Union dissidents wage lonely battle

[nadepalma]

This is the 3 and last part in a series that the Detroit News has been running on the UAW and their situation. These are the FIRST and SECOND parts of the series -- dubbed "Can the UAW Survive" and "The Hardest Job in Detroit" respectively -- that were already posted - NADP

Source: http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll...606100343/1148

UAW: Can it survive? | Last in a three-part series
Union dissidents wage lonely battle
Louis Aguilar / The Detroit News


Todd M. Jordan takes notes as United Auto Workers dissidents, including Bob Martin, left, meet in Martino's restaurant in Kokomo, Ind. Jordan, who has been called a communist, a liar and worse by some co-workers, will attend the UAW Constitutional Convention next week.


GRAND RAPIDS -- Gregg Shotwell, a Delphi Corp. machinist in Coopersville, says his in-box fills up every day with e-mails of support and death threats because of his fierce criticism of United Auto Workers leaders.

Todd M. Jordan, a Delphi machinist in Kokomo, Ind., and founder of the Future of the Union Web site, has been called a communist and a liar in anonymous pamphlets protesting his bid to be a delegate to the UAW's Constitutional Convention in Las Vegas next week.

Shotwell, 55, and Jordan, 28, are in the vanguard of one of the most aggressive and organized dissident movements the UAW has seen in years.

On their Web sites they regularly churn out manifestos decrying the "corporate unionism" of UAW leaders they say are allowing automakers to dismantle the social contract of lifetime jobs, generous wages and rock-solid retirement benefits.

"Cooperation, concession, and competition will save jobs and enhance the quality of our work life when Elvis returns," Shotwell, a leader of the UAW splinter group Soldiers of Solidarity, wrote in the latest edition of his Internet column, Live Bait & Ammo.

Next week, Shotwell and other dissidents will take their activism to Las Vegas in hopes of convincing their union brethren to join their movement. While some see them as heroes, labor experts say the dissidents won't have much impact.

"They are a small number of people with very big mouths that have attracted way too much media attention," said David Cole, chairman of the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor.

"Their protests have been much smaller in number than advertised and I don't see evidence they are gaining strength. They are trying to drag the union back about 50 years to a past that no longer exists."

The dissidents remain undaunted. "I would rather die fighting than die not doing a thing," said Las Vegas-bound Justin West, of UAW Local 2488, which represents workers from Mitsubishi Motors Corp.'s plant in Normal, Ill.

Union losing members

If ever the time was ripe for resistance within the UAW, it's now. The union is in crisis. Membership is near an all-time low as U.S. carmakers cut jobs and shut plants amid intense global competition. The union has ceded ground on hard-won benefits to help Detroit survive.

But even the dissident groups, which get hundreds of thousands of hits on their Web sites every month, are not sure how many supporters they have among the approximately 2,000 delegates coming to Las Vegas from across the country. Estimates range from 35 to 200.

Whatever the number, they know it won't be enough to thwart the re-election of UAW President Ron Gettelfinger or challenge any key union positions.

"I don't know if we have enough at the convention to make serious changes," West said. "But we got enough to start rocking the boat. Everyone knows that big changes are headed our way and we got little time to stand up against it."

Many expect to be cut off at the microphones when they criticize union policies and positions. "Some people consider it a badge of honor when you get your microphone cut off," Shotwell said.

It happened to him during a 1999 special convention when he challenged then-UAW President Stephen Yokich during a Q&A session.

Shotwell wanted a guarantee that the pending spinoff of Delphi from General Motors Corp. wouldn't ultimately result in tens of thousands of UAW-protected jobs disappearing or being shipped overseas. He received a standing ovation.

According to a convention transcript, Yokich told Shotwell: "Well, brother, I guess you haven't been listening to the leadership. No, no, you're not going back to the mic. I don't know how many times you have to say it for people to believe you, OK?"

In fact, Delphi's bankruptcy last year does threaten to cost thousands of union jobs.

The dissidents likely won't get beyond theatrics in Las Vegas, said Robert Chiaravalli, a labor lawyer and principal at Strategic Labor & Human Resources LLC in West Bloomfield.

Chiaravalli says the activists don't have the clout to put up their own candidates to run for key leadership positions at the convention. Among the posts to be filled are the vice presidents in charge of the UAW departments for General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler Group, who will be key players in contract talks next year.

"Nor will they likely get anyone of their mindset that will be part of the team for the 2007 negotiations for the upcoming Big Three talks," Chiaravalli said.

