 |
feature |
 |
|
Six International Executive Board members
will retire at the UAW’s 34th Constitutional Convention, June 12-15 in
Las Vegas. Solidarity spoke with them about their UAW service and some of their
fondest memories over a combined 258 years of trade unionism
‘I’ll miss the challenges’Gerald Bantom, who joined UAW Local 600 as a foundry worker in 1964, is a veteran of six rounds of national negotiations at Ford Motor Co., dating to 1982 when he joined the International staff. As administrative assistant to then-UAW Vice President Ernie Lofton, Bantom helped negotiate landmark agreements at Ford in the 1990s, when the company was going strong and more than half the current workforce was hired. More recently he’s faced the difficult task of negotiating a supplemental agreement for workers at Visteon and Automotive Components Holdings, changes in the UAW-Ford health care plan and early retirement packages for UAW Ford workers. “I’m going to miss the people, and I’m going to miss the challenges,” he says. “It’s not something you want to go through, but I like this stuff. You find out who your friends are and who the true leaders are.” Bantom is now focused on training a new generation of UAW leaders. “It’s fun working with the young ones, helping them learn the process,” he says. “I’ve told them, ‘If you can handle these kinds of tough issues, you can handle anything.’ ” 
‘A humbling experience’In 42 years in the UAW, Nate Gooden has gone from building chassis frames to constructing complex labor agreements with major multinational corporations. But what he remembers most is the day in 1975 when co-workers at Chrysler’s Warren (Mich.) Truck Assembly plant elected him president of UAW Local 140. “When the people you work with every day put their trust in you, that’s a humbling experience.” Joining the International staff at UAW Region 1 in 1977, Gooden lived through the difficult days of negotiating federal loan guarantees for Chrysler. In 1999 he was elected vice president and became director of the union’s DaimlerChrysler Department. In 2002 he was nominated as the UAW representative to the Supervisory Board of Daimler-Chrysler Corp. He persuaded the company to recognize union representation at its Freightliner facility whenever a majority in its plants signed union authorization cards. Since 2003 more than 6,000 workers at seven Freightliner facilities in Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee have joined the UAW – the most successful industrial organizing drive in recent U.S. history. Gooden also helped negotiate a card-check agreement in 2005 for workers at the new Global Engine Mfg. Alliance plant in Dundee, Mich., an $800 million joint venture with DaimlerChrysler, Hyundai and Mitsubishi. 
‘It’s about people’Richard Shoemaker started working at John Deere’s Harvester Works in East Moline, Ill., right after he graduated from high school. “A couple of the older guys in the plant took a liking to me,” Shoemaker recalls, “and I became active soon after getting hired.” At 27 he became the youngest person ever elected president of UAW Local 865; in 1969 he was appointed to the UAW International staff by then-UAW President Walter Reuther. Shoemaker was a servicing representative in the Agricultural Implement Department, assistant director of UAW Region 4, administrative assistant to then-UAW Vice President Stephen P. Yokich, and the UAW’s first-ever executive administrative assistant, to then-UAW President Owen Bieber. In 1995 delegates elected him as a UAW vice president, and he has served since then as director of the General Motors Department. The key to being a successful trade unionist, he believes, is remembering who really matters: the membership. “When I was in the local union, I always spent a lot of time on the floor, talking to people. And I still do.” Shoemaker has seen many changes in his years at the UAW, and in the world around us, but one thing stays the same, he says. “Our union remains an instrument of social and economic change. It’s about people – our hopes, our dreams, our aspirations.” 
‘I need a union’I got divorced and I had two little kids to raise,” says Geri Ochocinska. “I went to work for a week and I said, ‘I need a union!’ ” Ochocinska’s workplace in 1965 was the office of Rich Ice Cream Co. in Buffalo, N.Y. The daughter of two active union members, she quickly convinced her co-workers they needed a voice on the job. Before long, Rich’s office staff was a technical, office and professional (TOP) unit of UAW Local 55. Ochocinska was elected bargaining unit chair. She also served as the local’s office manager, assistant administrator of its retirement and welfare funds, and business representative. She was later elected vice president and financial secretary. Ochocinska joined the UAW staff as an International representative in Region 9 in 1976, with responsibility for servicing UAW local unions at more than 60 companies in western New York. She also developed and taught education programs for union leaders and assisted in organizing new members. “Geri O” became the first female assistant director of a UAW region when then-Region 9 Director Tom Fricano appointed her. In 1998 she became the first woman elected as regional director. In 2000 she helped negotiate a first contract for Kmart warehouse workers in Ohio and Pennsylvania. “The company didn’t want to deal with us at first, but those workers hung together and convinced management that a fair contract was going to be good for everyone,” says Ochocinska, who was re-elected regional director in 2002. 
‘A wonderful feeling’It was a sunny day in 2003, recalls Bob Roth, director of UAW Region 1C, when the region unveiled the UAW Sit-downers Monument. “It was a wonderful feeling,” Roth says, “to look out over the sea of people who joined us in tribute to the brave men and women who participated in the 1936-1937 sit-down strike.” Roth, who was elected to his current post in 2002, became a member of UAW Local 599 in 1964, when he started work at General Motors’ Buick Foundry in Flint, Mich. He became a union activist, serving his local union as committeeman and education director. He joined the International staff in 1989 as an organizer, assisting in the campaign which gave thousands of Indiana state employees a chance to become part of the UAW. He returned to Region 1C in 1995 as an International representative and also served as education director and assistant director. Delegates to the 33rd UAW Constitutional Convention in Las Vegas elected him director in 2002. Roth says the spirit of the sit-downers is still alive in Flint. “We’ve got some difficult challenges ahead. The best way to meet those challenges is to stick together and stand up for our principles.” 
‘Best when put to the test’Phil Wheeler became a UAW member when he hired in at Colt Firearms in Hartford, Conn., in 1964. He was elected shop chairman in 1967, and president of UAW Local 376 in 1969. Local 376, an amalgamated local, had more than 5,000 members in 28 locations at the time. One of the most memorable struggles over the years, says Wheeler, was the strike at his home plant: Colt Firearms. “The company was very profitable; they thought they had the resources to take on the union. They were wrong. Our members were determined to fight back,” he says. “Community allies embraced the strike. There were few defectors. Families sacrificed but survived. “Five years later we won the largest NLRB settlement of the day – $13 million. We were part owners of the company, and a unified membership walked back into the plant proud and strong – and the company was forced to fire all of the scabs.” Says Wheeler: “I was the president of the local union when the strike began, I was director of Region 9A when the strike was over. “The bonds of friendship and respect between workers cemented in this struggle will never be forgotten.” |
| © Copyright 2006 International Union, UAW |