UAW Members Vote to Increase Funding for Strategic Organizing

by Mike Hall, Jun 15, 2006

With a new $60 million war chest for strategic organizing and for mobilizing campaigns for national health care, fair trade and other key working family priorities, delegates to the UAW’s 34th Constitutional Convention wrap up their work today in Las Vegas.

The 1,400 delegates re-elected UAW President Ron Gettelfinger to his second term yesterday, but they also heard a straight-forward message from Gettelfinger, a former Ford assembly worker:

The truth is we’re facing tough, complex challenges in every sector of our union. Everything we’ve fought for at the bargaining table is under attack by a number of multinational corporations who want to rip up our contracts and impose poverty-level wages on workers….We’re not going to surrender. We’re not going to lower our sights, give up our dreams, or give up our fight for a better world for our children and grandchildren.

The delegates also re-elected UAW Secretary-Treasurer Elizabeth Bunn to her second term, along with five vice presidents and 11 regional directors.

Delegates voted June 13 to authorize a one-time $50 million transfer from the union’s Strike Assistance Fund to the General Fund and also approved up to $60 million for organizing and other projects.

Delegate Jim Rogers, president of UAW Local 2325, says the funding:

…directs resources to organizing, which we desperately need—not just so the UAW can grow, but for all those voices in the wilderness, all those workers who need a union.

Pointing to Delphi Corp., which Gettelfinger said is “using a perverted business strategy” as an example, he told delegates:

We need to stop dead in their tracks those who would seek to void contracts with their workers while lining their pockets with everything of value and uncaringly destroying lives.

What’s at stake is more than our paychecks and benefits. What’s at stake is our shared vision of an America that lives up to its promise of freedom, opportunity, dignity and social and economic justice for all. That’s our American dream.

Delphi filed for bankruptcy in October and immediately began calling for concessions from union members. And while demanding concessions from workers, Delphi is rewarding its executives with $98 million in bonuses this year and hosting lavish cruises.

More and more frequently Delphi and other companies are using the bankruptcy process to impose deep wage and benefit cuts their workers have already rejected during contract talks. Before filing for bankruptcy, Delphi sought wage cuts of nearly 40 percent, but the UAW rejected the pay cuts.

Gettelfinger also renewed his call for a “Marshall Plan” to reinvigorate the auto industry and turn around America’s manufacturing base through new approaches to trade and health care. The plan calls for incentives for all automakers and parts suppliers to build flex-fuel and advanced technology vehicles, such as hybrids and clean diesels, and their key components here in the United States.

Van Simpson of Local 2250 says the UAW and all working families are being attacked by the Bush administration and its policies. One way to fight back is through unions:

While everyone is questioning whether or not the UAW is relevant, our economic times are showing that we are still very necessary.

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