Buyouts cited as success

Further proof that the dissidents are a vocal minority is the number of GM and Delphi workers who have accepted buyouts or early retirement offers to help pare the companies' work forces.

GM is offering incentives to all 113,000 of its hourly workers, ranging from $35,000 and full benefits for those who retire early to as much as $140,000 and already-accrued pension benefits for those who leave and sever all ties to the company.

On Friday, Delphi and the UAW said an early-retirement package negotiated earlier this year would be extended to more workers and cash buyouts ranging from $40,000 to $140,000 would be available to those not eligible to retire.

More than 20,000 GM workers and nearly 10,000 at Delphi had signed up by early June.

"The number of workers who have accepted that package says that a lot of members think their leadership is getting them a good deal," Chiaravalli said. "The dissidents will not alter the direction of the union."

Dissident delegate Wendy Thompson knows how hard it is to change the UAW. The 58-year-old retiree from Local 235 in Detroit was part of a major UAW dissident movement called New Directions that began 20 years ago. Then, as today, the protesters complained that union leaders had become too willing to bend to management demands.

"We're basically fighting a one-party rule that was set up by rules established by Walter Reuther 50 years ago to root out communists," Thompson said. "I know plenty of people who have taken buyouts more out of fear and not as a sign of approval for the leadership."

Even so, most of the dissidents haven't been able to mobilize their local bargaining units, and several activists said they had to overcome nasty campaigns locally to get to Las Vegas.

Future of the Union founder Jordan and two other workers in Kokomo lost their bids to be convention delegates. They say fliers they posted at the plant were routinely torn down or defaced with profanity. Jordan says his slate lost because the local union used phone calls to heavily lobby retirees and urge them to vote against the dissidents.

Jordan is not a communist but does preach socialist principles. He has a framed poster of Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara on the wall of his small office, where he spends three hours a day updating his Web site. "Che was a great leader for the rights of the people," Jordan said. "He fought against communists and the imperialists."

Change goads some activists

The UAW local believed to be sending the most dissident delegates to Las Vegas is Local 974 in Peoria, Ill., which represents 5,700 workers at Caterpillar Inc.

The maker of industrial and heavy-duty vehicles and equipment is often hailed as the most successful American corporate turnaround in the last decade.

Besides big investments in modernizing factories, outsourcing work to lower-cost countries and adapting Japanese-influenced management techniques, the company waged a seven-year battle with the UAW and weathered two strikes by hiring replacement workers.

The UAW held out for contracts that Caterpillar said would have driven it out of the country or into bankruptcy. The union eventually accepted a two-tier pay structure with starting wages as low as $13 an hour -- almost half the hourly rate of other workers. It also reduced pension benefits, took away job security for at least a decade, and offered a new pay scale tied more to skills than seniority.

Caterpillar's work force has grown about 25 percent in the past two years, including thousands of new U.S. jobs. Its stock price has more than tripled. Last year, profits increased 40 percent, to $2.85 billion, on a 20 percent gain in sales. With more than half of its sales now outside the United States, Caterpillar has become one of the country's biggest exporters.

CEO Jim Owens likes to tout the bottom-line results as why American businesses and workers should embrace globalization. Over the past two years, Owens has taken home a performance-based pay package with an estimated value between $18 million and $38 million. Further, 50,000 nonunion employees split a bonus pool of $445 million and top executives were awarded options with an estimated value of between $80 million and $206 million. Shareholders earned spectacular returns.

"If this is the future of the UAW, if this is the new social contract, then it's terrible," said Rob Wilson, one of eight dissident candidates from the Peoria local heading to Las Vegas.

"You hear all these people, CEOs, academics and analysts say that the only way to survive is get on board with globalization, ship all our jobs overseas and let our wages go way down," Wilson said.

"But none of those people preaching that ever talk about the huge swath of American workers that it leaves out to dry.

"We used to be the people who made up the middle class, and that's going down. Have you ever heard anyone say 'What's going to happen to all the people like us?'


Bob Martin of Kokomo, Ind., joins UAW dissidents as they plot a strategy to be heard in Las Vegas.


Through a Web site and frequent writings, Jordan, 28, of Kokomo, decries what he says is growing corporate favoritism by the UAW.


"Some people consider it a badge of honor when you get your microphone cut off" at the UAW convention, says Gregg Shotwell of Grand Rapids, a Delphi machine operator in Coopersville.

