Decatur, IL – Nowhere in organized labor is the failure and treachery of business unionism more indicting than in the United Auto Workers (UAW). Today, that treachery threatens not only the existence of the organization, but the fundamental values upon which the union was built. If there exists a saving grace for the UAW, it is not in the halls of Solidarity House [UAW headquarters in Detroit], but in the rank and file resurgence against the devastating concessions at Delphi and Visteon, parts suppliers to the auto industry. The massive job losses and concessions, including tiered wages and benefits, are not a new occurrence, but a carefully crafted course that involves not only the bastards of the boardroom, but top UAW leadership as well.

Looking back at the UAW and its transformation from a fighting union to one of compliance, partnership and ‘jointism’ with the employing class we find a sorry record.

Doug Frazier became UAW president in 1977. He joined Chrysler’s board of directors and defined the path of destruction the UAW would follow. But no UAW leadership team could equal the incompetence of Frazier’s successor, Owen Beiber, who took over in 1983. Rather than fight for UAW members, he immersed the UAW in jointism – labor/management cooperation schemes that signaled to the auto corporations that the UAW was an easy mark. Under Beiber, the policy concessions, now so vivid in the Delphi debacle, took root in the agriculture and implement division of the UAW at Caterpillar Tractor and John Deere.

In 1992, the UAW struck CAT only to voluntarily return months later. Tiered wages, erosion of benefits for retirees, health care cost-shifting and attacks on the parts division were at the center of the dispute. The struggle continued more than six years while UAW members worked under imposed conditions. During the dispute, UAW President Beiber retired, passing the briefcase to Stephen Yokich. Caterpillar amassed a record 450-plus labor violations, many of which involved 250 illegally terminated employees – bargaining chips for a ruthless corporation. So confident was Don Fites, CAT CEO, that he could cut a deal, he openly boasted the company would be vindicated of all charges. How could he have known this unless he was receiving assurances from UAW leadership? During the length of the dispute, it was clear the UAW had no winning strategy and was doing nothing to secure a victory.

In 1995, at the AFL-CIO convention in New York, President Yokich stood before Decatur, Illinois unionists, including UAW local leaders from CAT announcing, “I will not hold up a contract for thousands of UAW members for a few hundred discharges.” Most of those discharged had done nothing wrong, but Yokich was willing to sell them out, angering Decatur unionists.

At CAT, Yokich forced a vote on a sellout contract several times, but a savvy rank and file rejected it – insisting discharged members be returned to work. The Decatur local, under the leadership of Larry Solomon, was key in rejecting attempts to settle without justice for the discharged members. The largest local, 974 in Peoria, Illinois, voted in favor, after the former local president, Jerry Brown, who vowed never to accept it, was given an international union job and returned to sell the contract.

Perhaps the defining element in the Caterpillar battle was the treatment of the parts division. Thousands of jobs were lost; benefits were cut and most alarming, tiered were wages so low UAW members were eligible for food stamps. The distribution center in York, Pennsylvania was mostly moved to a new nonunion facility in North Carolina. So horrible was the sellout, the local president in Denver, Colorado, Joe Vasquez, committed suicide when his members voted to accept it. During the dispute at CAT, the John Deere contract was settled under similar conditions without so much as a whimper from the UAW.

Both contracts were negotiated under the direction of Richard Shoemaker, who headed the agriculture-implement division of the UAW. Both contracts gave a glimpse of the future for the parts divisions in the auto industry and showed where UAW leadership stood on the issues and who they were standing with.

In 1998 another struggle took shape in Henderson, Kentucky, involving UAW Local 2036 and Accuride Wheel, a parts supplier. After a short strike and return to work, Accuride locked out the 650 members of Local 2036. Accuride demanded a contract no union could agree to, except of course, the UAW.

After more than a year of paying strike benefits, the UAW told Accuride (a week before they told Local 2036 leaders) that they were ending strike benefits to local members. Maintaining wages and benefits at this parts supplier would go against the concessions at CAT, John Deere and where the auto industry was headed.

Local activists and supporters from across America organized a picket of the UAW headquarters in Detroit. Yokich responded to the embarrassment by restoring benefits at double the rate, but only for several months. Less than a year later, Yokich decertified the local and handed the jobs of 650 loyal UAW members over to scabs forever. Many of those members, including local President Billy Robinson, had helped build the 22-year-old local from the ground up. The UAW Regional Director who vowed to stay with the local, “for as long as it takes,” was none other than Ron Gettlefinger, current UAW International President.

This past year, Gettlefinger negotiated a poverty-level contract at a parts supplier in Indiana that allowed some members to move to another facility and maintain current wages and benefits, but denied those members the right to vote on the contract. In spite of the UAW constitution, Gettlefinger has played a major role in forcing UAW members to work under conditions that place them at the poverty level. A rank and file resurgence is now threatening his poor leadership and his credibility with the executives in the big three. Gettlefinger’s occasional militant speech now rings hollow with UAW members – and it should. His history is one of defeat, maybe even betrayal, and the gruff persona he portrays, hypocritical. One is reminded more of the blowhard caricature, Yosemite Sam, than Walter Ruether.

The growing rank and file movement in the UAW has its work cut out. The auto corporations are out for blood. It’s time UAW members take things in their own hands.

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Decatur, IL – Sunday, Jan. 9 proved to be a day of infamy for United Auto Workers members worldwide. The fallout from the new six-year contract with Caterpillar will ultimately touch the lives of every member, active or retired. Without any fight or any known strategy, United Auto Workers (UAW) leadership surrendered any hope of recovery at Caterpillar Inc.

