> Tom Lehman wrote:
>
> >Doug--Outside of autos things don't look to good do they?
> >
> >I was talking with the president of a large, if not the largest UAW
> >local in Ohio
> >yesterday. This gentleman tells me that if China PNTR goes through
> >chances are a
> >huge expansion plan by a major automaker here in Ohio will be
> >derailed. The way
> >he sees it the parts plants and the assembly plants are on there way
> >out of the
> >country and all that will be left in America will be 6 or 7 showplace
plants,
> >that's it.
>
> Someone who knows the auto industry once told me that the UAW's
> biggest problem is nonunion parts plants in Ohio, not Mexico (or, by
> extension, China).
Yep. This time last year I was working on a UAW blitz of independent parts suppliers in Michigan. One morning the VP of organizing gave an overview of the industry to the staff organizers. A major point he made was that today there are as many auto manufacturing jobs in the US as there were in the early 70s, at the height of UAW membership. Currently the UAW is a shadow of its former self, at least in terms of membership in its core industry, and some sectors like auto parts which were once highly organized now operate virtually union free.
The conclusion of the presentation was that it is wrong to think that the loss of unionized auto manufacturing jobs is solely due to relocation south of the border (or overseas) and that there is more than enough organizing work to do in the UAW's own back yard. Unfortunately, the new master contract ratified this past winter won't be helping matters any. According to Labor Notes, the contract takes no strong industry-wide stand against modularization (i.e. contracting out), leaving it to the locals to fight on an individual basis the loss of work in their unionized plants to union-free factories down the road.
mark