UAW Dissidents Unite to Fight Cooperation

Dissident members of the United Auto Workers union said Thursday that, as expected, they will set up a formal, national organization to fight further ties between the union and U.S. auto makers.

Jerry Tucker, a leader of the so-called New Directions dissident movement, said the group will proceed with plans to form an organization within the union that will have its own staff and charge dues. Tucker, who lost his bid for reelection as a regional director to of the UAW at this week’s UAW convention at the Anaheim Convention Center, is expected to be named the group’s director.

“When we leave Anaheim, we will be intact and growing as the New Directions movement within the UAW,” Tucker told members of his group. “We will lay in place ideas and plans for that growth that will be drawn from the rank and file.”

New Directions contends that cooperative programs do nothing to prevent U.S. auto makers from closing plants if market conditions dictate. Dissidents also say cooperation prompts union members at different auto plants to compete with each other to manufacture new products, a process called “whipsawing.”

During the week, UAW leaders said they recognize the need for labor-management cooperation in the face of international competition. But UAW President Owen Bieber said the union would try to improve cooperative programs that were working against the union.