Columnist Jamala Rogers
When General Motors (GM) executive Rick Wagoner cut his base salary earlier this year, some observers thought it was a gesture to identify with the plight of workers in his company.
It was a smokescreen to get the United Auto Workers union to empathize with the company’s profit loss as contract negotiations neared. The reduction of pay was smoke and mirrors. Even though Wagoner took a voluntary pay cut from $2.2 million to $1.65 million, his total compensation stuffed with stock options was still a cool $10 million. Hardly a peer to his workers.
When UAW members begin prepping for a shutdown a couple of weeks ago, I was ecstatic. Stand up to the greedy!
It had been 30 years since the last UAW strike. Union membership has been decimated by the unending closing of plants, down from nearly a half million workers during the 1970’s to 73,000 today. Union-busting has been at full throttle while internal strife has also taken its toll on union solidarity. A good example is the split in the AFL-CIO leading to the creation of the new federation Change to Win.
At the heart of the recent negotiations was job security and health care. There have been many concessions made over the years to keep the failing Detroit Big 3 car makers from being buried by Toyota (who now leads in car sales globally). So a weakened UAW tentatively bowed to the demands of General Motors. In return, GM gave them a VEBA.
VEBA means Voluntary Employee Benefits Association. The form the UAW VEBA would take is a health care trust fund that would eventually be turned over to the union. GM would put in some of the company’s money but would also take from the workers’ pension funds, COLA and advance wages.
Former UAW International Executive Board members wasted no time in defending the earned security of auto workers. Paul Schrade, Warren Davis and Jerry Tucker released a statement criticizing union leaders in allowing the burden of health care benefits to be shifted to retired workers and their families.
The former board members cited a depressing example of a failed VEBA at the Caterpillar company where workers were also represented by UAW. That VEBA went belly up and now workers are responsible for paying thousands of dollars in out-of-pockets expenses for their health care.
These veteran union leaders also felt that an opportunity was missed by the union to join the national debate on health care. The struggle of workers was derailed by a company with a history of broken promises – a company which has blamed its own short-sightedness and greed on the workers.
Whether the UAW company win-win settlement with GM will repeat itself down the road with Ford and Daimler-Chrysler remains to be seen. By now, it ought to be crystal clear that cozying up to the company is always a lose-lose strategy for workers.