Collective bargaining critical for America

By Bob King

The UAW recently reached agreements with both Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Co. that will create thousands of good jobs for American workers.

Working with the UAW, these companies agreed to bring production jobs back from Mexico, China, Japan and other nations — welcome news for communities from Tennessee to Indiana, Missouri to Michigan. These agreements illustrate the critical and positive role that collective bargaining plays in strengthening our middle class.

When the UAW bargaining teams sat down with management, their primary goal was jobs — to protect the jobs of our members; bring jobs back to the United States; and create new jobs. These agreements call for the creation of 6,400 more jobs at GM and 12,000 jobs at Ford.

Since each auto manufacturing job creates or supports another 10 jobs in other businesses, the two agreements at Ford and GM are helping to create nearly 170,000 jobs for Americans. The new investments in American plants and the transfer of work from factories abroad to our own communities will lift local economies during these difficult times.

In recent years, the right wing has demonized the process of collective bargaining. While targeting public sector workers, they have also attacked the right of private sector workers to organize and bargain. The right wing view is that bargaining is destructive to our economy or even un-American. Nothing could be further from the truth. Collective bargaining created the American middle class in the first place, and if we are to restore our middle class, it will be through expanding bargaining throughout our economy.

Collective bargaining is the vehicle through which working people have a voice at work. Too often without countervailing input, executives make decisions based on short-term profit seeking, not on what's best for the company or our nation, in the long term. No one has a stronger self-interest in the success of the company than the workers. CEOs come and go, often with lucrative golden parachutes; managers pursue their own career advantages; stockholders buy or sell to make the most money; but the workers are here for the long-run and have the most at risk if the company fails.

Through collective bargaining, workers have a check and balance on short-term corporate profit-seeking. This balance benefits not only workers but also our communities and even the company's shareholders.

Collective bargaining works. The UAW has demonstrated that by giving workers a voice, we can create jobs, rebuild the American manufacturing sector and restore the American middle class.

Bob King is president of the UAW. This opinion piece ariginally appeared in the Oct. 6. edition of the Detroit News.