The UAW’s new president says that foreign automakers need to unionize. Bob King, newly sworn in to replace Ron Gettlefinger, says that a top priority for him will be to organize non-union workers at Toyota plants in the United States. Speaking to thousands at the UAW’s 35th convention in Detroit, King said that workers must support the right to organize, or the union can’t win back concessions they’ve given up.
King’s top organizing target is Toyota, even though he acknowledged that the union has had no luck in the past with its efforts to organize the Japanese automaker’s workers. Toyota spokesman, Mike Goss, says that King’s notion is nothing new to his company. Toyota recently announced that they are resuming production of the Corolla in Mississippi and hiring 2000 workers.
I find that interesting. Why haven’t Toyota, Honda and other foreign car companies not been unionized in the past? One reason may be that the UAW is losing its pay edge compared with non-unionized U.S. assembly plant workers for foreign car companies; and this, as Detroit automakers aim for deeper benefit cuts to trim their losses. In at least one case last year, workers for a foreign automaker, for the first time, averaged more in base pay and bonuses than UAW members working for domestic automakers. That’s according to an economist for the Center for Automotive Research. That means the same pay as unionized workers without union dues.
Unions have played a vital role in the lives of working Americans in the past. It’ll be interesting to see what their role will be in the future.
This is Carl Ramsey and that’s Another View of the News.
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