Auto workers' union contracts with US carmakers expire in less than two weeks, but their president refused Monday to say whether a strike-avoiding settlement was at hand.
“We're out here celebrating Labor Day,” UAW president Ron Gettelfinger told reporters as he prepared to lead the union's contingent in the Motor City's annual Labor Day parade, one of the nation's largest.
“The is just a great day. It's an energizing day because it makes (us) feel good about our union.” The annual parade drew an estimated 30,000 participants as it stretched for more than a mile along Woodward Avenue through the center of Detroit on the day set aside to celebrate labor in the United States, one of the few countries that does not celebrate on May 1.
“We know we've had an impact on America,” added Gettelflinger, who was surrounded by dozens of auto workers, sporting T-shirts saying: “Unions Benefit All Workers.” The UAW had celebrated its heritage over the weekend by marking the 100th anniversary of the birth of Walter Reuther, who led the union during its heyday in the 1950s and 1960s.
As for the union's present, Gettelfinger declined even to say whether contract talks were moving in the right direction or to characterize any progress made since talks opened more than a month ago. “We took the position with the companies that we're not going to talk about the negotiations and I'm going to honor that,” Gettelfinger said. UAW contracts with General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC all expire in less September 14. For more than a year, analysts have called the current talks critical to the futures of the so-called Big Three US car makers, which have lost 25 billion dollars since 2004.
George Magliano, an analyst with Global Insight in Lexington, Massachusetts. said the quiet surrounding the talks is a positive sign, suggesting company and union negotiators are making progress.
Union members lining up for the parade also said information has been scarce. George Aldred, member of UAW Local 212 in Detroit, which represents 1,200 workers who haul freight between Chrysler plants, would not be daunted by rumors Chrysler was to sell its in-house trucking company. Such scuttlebutt has circulated for more than 30 years — as long as he has been with the company. “We hope it's not true,” he said. “We haul five time the freight we did with one third the resources,” Aldred said.
Meanwhile, members of UAW Local 140 from Warren, Michigan, just outside Detroit, wore green T-shirts bearing the image of a cobra coiled to strike, and: “Will strike if Provoked.”
Mark Taylor, vice president of the local, said UAW will stand up and fight if necessary: “In the past, (management) has looked at us as being afraid to strike. We understand that the way the economy is going right now, we speak for workers who don't have a union.” Taylor said he didn't have any insight on the current state of the talks with with Chrysler, the company that employs Local 140 members. The perception of union weakness, however, is tied to the steady decline in union membership, only about 10 percent of the private-sector workforce in the US.
Half century ago, when Reuther led the UAW, unions represented closer to 40 percent of private-sector workers.
“The precipitous decline of organized labor is a direct result of employees across the country realizing that corrupt, power-hungry union leaders are not looking out for anyone but themselves,” said Richard Berman of the anti-union Center For Union Facts in Washington.
Still, unions fight on. Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, has watched its growth challenged by a broad union assault on nearly every aspect of the company's operations from its health-care benefits and use of immigrant labor to the vast array of products it imports from China.
Meanwhile, the Teamsters union has challenged Cummins, a large maker of engines based in Columbus, Indiana. A Teamster-commissioned report by Lance Compa, one of Cornell University's senior lecturers in international human rights and labor law, finds that Cummins has used corporate reorganization to weaken or eliminate unions over the past 15 years.
In 2006 and 2007, breakdowns in labor relations at resulted in strikes at Cummins plants in five US cities, said the report, which challenges the socially responsible investment community to reconsider Cummins' current high ranking by Corporate Responsibility Officer (CRO) magazine.
