UAW Leader Urges Fight to Preserve Gains
United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger on Monday challenged his union to battle corporations that declare bankruptcy and export jobs, and he singled out the Bush administration as a major political foe.
In his speech to about 1,300 delegates at the UAW’s 34th convention at the MGM Grand casino-hotel, Gettelfinger also warned of difficult times ahead as the union fights to preserve a middle-class lifestyle won during the last 70 years.
Gettelfinger said some in management and some industry analysts believed that the UAW was not up to the fight.
“They think we’ve run out of gas intellectually and emotionally, that we’ve lost our will, our creativity and our nerve. Some even question our solidarity. Well, we’ve got news for them,” he said, drawing cheers.
“We’re not going to surrender. We’re not going to lower our sights, give up our dreams or give up our fight for a better world for our children and grandchildren.”
But repeating the themes of a report issued to members Sunday, he cautioned that the union might have to do things differently than in the past.
With General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co., the two companies that employ the most UAW members, facing financial losses and declining market share, Gettelfinger said the union faced tough challenges.
“Like it or not, these challenges aren’t the kind that can be ridden out,” he said. “They demand new and farsighted solutions -- and we must be an integral part of developing these solutions.”
Gettelfinger said skyrocketing healthcare costs were hitting GM and Ford hardest because of their older workforces and large number of retirees. After analyzing each company’s finances, he said, he decided to negotiate to address their huge retiree healthcare liabilities and to preserve future benefits.
GM and Ford workers approved the deals late last year. Under the agreements, retired autoworkers will start paying monthly contributions, annual deductibles and co-payments for some medical services. They don’t pay such fees now. Hourly workers won’t be required to pay deductibles or monthly contributions, but they will have to contribute some of their future wage increases to a trust for healthcare expenses.
“Although we did the right thing, and in the right way, it was still the most painful decision I’ve had to make as your president,” said Gettelfinger, 61, who is running unopposed for a second four-year term.
He repeated previous calls for a national solution to healthcare with a single-payer plan.
But President Bush, he said, “has stood on the sidelines as healthcare costs soar out of control.”
GM has reported spending $5.4 billion in 2005 for its 1.1 million employees, retirees and dependents; Ford has said it spent about $3.5 billion to cover 550,000 hourly and salaried workers, retirees and dependents last year.
Gettelfinger, who has come under fire from some workers who say he hasn’t done enough to keep factories open, said the UAW would continue to defend workers at about two dozen plants targeted for closure.
Jerry Kloberdanz, a UAW member who works at an Electrolux plant in Webster City, Iowa, said he was energized by the speech but realized that the union faced great challenges in an era of globalization. Electrolux closed its Greenville, Mich., plant in March and moved much of its production to Mexico.
“It’s going to take working men and women realizing that we have to work together to make positive changes,” he said.
