Ask The Best And Brightest: Which Automaker Will The UAW Target?

by Edward Niedermeyer

Published: March 29th, 2011

The WSJ gets a little closer to the truth about the UAW’s incredible disappearing transplant organizing campaign, reporting

On Tuesday, UAW leaders meeting here described plans to reach out to foreign unions and consumers in what would be their first major campaign since failed efforts in the last decade at Nissan Motor Co. and auto-parts supplier Denso Corp. They hope to be more successful by reaching out to foreign unions at the auto makers’ overseas plants and bringing pressure from prayer vigils, fasts or protests at dealerships.

A person familiar with the matter said the union is now planning to target one foreign auto maker and has narrowed its list to three or four companies. Inside the union, much of the talk centers on targeting the now-struggling Japanese auto maker Toyota or Korea’s Hyundai, this person said.

The UAW has set aside tens of millions of dollars from its strike fund to bankroll its campaign. International actions are to be coordinated with foreign unions and run by some three dozen student interns recruited globally, UAW officials said. When the interns return to their home countries after learning about the UAW efforts in the U.S., they’ll be expected to organize protests against the auto maker, UAW officials said.

OK, so it’s a little bit strange that the UAW is entrusting a campaign that UAW President Bob King calls “the single most important thing we can do for our members ” to a bunch of interns. Still, with “tens of millions of dollars” allocated towards the campaign, some automaker somewhere will be feeling the union’s hot breath on its neck in due course. So, which automaker will the UAW target? Which automaker should they target? And with the UAW apparently refusing to fight the two-tier wage structure, will any transplant or foreign workforce want to join up?

#Jobs #Overseas #Transplant #Uaw #UnionNews

Edward Niedermeyer

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GS650G on Mar 31, 2011

watching that video I thought it was a trailer for Atlas Shrugged, the movie. So much populism, so little time.

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Geeber on Mar 31, 2011
psarhjinian: No, he is correct. I have no idea where you got that figure, but it’s highly cherry-picked. Both the government’s own records and opensecrets.org show union contributions were dwarfed by non-union donations for most Democrats, even in Michigan. Only the most liberal (Kucinich) see appreciable donations. He is not correct. Here it is, straight from October 22, 2010 edition of The Wall Street Journal: The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees is now the biggest outside spender of the 2010 elections, thanks to an 11th-hour effort to boost Democrats that has vaulted the public-sector union ahead of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the AFL-CIO and a flock of new Republican groups in campaign spending. (emphasis added) The 1.6 million-member AFSCME is spending a total of $87.5 million on the elections after tapping into a $16 million emergency account to help fortify the Democrats' hold on Congress. Last week, AFSCME dug deeper, taking out a $2 million loan to fund its push. The group is spending money on television advertisements, phone calls, campaign mailings and other political efforts, helped by a Supreme Court decision that loosened restrictions on campaign spending. "We're the big dog," said Larry Scanlon, the head of AFSCME's political operations. "But we don't like to brag." (emphasis added) No cherry-picking here. These are the straight facts, and the final quote is straight from the horse's mouth. psarhjinian: That’s what unions in North America have done, true, but much of that is because management played hardball by default (which doesn’t happen in Europe or Japan). Japanese unions are basically company unions, and have been ever since the more militant unions were broken during a very long and bitter strike at Nissan in the early 1950s. That type of union is illegal in the U.S. European unions at the French and Italian automobile companies have been pretty militant from what I've seen. But management hasn't been too willing to take them on directly. The Germans do operate more by consensus. But one can't help but note the number of VWs sold in this country that are manufactured in Mexico (or, previously, Brazil). For that matter, VW is building its new Accord-Camry-Fusion-Malibu-Sonata competitor here in the U.S., at a brand-new plant it is constructing in Tennessee. And it will likely be non-union - as are virtually all of the other transplant operations at this point. psarhjinian: You’re also ignoring that GM et al more or less dug their own grave without union assistance during that time period. I never said that management was blameless. But to ignore or minimize the role that the UAW played in GM's downfall is as inaccurate as blaming everything on the union. There's plenty of blame to go around here.

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