The UAW: Limitations of Unionism
Widick, B. J.
In all factories there can be found an intense, often troubled inner life which few outsiders know much about. Negotiations, strikes, layoffs—these reach the newspapers. But the day-to-day life...
...He was the man who was being blamed for the suddenly toughened company policies, and his appearance nearly provoked a riot...
...It kept the ratio of one chief steward to about 150 persons and balanced out the divisions...
...Particularly acute was the problem of Saturday overtime...
...Hard times usually signify a change in local union leadership unless it remains united, educates the membership on its problems, and offers a comprehensible and constructive program...
...I can't do anything until I know what it's all about...
...Now, however, that the corporation had suffered two bad years in 1957 and 1958, it began a major shake-up in its plant management, replacing the "softs," those officials whom the union had mellowed, with a new and tougher kind of organization man...
...This is what happened...
...Yet the confusion among the workers was such that the very next day they had voted, under an old motion on the books, to go on strike...
...And unless someone made the mistake of calling in the city cops, I knew the situation was again under control...
...In response to this tragic situation, the international union adopted a policy of broadening seniority through a nation-wide agreement, and this became part of a new contract to go into effect in January 1959...
...The corporation now insisted that under no circumstances were wild-cats to be tol erated in its plants...
...After 50 days of negotiations the company came in with a final offer which included the return of the fired committeeman...
...But between theory and practice there was, as usual, a gap...
...The warning was brushed aside...
...The company figured that if it gave some concessions—alleviation on relief time, elimination of foremen working, redress on a few wage classifications— it could afford to stand firm on work standards, perhaps the most important issue in dispute...
...I'm putting you in my place as committeeman," he said...
...A week later the company obtained a court injunction to stop picketing, but it also changed its schedule to eliminate Saturday work...
...but for the men who work in the shops they remain indispensable, a major weapon in the struggle for a decent life...
...Fortunately, the top company officials became convinced of this and indicated that if the plant continued work there would be redress of the penalties...
...But the difficulty was that 1957 was not 1937...
...The next day, one of the leaders of the demonstration in the trim shop was fired, others penalized...
...Unions may not be enough, they have their serious limitations...
...but this was precisely what could not be achieved on a local basis...
...Unless we had positive assurance that the company penalties would be modified sooner or later, another eruption would obviously break out...
...But the day-to-day life of a plant, where union and management find themselves at frequent odds, is in some ways more important than such melodramatic events...
...nothing can persuade workers to "like" or "accept" or even "understand" the kind of situation in which many UAW members now find themselves...
...In the shop all the "outs," those who had been defeated in the last Local election, kept tending the factional fires...
...I should explain that these strike issues were unresolved grievances which were left over from the master nationwide agreement signed some months earlier...
...If you come back and don't meet the standard, you're also fired...
...Over 500 workers, with high seniority, were thus left out in the street...
...The company, in turn, had agreed to a scheme for rehiring the old-timers...
...In the plant there was still more uncertainty and confusion, fanned of course by the usual "politics" of local unionism...
...In this context, the Local nego• tiators began to feel frustrated...
...then a day off...
...but to no avail...
...The men had retaliated with a kind of passive resistance...
...One of the major aggravating policies of the corporation- -tested out in our plant—has been the introduction of a five-stage penalty system against any employee failing to meet work standards dictated by management...
...The near-riot in the trim shop was just the beginning of a grim struggle on the speedup issue, which in auto plants is never-ending...
...The Local president nodded in agreement, and soon the plant was cleared...
...The boos and roars grew louder and louder...
...Though perhaps the best set-up in the industry, it was very reluctantly accepted by the Local leadership...
...The company has still another card up its sleeve...
...For a while I couldn't even find out what had happened: they were too mad, cursing the company, cursing the union...
...The technical grounds were insubordination...
...There's serious trouble there...
...Again the tension became unbear...
...Most of the union negotiators tried the tactics of the good old days, threatening strike, talking militant...
...But this time there were too many bitter feelings, too much anxiety over personal fates and prestige, and so the ranks voted the most vehement critic into the Local presidency...
