Heidi Lyttle and Randy Hughes check over worker-to-worker surveys from Local 138.

Throughout Michigan, UAW members are being asked their opinions in a survey conducted by newly established worker-to-worker programs.

Many locals have already finished their survey while others are still tallying theirs.

"We’ve had a really good response," says Randy Hughes, president of UAW Local 138 at the Hastings Manufacturing plant in western Michigan.

Members were asked to prioritize political issues, to say whether or not they think politics is important to their lives, and to explain how they prefer to be contacted by their local union.

"We’ve had a lot of turnover in the plant, and issues that appeal to young workers include taxes and corporate greed," says Hughes.

Official survey results for all of Michigan will be known in early May.

Local 138 has set up a worker-to-worker structure headed by Hughes and local vice president Heidi Lyttle.

"The response to our surveys has been excellent," says Gene Ridley, education director for Local 599, one of the UAW’s largest locals in Flint, Mich.

So far they have found that about 70 percent of their members identify themselves as Democrats but that many people say they vote for the person and not the party.

"People want specific information on issues. They want to know what a politician stands for and what he or she has done," says Ridley.

Ridley also said Local 599 members were responding positively to the idea of worker-to-worker communications as a two-way street.

"People want to talk back to you," he says.

Greg Drudi is president of Local 3000, an amalgamated local which includes workers at Auto Alliance and six other smaller plants.

"We have worker-to-worker structures in all our units," he says.

And the response to the survey has been strong. "Our members want to have input," says Drudi.

But worker to worker is not just a way to talk about electoral politics. In Local 3000’s unit at Lenawee Stamping in Tecumseh, Mich., the local is using the program to educate members one on one about how and why strike votes are taken in the UAW.

"We can use this structure for collective bargaining, organizing, politics, and education," says Drudi.

"The locals that are doing this the right way are getting good responses," says UAW President Stephen P. Yokich who has made implementing the worker-to-worker program a top priority.

About six months ago the worker-to-worker program in Michigan began to to take off and people realized the possibilities for two-way communication within the UAW.

The survey is just an early indicator that worker to worker represents a strong commitment to member input and activism.