Mar-Apr 2006

Melvin Coleman, millwright, recording secretary, UAW Local 652, Lansing, Mich.

“For me, it’s so critical not only in 2006 but 2008 that we take back – locally, state and federally – all the positions possible, because we cannot go through another eight years like this and survive as a labor movement, and as middle-class America.

“This country was built on manufacturing, that’s what made us strong. We were selling to all the other countries. When you’re a buyer, you can’t sustain yourself — you have to be a seller. Until we become sellers again, this country will deteriorate.”

Patty Henry, recording secretary, UAW Local 14, Toledo, Ohio

“I don’t like the fact that funding has been cut for education. We have so many young people, when they get out of school, there’s no funding for after-school programs to further their education.

“We need funding to help our kids. They talk about getting rid of crime, but if we want to help our kids, we can’t just have them hanging around on street corners. We need to focus on our kids. They’re our future.”

Awilda Osorio

Awilda Osorio, cashier, Hospital Pavia, UAW Local 2312, Hato Ray, Puerto Rico

“On the island, everybody is struggling. Nobody gets raises, but the price of everything goes up. We are losing manufacturing jobs. Someone I know in a plant, she was told that for her salary, they could pay three employees in the Dominican Republic.

“The UAW has a very good reputation in Puerto Rico, and whenever there is a rally or demonstration, everyone participates. We share the same concern, looking for better wages and better health care, that’s what we all have in common.”

Face time

UAW activists descend on D.C.

Long-distance lobbying, according to George Burden, is like playing poker on a computer: You can’t see the faces – or the facial expressions – of the other players.

“You need to be there,” says Burden, who serves as political director for UAW Local 148 in Long Beach, Calif. “You’re at a disadvantage when you’re negotiating by phone; you can’t see body communication.”

Burden was ready to practice face-to-face politics, along with 1,500 other delegates to the 2006 UAW Community Action Program (CAP) Legislative Conference, Feb. 5-8 in Washington.

Burden knows the political game as well as anyone; he served as chief of staff to two California state senators while on leave from his job at Boeing.

Now back in the plant, he’s using all his political skills to save the C-17, the giant military transport plane built by members of Local 148.

President Bush’s proposed defense budget calls for eliminating the plane by 2008, which could mean the closing of the Long Beach plant.

An ambitious agenda

Lobbying for jobs is just one part of the UAW legislative agenda laid out by UAW President Ron Gettelfinger in his opening address to delegates.

Despite tough times for organized labor, said Gettelfinger, the UAW has won important recent victories: protecting retiree health benefits in court, fighting off an unfair pension bill which would have frozen retirement credits and benefits at the Big Three and organizing tens of thousands of new members.

But there’s no time, he warned, to rest on past accomplishments. “We have no choice but to dig in for the fight,” Gettelfinger said, calling for raising the minimum wage, health care for all, decent schools, fair trade agreements and extending the Voting Rights Act.

To move the union’s agenda, he said, “We have to find ways to reach out to those who do not agree with us as well as those who have given up on participating in politics. We cannot just talk to ourselves.”

Showing UAW colors on Capitol Hill

Two days later UAW CAP delegates fanned out across Capitol Hill to do exactly that. The hallways of House and Senate office buildings were brightened for a day by colorful UAW hats and jackets, as workers thanked members of Congress who support UAW issues and worked to persuade those who have been less than friendly.

Burden was busy lining up bipartisan support for the C-17, the last wide-body military transport plane made in the United States. Across the Capitol, UAW Local 325 President Ken Dearing – who represents Ford Motor Co. workers at a Hazelwood, Mo., plant slated to close in March – was also working both sides of the aisle.

Dearing and other Missouri CAP delegates met with Rep. Russ Carnahan, a Democrat, and Sen. Jim Talent, a Republican. Both expressed support for an emergency Department of Labor training grant to assist dislocated Ford workers.

“They’re going to work with us, so we can get this money released and get some job training and education money for the people who are being laid off,” said Dearing.

Visiting the Hill

In a congressional office building, a more junior member of Congress – Ohio’s Tim Ryan, now in his second term – had to borrow a committee room to handle an overflow delegation of more than 80 UAW members from his state.

When a union member asked about the status of national health insurance, a longtime UAW priority, the Democrat’s answer was blunt: It won’t happen, he said, under the current administration.

“With a Republican House, a Republican Senate and a Republican president right now, we’re not going to do it yet,” said Ryan. “It just doesn’t have any legs. It needs to become a major, major issue in the next election.”

Jane Blume of UAW Local 1292, who is chair of the UAW Region 1C Women’s Council, said issues such as health care, fair trade and protecting good jobs are what motivates union members to hit the streets during the campaign season.

“We have to do the walking and the talking to get the truth out because the other side is going to put out lies at the last minute,” she said.

“I did a lot of writing during the conference sessions, getting down all the facts,” added Blume. “I’m going to redo my speech for when I get back home. Being with all these activists, it revitalizes so you can generate new ammunition to go back and fight.”

Roger Kerson

For a full text of President Gettelfinger’s speech, go to www.uaw.org/cap_speech.pdf.