...When the Local then held its meeing to discuss the agreement, what should have been a useful educational discussion in which the ranks would be enabled to see that we were engaged in a holding operation forced on us by the recession, was turned into a minor brawl...
...I realize that for the reader these details may seem very localized, but it is only by at least noticing them that I can show you something of the actual texture of day-to-day life in the plant and the union...
...The in-plant arrangements still reflected divisions agreed upon when it had employed 14,000 workers...
...Memories of 1937— the heroic period of our Local, which functions in our folk-lore somewhat like the American Revolution—were passionately invoked...
...When Walter Reuther announced his plan for an unemployed march on Washington, this provided some relief from the pressures of the men, if only because it placed the issue of jobs in a proper focus...
...Union officials protested that it might be a personal hazard to pass the picket line and asked the company if it would assume liability for damages in case of a riot...
...I was at the labor relations office arguing in behalf of the discharged committeeman when the phone rang...
...Quietly I kept asking, "Tell me what happened...
...For the union the basic difficulty was that while it could get some concessions without a strike, this would not remove the resentments accumulated among the men during the past months, nor would it soften the work standards achieved by the corporation...
...The international union had granted the Local the right to strike if the grievances could not be settled...
...And of course the truculent, erratic behavior of the company had gone far toward encouraging strike sentiments in the ranks...
...This offer represented, roughly, the minimum that the union could accept without risking a strike whose outcome would be extremely doubtful...
...The following article, which tries to outline an unpublicized but quite typical situation in a large auto assembly plant in Detroit, presents details seldom found in standard writings about unionism...
...When the company first announced there would be work on Saturdays, the unemployed members of the Lo cal, as part of a city-wide movement, announced plans to picket the plant...
...That such a change can solve problems which, by their nature, are beyond the control of the Local or even the UAW as a whole, may well be doubted...
...Militant speeches were a dime a dozen...
...The forgotten memorandum provided that if the union was dissatisfied with the work load given an individual whom man agement was threatening to fire un der the usual charge of "slowdown," the union could bring its own time study man to make a work analysis...
...Today the inevitable explosion followed...
...All afternoon the union waited for the meeting, but company higher-ups decided not to negotiate because a wild-cat was involved...
...When this work was transferred to a new automated plant, only about half the number of men were needed for the same amount of production...
...By noon feelings have boiled over...
...Young people comprised the majority of the men and they thought at the time they would do better for themselves if seniority were arranged on a departmental or area basis...
...This does not strike us as a happy possibility, since in the past the Umpire has tended to favor the union on matters of wages and seniority but was harsh on matters affecting plant discipline...
...THE NEXT MORNING: Tension everywhere in the plant...
...This, of course, is not meant as an argument against union democracy...
...tion of deciding who would starve first...
...During the recent disputes manage ment kept insisting that it had the right to set standards, and that the union could challenge the subsequent rates of production which the com pany called for under these standards...
...Discretion forbids any answer, since a hint by union leaders for direct action would quickly come to the notice of the company and enable it to fire them...
...There seems no alternative but to return to work...
...But we also realized that, judging by settlements in other plants, it was un likely that a strike could bring better results...
...Obviously, the whole future of industrial unionism is, to one or another extent, involved here...
...Unfortun lately, in a plantwide referendum two years ago the membership of the Local had voted down a plan for sei tiority on a plantwide basis...
...This new crisis would increase the turmoil of the past four months...
...As soon as the labor relations man picked up the receiver, I could hear the angry noises...
...Fortunately the chairman of the shop committee came up with a scheme the company had to accept...
...But it is open to criticism on the ground that during the past decade or more it fostered an atmosphere of complacence in the ranks, so that many members gradually developed a blind faith in the union's powers...
...The plant protection men at the gates were all tensed up...
...FOR THE MEN and women in the shop, the kind of brutal experience they have gone through during the past few years—suffering as they have from the effects of a changing industry, an anti-labor climate, the difficulty faced by the union in solving problems on a purely economic level—has led to a growing sense of insecurity and a kind of personal disorientation which will take a long time to overcome...