[espo19047]

Originally Posted by nadepalma

This is the 3 and last part in a series that the Detroit News has been running on the UAW and their situation. These are the FIRST and SECOND parts of the series -- dubbed "Can the UAW Survive" and "The Hardest Job in Detroit" respectively -- that were already posted - NADP

Source: http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll...606100343/1148

UAW: Can it survive? | Last in a three-part series
Union dissidents wage lonely battle
Louis Aguilar / The Detroit News






The union eventually accepted a two-tier pay structure with starting wages as low as $13 an hour -- almost half the hourly rate of other workers. It also reduced pension benefits, took away job security for at least a decade, and offered a new pay scale tied more to skills than seniority.[/i][/b]

Welcome to the real world. You get paid for your skills not how long you have been there.

Originally Posted by nadepalma

Caterpillar's work force has grown about 25 percent in the past two years, including thousands of new U.S. jobs. Its stock price has more than tripled. Last year, profits increased 40 percent, to $2.85 billion, on a 20 percent gain in sales. With more than half of its sales now outside the United States, Caterpillar has become one of the country's biggest exporters.

CEO Jim Owens likes to tout the bottom-line results as why American businesses and workers should embrace globalization. Over the past two years, Owens has taken home a performance-based pay package with an estimated value between $18 million and $38 million. Further, 50,000 nonunion employees split a bonus pool of $445 million and top executives were awarded options with an estimated value of between $80 million and $206 million. Shareholders earned spectacular returns.

"If this is the future of the UAW, if this is the new social contract, then it's terrible," said Rob Wilson, one of eight dissident candidates from the Peoria local heading to Las Vegas.

Is it really terrible that the top performers got paid?
The future of the union man includes accountability. No more free ride. If you sink the ship you will only go down with it.
I am a laid off UAW member and I know these type of people. They worry about everything but the job they are supposed to be doing. They are just jail house lawyers spending the day complaining and looking for loopholes in the contract. The goal of these guys is to find a way to make more money for doing less work. They are hard to work with indeed. They have everything going for them yet they have so much anger. If they lose thier jobs they will be in for a major reality check.

[Jay]

Glad I'm not in a union. From what I understand from familiy members who have been in various ones, this type of in-fighting and bureaucracy is typical.

[New_Mexico_Sunset_on_Rt66]

"Lifetime jobs"? wtf. When you are not competing to keep your job, or to get a raise, then the business you are in is f***ed.

I have to perform on my job every f***ing day.

'"You hear all these people, CEOs, academics and analysts say that the only way to survive is get on board with globalization, ship all our jobs overseas and let our wages go way down," Wilson said.'

No. US business' are moving overseas "because" of the obscenely high-wages you f***ers demand.

And, "Soldiers of Solidarity"? C'mon, now that DOES sound Communist.

[MaxLegroom]

I'm having fun reading this. Communist? Oh, really? Didn't the union have decidedly socialist roots to begin with?

I will say it again, I don't much begrude these workers their wages. I do, however, still have a problem with the health care plan that is better than most of the people in this country have, and the pension when the money can be placed in accounts (401K, IRA, etc.) that will work better for everyone involved. While I realize that it can be done for less, I consider the wages mentioned more or less the cost of middle class life these days.

[ZOOMY]

How many of you have ever been in a union and if so which union? It sounds like most of you are talking out your rears or every other comment is "well i read this" or "I know someone who knows someone". If it were anyone of you, you'd all be crying too. It sounds like most of you are jealous because the field you are in won't offer you the kind of security that UAW employees had. Is it such a bad thing to be abel to make a wage good enough to support and family and have job security? You people stereotype all the UAW emoployees and post dumb articles about Caterpillar. Research a little more, many of the Cat employees were told they would lose their jobs if they didn't take huge paycuts. What is a guy in his mid 40's with a family supposed to do when he was making $25 an hour and now makes $12? The ignorance of people on this board is amazing. Try getting both sides of the story or at least a first hand view before throwing stones at people. These people aren't trying to get rich beleive me, they are merely trying to protect a MIDDLE CLASS standard of living. Many blue collar people hate people like you because of this. If you support these people instead of ridiculing them, then maybe someday when you need support because of a work issue they will support you.

[espo19047]

Originally Posted by ZOOMY

These people aren't trying to get rich beleive me, they are merely trying to protect a MIDDLE CLASS standard of living.

HA HA They are trying to protect there own lazy asses. If you are good at what you do you will have job security. I am 43 years old with three kids and a mortgage I made over $24.00 per hour with fully paid benefits.I was laid off but I'm still getting by quite well. I do one thing some of these guys havent done in a long time. I work hard!

