can make the planet's seismic plates slip catastrophically, and cause magma chambers that feed volcanoes to act like bottles of shaken seltzer." The word is 'catastrophically', as in San Francisco and/or LA going down. Wonder if that might 'harm our economy'.

If you've read the Kyoto treaty I don't understand why you don't think it would do major damage to the US economy. A 75% reduction in coal usage in the next 15 to 20 years would be catastrophic. Electric companies have been building natural gas fired plants for the last 5 years. How long have natural gas prices been skyrocketing? We'd also be forced to buy energy credits from non-industrialized countries, sending billions of unearned dollars out of the country.

You failed to mention that China, India, and all other "developing" countries are exempt from the Kyoto protocols. Would their carbon melt ice more slowly than ours?

Your two paragraphs seem to be in direct contradiction. How can you insist that we keep manufacturing jobs in the US, and at the same time cut back on energy consumption and/or send very substantial amounts of money overseas?

Not everyone believes in Kyoto.
http://www.junkscience.com/MSU_Temps/Kyoto_Count_Up.htm

[MaxLegroom]

Originally Posted by IROCNROL1

If you've read the Kyoto treaty I don't understand why you don't think it would do major damage to the US economy. A 75% reduction in coal usage in the next 15 to 20 years would be catastrophic. Electric companies have been building natural gas fired plants for the last 5 years. How long have natural gas prices been skyrocketing? We'd also be forced to buy energy credits from non-industrialized countries, sending billions of unearned dollars out of the country.

You failed to mention that China, India, and all other "developing" countries are exempt from the Kyoto protocols. Would their carbon melt ice more slowly than ours?

Your two paragraphs seem to be in direct contradiction. How can you insist that we keep manufacturing jobs in the US, and at the same time cut back on energy consumption and/or send very substantial amounts of money overseas?

Not everyone believes in Kyoto.
http://www.junkscience.com/MSU_Temps/Kyoto_Count_Up.htm

Ther real reason for that may be that this was intended to be a global redistribution scheme. Having just read articles concerning the maniacal idea that manure turns farms (or, for that matter, horse stables) into toxic Superfund sites shows how far down the road to complete insanity we have gone. Since you've already pointed out the truth about Kyoto, let's take a look at global warming, like so...http://www.junkscience.com/Greenhouse/