The devastating contract passed by a narrow 59% margin after UAW international representatives told members that, in the event of a strike, they would be permanently replaced, or that Cat could move production to Dixie. In a shameful effort to secure a yes vote, the gloves came off and the threats flourished. Members say the informational meeting in Peoria, Illinois before the vote became so unruly after an international rep was booed off the stage, the meeting was cut short and the voting began.

In Decatur, in spite of weak leadership, the savvy rank and file of Local 751 rejected both the national agreement and the local agreements, by a margin of nearly two to one. Local 751 in Decatur however, does not have enough votes to vote down the master agreement for all Cat workers

The militancy in Decatur can be attributed to past leaders who had the courage to stand up to Cat and the UAW. It was in Decatur – where more than six years ago workers voted down offers by Cat and the UAW that left nearly 200 discharged members out in the cold – that the master agreement failed. Caterpillar and the UAW were forced to return to the bargaining table and reach an agreement that included the discharged members, in spite of the fact the national UAW said there was no more to be gained. UAW members honored their heroes while the ‘mighty UAW’ international union was willing to desert them.

National and local UAW leaders became the choir of despair with chants of, “This is not the time,” and, “This is the best we can do under these circumstances,” without clearly defining when the right time would be or what the right circumstances were. Cat began kicking the UAW in 1992 and continued until 1998 when a six-year concessionary agreement was finally reached. This agreement will continue the beating for six more years. Do the math. Eighteen years of, “This is not the right time.” How much longer will it take? Never!

In the past two decades the UAW has been on a path to destruction through its ‘jointism’ – partnerships with employers – and a variety of other schemes that mimic company unionism. Not one of those schemes has halted the massive losses in membership suffered by the UAW. When the UAW does circle the wagons, the employers are allowed to join the circle. Such was the case at Accuride Wheel in Henderson, Kentucky a few years ago. When UAW Local 2036 refused to accept a horrible contract offer, the UAW, after informing the company first, cut off strike benefits to the 600-plus member local. After an embarrassing picket of UAW headquarters in Detroit, curiously named ‘Solidarity House’, the UAW reinstated benefits to locked-out workers. Months later the UAW decertified the local and walked away, leaving those members without jobs, union membership, or hope, after more than three years of struggle. The regional director over the Accuride workers during that struggle is now the International President of the UAW.

The newly ratified Caterpillar contract has few changes over the previous offer – other than negative. Caterpillar, without blinking, never put another nickel on the table but shifted costs to different groups of employees. Why would they give something up, with all the white flags the UAW threw up? Incentive bonuses were shifted to the ‘bone us’ column to cover health care costs. Insurance costs for certain retirees were lowered some, but continue to rise throughout the life of the agreement. Part of that cost will come from working members who previously had paid insurance. Temporary employees remain third world members of the UAW. No benefits, no representation and no retirement; no hope! New hires are allowed to become full time under this agreement, but do not fare much better. The current ‘supplemental employees’ at labor grade 2, step 3, for example, have a base wage of $15.37 an hour. In the same grade and step if they convert to ‘new hires,’ they will be paid $12.50 an hour. The same pay for current employees is $20.44 an hour. New hires will receive benefits, which they now have to pay for, but no retirement! New hires will have a 401k, which they must pay into and are not a reliable source of retirement income. The August 2004 offer gave new hires the option of a 401k or the Caterpillar retirement.

Cat currently has more than 1100 supplemental employees, representing nearly 15% of their workforce and has offered early retirement windows for current employees. By the time this contract expires, Caterpillar may well be close to ending its defined pension plan. That is a giant step backward for any union, roughly 60 years backward. New hires will in many instances be working for $10.00 an hour less than current employees. Considering that most U.S. workers are working for 1979 level wages today, Cat has relegated its employees to poverty.

The parts division of Caterpillar, now known as Logistic Services, is paid so low after the 1998 agreement, some members are eligible for food stamps. York, Pennsylvania has only a few UAW members left. Cat has shifted most of those jobs to North Carolina. The Memphis facility wage scale starts at a whopping $8.25 an hour – from a company boasting record profits and the best market position in the industry. If the Memphis facility survives the six-year agony, workers can earn $10.50 an hour. Before we get too excited over this ‘rags to riches’ story, Memphis has been excluded from Plant Closing Protection.

Currently Cat is on the move to Mexico with UAW jobs from the Peoria area and salaried workers in the computer group have been outsourced to India. In the mid-1990’s, when the Denver logistics UAW local voted to accept the concession-ladened contract, the local union president committed suicide out of despair. Everything that union brother fought against, the UAW has surrendered, and without a fight.

What is in the future for UAW members at Cat? The only possible way to escape the ‘beg bargaining’ that robbed UAW members of the gains from years of struggle is for the members to organize and take control, local by local, and elect leadership that is accountable.

As a trade unionist reflecting on our blood-stained history, the sit-down strikes, the men and women murdered by the bosses’ goons and police, the blood shed and tears sacrificed by other generations for us, I am angered by this generation of so-called leadership in our movement so willing to piss on that sacrifice. From the top of the House of Labor to the bottom, I am shamed by those who have deserted workers in battle, who have lost the reality of class struggle, and contaminated our precious union with mirror images of the Bastards of the Boardroom.

Mike Griffin heads the Illinois-based War Zone Education Foundation

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