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ReprintsKing's speech reverberates in the hallways
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The seminars opened not with a bang but with a group hug.
In the first panel discussion, new UAW President Bob King was flanked by the top manufacturing bosses at Ford, General Motors and Chrysler. They complemented and complimented each other.
In earlier, separate prepared remarks, the Detroit 3 factory honchos had praised the UAW as a partner in raising productivity and quality. King had gone to great lengths to contrast the UAW of the 20th century — out to get all it could for its members — with the UAW of the 21st century, where the rank and file understand that the best strategy for long-term job security is to help their employer be successful.
One of the questioners asked whether the UAW was still pushing automakers to bring supplier jobs back in-house. Oh, yes, King and his fellow panelists agreed — but only when it made business sense and could take advantage of a new contract that essentially offers supplier-level, not the higher automaker-level, wages for work brought in-house.Their audience was not just the suppliers attending the session. The second half of that same session on world-class manufacturing, and other sessions throughout the day, included speakers from the U.S. manufacturing arms of Nissan, BMW, Toyota and Honda. None of them has been organized by the UAW, despite efforts by King himself in years past.
King's prepared remarks reached out to those companies. We'll help you with employee morale and absenteeism, he said. We'll join with you to create safer factories, where workers are injured less and fewer days are lost to preventable accidents. Just allow your workers to hold a fair, unfettered vote as to whether they want UAW representation.
And if they vote no, we'll be OK with that, King said.
But inside that olive branch was a stick. If the vote is not fair and unfettered, King warned — if management issues threats or intimidates workers who ask for a vote; if disparaging attacks sully the election — we'll come after you with every weapon we have. He didn't quite promise to burn down management's house, but he didn't rule it out, either.
His speech could almost be split in two. The first half was all about the changed UAW, now ready to work together with automakers and suppliers. The second half invoked the spirit of Walter Reuther in a call for social justice. "Our goal is to achieve democratic values and principles," he said. The UAW must "contribute to the goal of creating a global middle class," he said, putting China and anti-union corporate practices in his sights.
Attendees discussed the session in the hallways and well into the evening receptions. Some took it cynically; some saw it as a sign of the changes the UAW has gone through in recent years. But there was no doubt which session grabbed everyone's attention at this year's conference.
You can reach James B. Treece at jtreece@crain.com.
