9 August, 2010
In the US, recruiting new union members was to become easier with passage of the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), a solid piece of labour reform legislation meant to balance the current one-sided advantages that employers have in blocking workers’ from joining a union. But despite mass support generated by US unions and their members in 2008 to elect Barack Obama and Party Democrat majorities in both houses of Congress, reciprocation by prioritizing EFCA for passage never happened.
Last week, on 1 August, the new President of the United Auto Workers (UAW), Bob King, turned that page by telling the annual Management Seminars of the Center for Automotive Research that American workers deserve to have their constitutional First Amendment rights of free association and free speech protected. He called on senior managers to help make that happen in good faith by signing a union election protocol.
Bob King, President of the United Auto Workers (UAW)
King said the UAW will not passively “sit and wait” for passage of EFCA, but instead will present to executives of auto and auto-related industries – now operating without unionization – a “Principles and Fair Union Election” protocol that guarantees workers will have their basic rights upheld in free and unencumbered union certification elections. The UAW will make those principles public following an upcoming executive board meeting of the union.
But they are certain to include equal access to workers seeking to form a union by both the union and management, and the principles would ban derogatory, insulting, and false statements by either party. Perhaps more significantly within the US landscape of union, the UAW principles ban any threats, coercion, or pressure by either management or the union in the run-up to or after elections.
King told the US auto industry’s leading management seminar that for those companies that sign on and abide by the principles, “we will respect the decision of their workers whether they vote to join the union or not.
“However, if companies do not agree to these principles, and instead engage in threatening behaviour towards workers who want to organise a union, or fire workers who try to organise, or close down facilities to thwart union activity, then the UAW will not tolerate the violation of workers’ First Amendment rights.”
King added, “So, any company that does not agree to the UAW Principles is essentially declaring war on freedom of speech and assembly, and it is our duty and mission to enforce that right.”
King, who was newly-elected to head the 400,000-member union in June, told the industry that “the 21st century UAW” will be less adversarial and has already proven to the three major US automakers to be a partner in flexibility, innovation, quality, teamwork, productivity, continuous cost-savings, and mutual respect.
“We respect not only the employers with whom we have relationships, but we also have enormous respect for the transnational companies who have build factories in the US,” said King. “We welcome you as partners and colleagues in the industry. We appreciate the fact that you are providing good jobs here. We admire many of your good policies and practices, including the focus on continuous improvement, quality, and productivity. The transplants are an important and essential part of preserving, maintaining, and growing our manufacturing base in this country.”
King, the first UAW President to speak before the US auto industry’s managers’ forum since 1994, told executives that the choice was up to non-union employers whether or not to sign the UAW’s Principals. But, he suggested, “the best business practice, the best way to deliver shareholder value, is to partner with the UAW on quality, productivity, attendance, employee morale, and the overall goal of providing the best product at the best price to the customer.”