Quote Of The Day: The UAW Goes Global Edition
Even though Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne’s disparaging comments about its over-reliance on Italian manufacturing have opened the door for more US manufacturing opportunities, United Auto Workers boss Bob King wants to make it clear that he won’t be taking advantage of Fiat’s rift with its Italian unions. Fiat tells Automotive News [sub] that failure to secure Italian union agreement with its new manufacturing plan could send increased production to Serbia, Poland and even the United States. King’s response [via Michigan Public Radio]:
They (automakers) won’t be pitting one worker in one country against another. We’re going to be part of working with our global partners in other unions and building a global middle class – and rebuild the American middle class, really.
Yes, in the brutally competitive international labor market, there is a way for everyone to win… really.
Actually, King’s call for unity rings a bit hollow, considering he was just trying to woo Italian suppliers to the Michigan area a little over a month ago. And why wouldn’t he prioritize the interests of his workers over the feelings of feisty Italian unions? Possibly because Fiat is coming under fire from Italian politicians like Gianfranco Fini, the speaker of Italy’s Lower House, who points out that
If Fiat is a giant, this is because for a very long time Italian taxpayers have prevented Fiat’s collapse.As the (unwilling) 60 percent owner of Chrysler, the UAW needs a healthy Fiat to buy Chrysler’s equity from its cash-starved VEBA fund as quickly as possible. Rather than stoke Italian fears that a UAW-owned Chrysler will gut Fiat’s Italian manufacturing base in favor of US and Eastern European workers, King elected to try to help put out Fiat’s Italian firestorm. But will his UAW workers understand that their union had to put the interests of foreign workers over an opportunity to bring more jobs to America?
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This exposes the inherent contradiction of the UAW. The rank and file think they are an American brotherhood while the UAW leadership has a global collectivist labor vision. Car buyers can, with clear conscious, purchase any car built with foreign unionized labor . And the UAW better not say anything untoward about our Mexican built cars or we'll invoke the 'you better not speak ill of brown skinned folk' race card.
I understand King has to say these things to fire up the members, but c'mon. He's talking about the union and worker rights as though he really believes that bs. The union hasn't been about worker rights in 50 yrs... unless you count wages entirely out of whack with market demand 'worker rights'.