[New_Mexico_Sunset_on_Rt66]

I don't mean to begrudge EVERY union. Some small unions are actually good. I didn't work for a union directly, but was the electricican in a small 'mom and pop' shop in Seattle. I built the NEMA4/12 control panels for our product which were shipped domesticaly and overseas, and did electrical maintenance in the plant during slow periods. We had 4-5 welders and 4-5 machinists (who were union), and they did great work.

As I said, I don't mean to begrudge ALL unions. But if you cn't get fired from your job if you f* up, then wtf.

I worked for an aerospace firm in 2000 and we were not given raises because of the slowdown in the economy. The benefit of not getting raises, were to not have a layoff. Were we naive? Maybe.

But if you are not working hard to keep your job and perform well, then you don't deserve to work.

[Gturismo1]

I personally love how people talk about having "job security" if they do their job well. Sure, that is true. Can't really argue that point.

Unfortunately, when your company all of a sudden realizes it could cut costs by exporting your job to Taiwan or India, where is your job security then? Who protects you? Nobody.

And I'm not referring to the auto industry either. Just read up on how many jobs have been outsourced in the areas of textiles, call centers, etc.

It really doesn't matter how well you do your job. Third world countries paying impoverished wages will ALWAYS be able to undercut even the non-union wages payed in North America.

To sit their and kid yourself that your company will employ you because of your "quality of work", your dreaming. It's all about the bottom line, and when your making 10.00/hr is expensive compared to the same job in India for 4.00/hr, where do you think that job is going to go?

[eaton53]

Originally Posted by New_Mexico_Sunset_on_Rt66

I worked for an aerospace firm in 2000 and we were not given raises because of the slowdown in the economy. The benefit of not getting raises, were to not have a layoff. Were we naive? Maybe.

No you weren't, you were still getting paid which beats the heck out of the alternative.

I've worked for employers that didn't give any raises during slow times. It wasn't hard to understand that everyone needed to give a little to keep more people employed, even if it meant going to 4 day work weeks.

Short term pain, but people kept their jobs and everyone benefitted when things picked up again.

[steverino]

Originally Posted by Gturismo1

I personally love how people talk about having "job security" if they do their job well. Sure, that is true. Can't really argue that point.

Unfortunately, when your company all of a sudden realizes it could cut costs by exporting your job to Taiwan or India, where is your job security then? Who protects you? Nobody.

And I'm not referring to the auto industry either. Just read up on how many jobs have been outsourced in the areas of textiles, call centers, etc.

It really doesn't matter how well you do your job. Third world countries paying impoverished wages will ALWAYS be able to undercut even the non-union wages payed in North America.

To sit their and kid yourself that your company will employ you because of your "quality of work", your dreaming. It's all about the bottom line, and when your making 10.00/hr is expensive compared to the same job in India for 4.00/hr, where do you think that job is going to go?

How true. Know a lot of good workers who lost their jobs thru no fault of their own. Like when companies consolidate, a lot of people lose out due to job overlap and the best person doesn't necessarily keep the job, usually the person from the acquiring company stays.

[espo19047]

Originally Posted by steverino

How true. Know a lot of good workers who lost their jobs thru no fault of their own. Like when companies consolidate, a lot of people lose out due to job overlap and the best person doesn't necessarily keep the job, usually the person from the acquiring company stays.

Those good people you speak of usually land on their feet.

[Klay]

Well I used to work for a union and while I can sympathize with these workers having to takes such drastic cuts, you can't have your cake and eat it too. They can't expect to take and take and take and not give anything back. This particular group is crazy if they think they deserve to have lifetime job security. While it's nice to not have to worry about losing your job, you shouldn't count on having it forever and should have a back up plan in case you do lose it.

[camaro_freak]

Originally Posted by espo19047

Welcome to the real world. You get paid for your skills not how long you have been there.

so cops, firefighters, teachers, etc shouldn't be paid any more than a newcomer after putting in 20-25 years?

How long you are with a company should be rewarded, not looked down upon. Union or not it shows you have loyalty to that company.

[awalbert88]

The company I work for ranks all employees against others from the same location. Those locations are ranked against all others in the district, those districts are ranked against all others in the region, and those regions are ranked against all others in the company. The rankings cover all aspects of the business, and those who perform below the minimum standards eventually get canned, not just passed over for raises/promotions. The better you perform, the more you are recognized, the more you get raises and promotions, and the more you are looked up to by your peers. I'm not sure I could ever work for anyone else again, simply because I've never found another company that is as rewarding to work for. It's also exceptionally nice that the harder I work and the better I perform, the better my standing in the company, whereas those who have been around for a couple of years but do the bare minimums to get by tend to be pushed out over time.