All workers have much in common when they come to the bargaining table to negotiate a contract. Certainly skilled-trades, production and other classifications of workers all want better wages, greater job security, an improved pension, and adequate vacation and holidays.

That’s why we bargain collectively, so our strength is multiplied and our voices are heard. We want good contracts for all UAW members.

Some members might question the need for a bargaining conference devoted solely to the issues of skilled-trades workers, like the one we held in February.

Why not simply have the concerns of skilled-trades workers addressed at the UAW Special Collective Bargaining Convention in June, right after the Constitutional Convention completes its work?

That’s a fair question.

The results of the international’s Skilled Trades Conference on Collective Bargaining can provide some insight. Take a look at Resolution 1 from the conference, on wages and salaries. It states that skilled-trades workers are continually asked to perform at higher levels of skill and undergo additional training to keep up with technology. The resolution also recognizes the investment that skilled-trades workers must make in new tools.

Essentially, the idea behind a separate bargaining conference for the skilled trades was recognition of the simple fact that the concerns of skilled-trades workers are somewhat different from those of production and other workers. That’s why skilled-trades workers can vote separately on contracts with the Big Three, after gaining permission from the International Executive Board.

Article 19, Section 3 of the International UAW Constitution allows this for a variety of workers, so they can vote separately on contract matters that relate exclusively to their group.

Indeed, the very fact that there is an apprenticeship program demonstrates the need for skilled-trades workers to sit down together and talk about the problems affecting them as a group, before adding their ideas to the mix at the general bargaining convention. A lot has changed since I joined the UAW as a tool-and-die maker in 1961. We need to ensure in all contracts that our skilled-trades workers are the best trained in the world. We need to improve the apprentice program. We need to resist efforts by management to blur the lines of demarcation between the trades. We need to make sure tool allowances are adequate. We need to fight wage compression.

And one of the most important reasons for having a separate conference for the skilled trades is to talk about safety as it applies to the group. Skilled-trades workers make up 15 percent of the UAW’s membership, but suffer 50 percent of the serious injuries, as President Stephen P. Yokich told delegates at the Skilled Trades Bargaining Conference.

Resolution 11, on occupational health and safety, recognizes that there is a rising rate of fatalities at smaller employers who lack the resources to adequately protect workers, and that diminished OSHA enforcement increases this problem.

So it’s true that the UAW skilled-trades workers have issues that differ from their union brothers and sisters. But there are so many issues that affect all members of this great union of ours: political issues such as trade policy and worker-friendly candidates, organizing, paid time off and many others.

As we send our 20 resolutions to the UAW Special Collective Bargaining Convention in June, we know that we’ll be ready to tell our brothers and sisters about our specific concerns.

And we know we’ll be ready to tell management why we take the positions we do, and why they should pay attention to the fair and just demands of all UAW members.

Photo by Lee Zaichick

UAW President Stephen P. Yokich, left, conferring with Vice President Ron Gettelfinger, said skilled-trades members make up 15 percent of the UAW’s membership, but suffer 50 percent of the serious injuries.