UAW's Gettelfinger talks up Big 3

[TonyV]

Last Updated: April 14. 2010 2:32PM .

UAW's Gettelfinger talks up Big 3
Louis Aguilar / The Detroit News
The head of the United Auto Workers praised the leadership of Detroit's Big Three and hopes that this year's seasonally adjusted annual sales rate for light vehicles comes in at 12 million to 12.5 million.

Speaking at Wayne State University this afternoon, Ron Gettelfinger said he is "very, very optimistic" about the fate of Chrysler Group LLC, thinks General Motors Co. is "coming on strong" and that Ford Motor Co. is "hitting on all cylinders."

The relationship between the union and the CEOs of the Detroit automakers -- Chrysler's Sergio Marchionne, GM's Ed Whitacre and Ford's Alan Mulally -- is quite strong, he said. Gettelfinger highlighted Chrysler's decision to rescue the Sterling Heights Assembly Plant from being permanently shut, though he shied away from saying how long it will remain open.



Gettelfinger also described President Barack Obama as "doing the impossible" in helping to save GM and Chrysler.

[TonyV]

Posted: 1:48 p.m. April 14, 2010
Gettelfinger remains hopeful on unions, auto industry
By BRENT SNAVELY
FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER

Two-term UAW president Ron Gettelfinger, during what might be one of his last speeches as an active UAW president, reflected today on the harsh treatment the union received from Congress in 2008 and 2009.




“At the end of 2008 … we were in a recession … and we were facing a worldwide collapse of the auto industry,” Gettelfinger said today during a speech at Wayne State University. “And there was a group of people in the Congress of the U.S. that wanted to throw the auto industry overboard.”


Gettelfinger, who testified in Congress in 2008 along with the CEOs of the domestic automakers, emerged as a key player in the GM and Chrysler bankruptcies. He helped convince the Obama administration to grant stock in the restructured GM and Chrysler to the union’s retiree health care trusts in exchange for reducing debts the companies owed to the trusts.


“President Obama didn’t waste any time. He knew the importance of the industry and he stepped up,” Gettelfinger said. “The president did, in my opinion, the impossible, when he managed these bankruptcies and got these companies in and out.”


Today, Gettelfinger said, the automotive industry is showing signs of recovery. He predicted that total sales of cars and trucks in the U.S. will top 12 million this year. That would be an improvement from 10.4 million in 2009.


With the U.S. economy on the verge of recovery and auto sales starting to rebound, Gettelfinger expressed confidence about the future of all three domestic automakers.


Ford, he said, is firing on all cylinders and said he is very comfortable with Ed Whitacre as chairman and CEO of GM.


“He’s the kind of guy who will meet you at 6 a.m. in the morning, and he will be wearing a sweatshirt, and when he goes into the plants, he’s the same way,” Gettelfinger said.


Gettelfinger also repeatedly said that Chrysler has more of a chance for a recovery than is commonly believed among industry analysts due to the leadership of Chrysler and Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne.


“I do believe he is going to be a sleeper in all of this,” Gettelfinger said.


Gettelfinger said there was debate about whether the U.S. government should help Chrysler as the Obama administration crafted its strategy for how it would assist the U.S. auto industry.


“In fact, if Sergio would have walked away … there would be no Chrysler today,” Gettelfinger said.


Gettelfinger has guided the UAW through an era of retrenchment over the past eight years.


He is credited with convincing UAW members to vote for concessions on contracts that the union fought for decades to win. Those efforts included a landmark labor contract in 2007 that set up a retiree health care fund called the UAW Retiree Medical Benefits Trust that the UAW manages.


The agreement put the UAW in control of health care for retirees and allowed General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler to offload billions in future health care liabilities.


However, the ranks of UAW members fell to a new post-World War II low in 2009 as the bankruptcies of General Motors and Chrysler led to thousands of manufacturing job losses.


According to its annual report filed with federal regulators in March, the UAW had 355,191 members at the end of 2009, a loss of 75,846 members, or 18%, from the 431,037 it reported at the end of 2008. The union’s net assets shrank by $69 million to $1.12 billion.


Gettelfinger said U.S. labor laws need to be adjusted to make it easier for nonunion employees to organize. Gettelfinger said legislation called the Employee Free Choice Act would accomplish that.


“People … if they want to join a union shouldn’t have a fear of being fired,” Gettelfinger said.