Post by bo862 on Dec 20, 2009 10:22:44 GMT -5
This is to open a discussion on our (the memberships) current relationship with the international union. The reason for this is because after this last contract, which we voted down, a lot of people feel that the IUAW no longer has the membership’s best interest as their top priority.
First, we need to understand that what affects one does not necessarily affect the other. This was made obvious in the concessions that we voted in favor of. We lost Cola, put our retirees into a separate insurance plan (veba), and made sure that new employees will not start out earning a fair wage (we gave up more than this). The international received raises and continues to earn cola while their retirement remains unchanged. This is obvious to me. It is easier for someone that is not affected by the result of negotiations to be willing to give concessions. I understand this is not new, but this was made obvious with the concessions.
Next I believe it is important to consider the mentality of members that go into international. I will use Mr. Gettlefinger as an example. I have spoken to people that worked with Mr. Gettlefinger, they had nothing but positive things to say about him, both as a line worker and as a local union rep. As a local leader I’m sure he took care of his “natural group”, the local 862 membership. He did his job well enough to make it to the international union. As president of international, his “natural group” is now the interantional. I do not believe Mr. Gettlefinger ever turned his back on the membership, but his priorities are now with the international, as opposed to the membership. I believe this is common in international, and somewhat necessary, but the divide shown on the last round of concessions is just too big. We need to change the relationship between the two so that the membership is more important to the international.
My recommendations would be to start making changes to the constitution to bring the international back in line with the membership. Here are a few examples of what I see as starting us in the right direction.
• Anytime that the contract is opened up for negotiations the union should be required to have a constitutional convention to mirror any concessions by its members.
• Veba causes major conflict of interests between membership and the international. The best way to fix this, short of giving responsibility back to Ford, is to require that international retirees are in the exact same program. That I believe is the only way to encourage international to fix veba. If international knew that they would have been put into the veba when they retired, I do not believe it would have been brought to us to vote on!
• This is a major issue that I don’t have a solution for. One part of the membership being played against another. For example: low seniority against high, plant vs. plant and so on. They use this to get contracts pushed through that otherwise wouldn’t be voted in. This is a practice that needs to stop.
Just a heads up to anyone that wants to do away with the international needs to be aware that they can be removed from any elected or appointed position and prevented from running for any positions.
The language can be found here www.uaw.org/constitution/article10.cfm , Article 10 section 12.
If you have any other thoughts or ideas on how we can improve our situation please post them.
First, we need to understand that what affects one does not necessarily affect the other. This was made obvious in the concessions that we voted in favor of. We lost Cola, put our retirees into a separate insurance plan (veba), and made sure that new employees will not start out earning a fair wage (we gave up more than this). The international received raises and continues to earn cola while their retirement remains unchanged. This is obvious to me. It is easier for someone that is not affected by the result of negotiations to be willing to give concessions. I understand this is not new, but this was made obvious with the concessions.
Next I believe it is important to consider the mentality of members that go into international. I will use Mr. Gettlefinger as an example. I have spoken to people that worked with Mr. Gettlefinger, they had nothing but positive things to say about him, both as a line worker and as a local union rep. As a local leader I’m sure he took care of his “natural group”, the local 862 membership. He did his job well enough to make it to the international union. As president of international, his “natural group” is now the interantional. I do not believe Mr. Gettlefinger ever turned his back on the membership, but his priorities are now with the international, as opposed to the membership. I believe this is common in international, and somewhat necessary, but the divide shown on the last round of concessions is just too big. We need to change the relationship between the two so that the membership is more important to the international.
My recommendations would be to start making changes to the constitution to bring the international back in line with the membership. Here are a few examples of what I see as starting us in the right direction.
• Anytime that the contract is opened up for negotiations the union should be required to have a constitutional convention to mirror any concessions by its members.
• Veba causes major conflict of interests between membership and the international. The best way to fix this, short of giving responsibility back to Ford, is to require that international retirees are in the exact same program. That I believe is the only way to encourage international to fix veba. If international knew that they would have been put into the veba when they retired, I do not believe it would have been brought to us to vote on!
• This is a major issue that I don’t have a solution for. One part of the membership being played against another. For example: low seniority against high, plant vs. plant and so on. They use this to get contracts pushed through that otherwise wouldn’t be voted in. This is a practice that needs to stop.
Just a heads up to anyone that wants to do away with the international needs to be aware that they can be removed from any elected or appointed position and prevented from running for any positions.
The language can be found here www.uaw.org/constitution/article10.cfm , Article 10 section 12.
If you have any other thoughts or ideas on how we can improve our situation please post them.