...The Local leadership now found itself under a terrible strain...
...Short weeks were being scheduled...
...In the ranks it became a political football, damaging the prestige of the negotiators...
...Quite by accident a union official now remembered a memorandum sign ed by the international union and the corporation to clarify the issue of how to settle disputes over work standards...
...Its choice was to accept an agreement which many of the men would grumble about, or to decide upon a strike with the knowledge that in regard to the main issue—work standards—the company need not budge beyond its obligations under the contract...
...Under a section of the contract which gives management the exclusive right to direct its work force, the company was legally entitled to schedule Saturday overtime...
...It can insist that the Local go through regular grievance procedure in this case and let the Um pire between union and management rule on the proper penalty...
...The company, taking the offensive, had modified union representative rights, made grievance procedures stricter and pushed for higher work norms...
...it has to remember that when another local had voted to stay out in a similar crisis last spring, the company involved had obtained an injunction, sued for damages unless the contract was immediately honored, and thus forced the leadership of that local to retreat...
...3) The recent developments which have struck a hard blow at sections of the UAW are neither unique nor the last of their kind...
...Accepting an explanation and believing it, however, are two different things...
...Now, ORDINARILY, developments of this kind—guerrilla in-fighting follow ed by a truce of so its—would tend to normalize relations in the plant...
...But these were unusual times in the life of both the plant and the union...
...But it also signified the loss of seven full-time stewards, thus involving an issue of patronage in the Local...
...One wet October morning the telephone at the foreman's desk rang...
...How dumb do you think we are...
...Emo tions would have been discharged, small but galling problems settled, and the ordinary rhythm of plant life resumed...
...When this information was given to the men on the line, it was accepted and a sort of armed truce followed...
...Why don't we walk out now...
...Some chief steward areas had been reduced to less than 20 men, others still had over 600...
...Just two days ago the new contract had gone into effect, which meant—in theory—that the rules had been set down under which both sides would have to function in regard to wages, hours and conditions...
...They felt that the union would simply tell them to go back to work while the problem was being negotiated...
...Meanwhile, a battered Local, with most of its membership lost and consumed by primitive factionalism, faces not only an uncertain future but an increasing skepticism within its membership...
...You'd better get over to the trim shop," he said...
...The second side issue concerned the proper proportion of stewards to the rank and file workers in the plant...
...able...
...But many of us in the plant felt heartsick at the thought of being forced to come to work and finding our unemployed union brothers picketing the gates...
...The company told the union which group of workers in the plant would be subject to special surveillance, as a test of its penalty system, and it warned in advance that slowdowns would not be tolerated...
...1 was escorted out of the plant...
...2) The UAW is not to be blamed of course for the crisis created by sociotechnical changes and the recession...
...When the UAW "industrial engineer" came to the plant to check the company's claim, he concluded that the work load for which the company had said six teams were sufficient really needed seven...
...ed by acrimonious debate, personal recrimination, general blowing-off of steam...
...It was a call from the chairman of the shop committee...
...But when there is freedom of expression for the ranks and the leadership has neither ideas for solving such problems nor the power to do so, the result can be a magnification of panic...
...Because the UAW is a union with democratic procedures, the final decision was left to the Local negotiators...
...The Ieadership has to bear in mind the hard fact that the contract, recently signed, is binding...
...Union representatives have the duty of getting to trouble spots to see if they can settle problems and keep the men on the job...
...As they reached the office, the new plant manager appeared, purely by coincidence...
...At this point the company and the union began formal negotiations on the so-called strike issues within the framework of the new contract...
...I'm calling from the Local...
...For the two-thirds of the membership that hadn't even shown up, the exaggerated reports of the poorly-handled meeting confirmed their cynicism...
...What lessons can be suggested...
...But some grumbling re 45I mained, and when over 25 per cent of the rehired old-timers couldn't keep up with the pace on the line, the issue of work standards was rendered still more acute...
...We had been working without a contract because of the UAW strategy of "rock and roll" negotiations with the Big Three auto companies (that is, avoiding a major strike...
