UAW Chief Issues Warning to Auto Firms : Labor: Owen Bieber, whose organization has suffered several recent defeats, threatens a strike next year if efforts are made to divide the union.
United Auto Workers President Owen Bieber warned the Big Three U.S. auto makers that the union may strike next year in response to what he contends are efforts to fragment it.
“Do not forget it takes two to make peace, but only one to make war,” Bieber said in a speech at the union’s national convention Sunday. “Be very, very careful. Do not miscalculate.”
Bieber’s strong words come at a time when the union is reeling from a series of setbacks, including being forced to call off a five-month strike at Caterpillar Inc. after the company threatened to permanently replace 12,000 striking workers. That decision is generally believed to have undercut the UAW’s bargaining position as it heads into 1993 contract negotiations with auto makers.
Bieber, 62, took an aggressive stance toward the auto companies Sunday as he sought to rally union members.
“Do not mistake our deep and genuine commitment to improved quality and workplace change for a willingness to accept any dumb idea you come up with in the name of ‘competitiveness,’ ” Bieber said.
But it will take more than rousing speeches and vows of solidarity to lift the flagging spirits of the 2,300 UAW delegates gathered in San Diego this week, many of whom say they are more worried about job security than ever before.
“We have delegates here who are not just concerned, they’re desperate,” said UAW member Fred Lodge of Los Angeles. At the GM plants, “they go to work every day with their lunch bags in their hands, and they don’t know whether they’ll be around long enough to eat it.”
The main purpose of the 1992 convention is to elect officers, leaving critical issues such as wages, benefits and job security for next year.
But with Bieber expected to be overwhelmingly elected to his fourth three-year term, few surprises are likely.
It’s been a tough year for America’s premier union.
“We’re all upset about the jobs we’re losing,” said UAW member Frank Souza, who works for Rockwell International.
“In five years, our local has gone from 15,000 members to 3,200, and we don’t see an end in sight.”
Besides massive layoffs of aerospace workers, who account for 9% of UAW membership, the union has found itself squaring off against General Motors Corp., Caterpillar and its own locals.
And while Bieber said Sunday that the union had not given up its struggle with Caterpillar, it suffered another defeat last week when the Senate blocked a bill to ban the hiring of replacement workers during strikes.
General Motors announced plans in December to eliminate 54,000 jobs and close 21 plants by 1995. The UAW has had to scramble to prevent civil wars among its locals as the auto maker seeks concessions by pitting plants against each other, with limited success.
Last month, the majority of UAW members at two Dana Corp. auto parts plants in Columbia City, Ind., crossed their own union’s picket lines and returned to work, defying the international union’s orders.
UAW membership has dropped from 1.5 million in 1979 to 860,000 today, a slide expected to continue throughout the decade.
Bieber told delegates that getting a Democrat in the White House is crucial to reversing the fate of organized labor.
Delivering a stinging attack on presidential candidate H. Ross Perot, he reminded his audience that as chairman of Electronic Data Systems, Perot “went to great lengths” to keep workers from unionizing.
While the union has endorsed the Democratic presidential candidate, Gov. Bill Clinton, who is to address the delegates today, Perot has considerable support among rank-and-file workers.
Bieber also reminded UAW members that the union had its roots in hard economic times and political opposition to trade unions.
“Let’s not forget that our union was born in a time like this,” he said.
