<HTML><FONT FACE=arial,helvetica><FONT SIZE=3>Sorry, guys, but the premise smuggled into the argument doesn't work. It has
<BR>been a while since the UAW was just, or even primarily, an union of
<BR>autoworkers. The joke in the labor movement, after the UAW took in the
<BR>writers' union, was that it stood for the "Union of All Workers." Graduate
<BR>assistants and clericals are the growth sector for the UAW.
<BR>
<BR>There is really not much of an unorganized auto industry in the US, leaving
<BR>out small time parts manufacturers. All of the major auto manufacturers are
<BR>union. Decline in the numbers of autoworkers relates to outsourcing of
<BR>production outside of the US, and to capital intensive,
<BR>technology/productivity measures inside US auto manufacturing. The problem
<BR>the UAW faces are a lot more complicated than "organizing the unorganized" in
<BR>the auto industry, and require a lot more to solve them than organizing zeal.
<BR>Ask the much diminished West Coast longshore union, about as militant,
<BR>leftwing and class-identified union as the US has had for the last 50 years,
<BR>what one does in the face of such 'technological change.'
<BR>
<BR>Hey, I know class collaborationist union leaders livinbg high on the hog
<BR>makes for a good story line, but it doesn't provide an analysis for how to
<BR>revive American unionism.
<BR>
<BR>> Hmm. Total U.S. auto employment rose by 2.3% from 1998 to 1999, > and
<BR>> fell by just 0.6% from 1999 to 2000. But the UAW ranks were down by
<BR>> 9.9% and 11.9% respectively. Blaming the latest decline on
<BR>> "slackened
<BR>> sales" is hardly a good explanation.
<BR>>
<BR>> They should tie Yokich's base pay to membership growth; that'd be a
<BR>> spur to organizing.
<BR>>
<BR>> Doug
<BR>***************
<BR>
<BR>> I know of one big company that could still use a union :-) They should >
<BR>tie all pay scales of all officers to membership growth and if
<BR>> membership shrinks during their
<BR>> time in office, they can't run for reelection.
<BR>
<BR>Ian
<BR>
<BR>Leo Casey
<BR>United Federation of Teachers
<BR>260 Park Avenue South
<BR>New York, New York 10010-7272 (212-598-6869)
<BR>
<BR>Power concedes nothing without a demand.
<BR>It never has, and it never will.
<BR>If there is no struggle, there is no progress.
<BR>Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation are men who
<BR>want crops without plowing the ground. They want rain without thunder and
<BR>lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its waters.
<BR><P ALIGN=CENTER>-- Frederick Douglass --
<BR>
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