...What the ranks wanted was jobs for all...
...and finally a ten-day suspension...
...Naturally, the workers with ten years seniority—the youngest in the plant—didn't feel too happy about this union achievement, even if it helped break the log-jam of negotiations, since it obviously threatened their own employment, immediately or potentially...
...At this point capable international UAW bargainers entered the picture and immediately won a closer hearing from the company, which is inclined by considerations of prestige, and prefers for reasons of policy, to deal with the international rather than with the Local...
...If the union thought management was wrong, it could write grievances...
...Had the union done more to prepare the membership for the crisis ahead, had it not so thoroughly joined in the prevalent post-war ideology that basic social problems were being solved by American capitalist society, there would not now be so extreme a reaction among the worl ers when they discover the drastic limitations of unionism...
...No one knew what to do, no one expected the men to go back to work...
...If not, you're automatically fired...
...In other words, there had been no "slowdown...
...Management refused to bargain on this procedure, claiming that it held the prerogative to set rules of discipline...
...When the men saw the Local president and myself, they jeered still more...
...The contradictory character of these two decisions reflected am bivalent feelings among both the ranks and the secondary leaders of the Local in regard to the value of the new contract...
...The men in the Local are victims of social forces they neither control nor understand, and this tends to aggravate their bewilderment and suffering...
...And the frustrated and harassed Local leadership had to remember that elections were only fourth months away...
...A strike now would have to take place within the framework of the contract, signed for three years, and adjustments would therefore be confined to the so-called strike issues such as speed-up, foremen working, relief time and the rehiring of the discharged committeeman...
...only as a comment on its occasional cost...
...Sometimes this meant a four-day week, other times a six-day week...
...A COLD-BLOODED ANALYSIS showed that this time the company had a good many advantages...
...Furthermore, the union received a break because it appeared that the supplier's strike would be settled and our company would now have greater reason for avoiding a strike of its own...
...The ranks were irritated because the company was slow in returning the discharged committeeman to work...
...In the absence of democracy, decisions are simply made, for good or bad...
...In practice, however, no one quite knew what this meant...
...Why...
...11 But the plant did not return to normal after these incidents, not even six months later...
...All sections of the UAW protested the wisdom of such schedules...
...The temptation to strike as an answer to the problems of the shop was overwhelming...
...Production cut-backs, decentralization and auto mation had reduced the membership to less than 3500...
...That's not my job," I said...
...Experienced unionists know that the mere size of the crowd says a great deal about the feelings of the men...
...It was also a tradition for the company to crack down on wild-catters...
...Quite the contrary...
...But at least there would be a better comprehension, and less blind resentment often turning against the union itself...
...BUT MEANWHILE two other burning issues in the plant have to be glanced at...
...So negotiations dragged on for weeks...
...The ur ion representatives had warned management that the result of this procedure could only be: a) to cause the men to feel that the union was helpless b) to decide, consequently, that they had to take things into their own hands...
...Some reaction there would still be...
...So that problem was settled...
...A few days later the company returned to the offensive again and tried to put into effect the five-point penalty system which the workers hated so much...
...1 Vith a kind of ob tuse wilfulness, the company insisted on scheduling production according to the flow of orders...
...Foremen stood helplessly on the side...
...Another top official of the company stepped into the crowd and told the men, "We are asking you to go home, while we negotiate with your union...
...Finally they calmed down a little and told me: The company had ordered one man into the office to be penalized for not meeting the work standards, and the whole assembly line marched in behind him...
...Even more troubling were the fears many men had of a lay-off...
...As I walked into the trim shop, I noticed three riot squad cars of city police near the plant...
...As I kept trying to assess the impact of this event and waited for confirmation of my new status from the company's labor relations department, one thought stayed in my mind: How soon will the inevitable walk-out take place, and what will be its consequences...
...Meetings of the stewards, the membership, the executive board—all were distinguish...
...Because," he answered, "I've been fired...
...What exacerbated the struggle in our plant was the fact that the relatively easy work standards of the war years had been carried over into the postwar years, partly because of the militancy of our Local, partly because the international union "tolerated" the tactics we had used to maintain what were among the best working conditions in the industry...
...Reluctantly, the nen accept explanations along the above lines and agree to go back to work...
...As usual, part of the leadership was torn by doubts—a feeling heightened by the fact that Local elections were now only six weeks away...
...I'd be accused of leading a wildcat...
...The company was then forced to retreat, and from that moment on it was more careful about imposing arbitrary standards or making quick use of the penalty system...
...and they were sick of that...
...Once this plant had 14,000 workers...
...At a membership meeting of the Local the contract had been ratified almost unanimously...
...One of its major suppliers was itself closed by a strike, so that a shutdown now would have little adverse effect on our company— for that matter, it wouldn't mind closing for a while to avoid paying unemployment benefits...
...Critics of the Local administration charged, with some show of plausibility, that the union had been p laced in the posi...
...The in-plant struggle had been fierce...
...For in our Local it was traditional for the ranks to shut the plant whenever a union representative was fired...
...the workers remained out of the plant...
...They will be reenacted whenever quick technological changes occur in an economy geared fundamentally to maximum profits, not human wellbeing...
...Top negotiators for both sides entered the discussions, and it seemed that an agreement was within sight...
...In reality this was part of a very significant and, in some respects, ominous process of "educating" the Local negotiators that old-fashioned, tubthumping bargaining was permanently out of the window...
...This swift, violent and utterly spontaneous demonstration had thrown management off balance...
...This ludicrous suggestion snapped my own tension and I broke out laughing...
...Before automation and decentralization had struck this plant, it had over 1200 machine shop and motor line workers...
...The company has already informed the Local that it expects the men back at the job the following day and that there will be no negotiations on the discharge of the committeeman unless work is resumed...
...Finally, a top company official said to me in front of the men, "Tell them to go home...
...The louder the critic, the more attention he received...
...The agreement was accepted by a close vote, amid noise, catcalls and disorder...
...As word of the exchange spread through the crowd, more people began to laugh...
...At first the company refused to ad mit that such a memorandum existed, but a quick call to top officials at the UAW office forced it to agree that it had actually signed such a document a year ago...
...The unemployed demonstration succeeded...
...It can also be argued that a union leadership which adjusts intelligently to a new economic situation, can give greater depth and meaning to the democratic process...
...Meanwhile, the company was bound not to impose any penalties on the workers involved...
...then three days off...
...Come back anytime in the ten days you want to do the work...
...But let me, just by way of conclusion, suggest a few points: 1) The effects of a sudden change in the socio-technological structure of an industry are sometimes more severe in a union which remains essentially democratic than in a union run by a boss...
...The plant was scheduled for Saturday work, and the unemployed members of the Local were there in force...
...Now that the committee man, a well-known union veteran, had been fired, explosive sentiments were certain to burst forth...
...But in the present national atmosphere, it is also important to remember that to analyze and stress the limitations of unionism—limitations even in the best of unions—is not to assent for a minute to current anti-union moods...
...First a warning...
...A FEW DAYS LATE t: Another, more serious explosion has just occurred...
...everyone keeps asking...
...Sales were just fair...
...The over-all figure was impossible to justify, as everyone knew...
...The men pour out of the plant and into the Local hall, with an overflow crowd packing the street...
...For the Local leadership a dilemma presents itself: should it recommend that the men stay out until the committeeman is rehired or go back the next morning and try negotiating...
...Under pressure of organized booing and increasingly hostile questions, the Local negotiators wavered, and the potential value of the settlement as a step toward rebuilding a solid local was dissipated...
...Their political positions in the Local became endangered, since the "outs" were exploiting the inability of the leadership to make quick and major progress...
...The men, for their part, began to feel that perhaps there was an answer to the constant drive for greater production through harsh discipline and speedup...
...Hard facts and cold logic would carry more weight than vitriolic displays in the 1937 tradition...
...but the extremely able company nego tiators were not moved an inch...
Vol. 6 • September 1959 • No. 4
