Steel-ing for battle

...GM indicated clearly that while it intended to "take back'' from the union those contract provisions the company believed it could no longer afford, the company still wanted a working relationship with union leadership...

...By contrast, in the steel industry, President McBride's role was passive, and few union members even knew what was going on...

...The steel-workers' union, after forty years of top-down rule, has not developed a union-wide channel of political discussion and debate, a process of democratic decision-making, a web of leadership and trust...

...by then, membership pressure on local leaders to oppose concessions was intense...

...As talks got under way, union activists began to debate whether or not concessions were justified and would put autoworkers back to work...

...Johnston's letter was unprecedented and unexpected, a clear attempt to divide unemployed union members from their union...

...Steel pursues its efforts to bring labor costs into line with foreign competitors...

...But if one observed the process of negotiations closely in both industries, it was clear that the steelworkers' union was much less prepared to meet the companies' aggressive challenge...

...Although agitation for industrial unionism in the steel industry has long roots., and was intense in the mills in the years 1933-6, the organization of the steel industry to a large extent came about under the direction of John L. Lewis and Philip Murray of the United Mine Workers union and the Congress of Industrial Organizations...

...Inretrbspeet, worker rejection of the companies' pleas is not surprising...

...The UAW by contrast, developed in the course of concession bargaining a political dialog which informed members about the issues and enabled them to make a decision they're willing to back up...

...Steel's Bruce Johnston demanded a whopping $6-8 billion worth of concessions...

...Steel employees a letter accusing union leaders of selfish indifference to the needs of unemployed members...

...Then Johnston proved his outburst was no fit of anger...

...Steel has decided that if it can not bring its labor costs in line with those of its international competitors, the company will proceed with its diversification plan...

...So when McBride announced on July 30 that to his great regret, the concession bargaining had broken down, there was surprise and consternation...

...It was the steel companies' insistence on reducing their labor costs over the long term that caused concession bargaining to fail...

...Indeed, throughout the course of concession bargaining in the auto industry, company officials at Ford and GM showed they much preferred to extract concessions from the union in collective bargaining sessions rather than to win a strike led by union officials...

...One might infer from its name that the members of the BSIC all represented steel mills whose contracts were affected by the concession bargaining, but that is not the case...

...During the month of July, the company tried to "sell" the need for concessions by showing slides about the the danger of Japanese competition...

...When the talks broke down, Johnston mailed out to more than 100,000 U.S...

...And when Bruce Johnston, U.S...

...After all, McBride was American labor's foremost supporter of corporate America's diagnosis of our economic woes...

...The fact that concession bargaining failed in steel while it succeeded in auto has little to do with the conduct of either union...

...Steel mailed to all its employees in basic steel a three-page letter outlining the steel industry's proposals for the "reformation" of the Basic Steel contract...

...By July 23, only nine days before the bargaining deadline, the union's secondary leaders assembled in Pittsburgh still lacking any idea of what sort of deal industry bargainers had in mind...

...In the auto industry, concession bargaining was a relatively open process in which President Fraser played a leading role, while thousands of union activists were able to participate in shaping events...

...On the surface, it appears that a strike in August 1983 is inevitable, as U.S...

...From this perspective, the union's offer to forgo $2 billion in near-term wage increases was inconsequential...

...Steel's posture is all the more troubling because the bargaining process revealed how unprepared the United Steelworkers union is to meet a serious challenge...

...If they do offer a new concessions package, it is unlikely to be a very attractive one, and that's the problem...

...In auto, when the companies began complaining, in the fall of 1981, that they needed relief to maintain competitiveness with the Japanese, UAW President Douglas Fraser indicated that he believed that the industry had a good case, He then used his considerable powers of persuasion,.backed by his Research Department's economic analysis, to induce skeptical secondary union leaders to approve discussions with GM about reopening the contract...

...Yet never once did the steel companies tell their employees what they wanted...

...Certainly, if industrial conditions remain stagnant, the steel companies will have little incentive to compromise...

...As company officials repeatedly refused to indicate what they wanted in terms of holidays, cost-of-living provisions, and wage freezes, worker suspicion grew...

...proved a similar package by a narrow margin...

...and there could be no doubt that with steel mills operating at only 43 percent of capacity, the industry is really suffering...

...The CIO ran the Steel Workers Organizing Committee for five years, until 1942, then imposed a highly centralized constitution on the new union...

...Steel's chief labor negotiator, lashed out at McBride and the union leadership, one really wondered "what gives...

...It is easy to forget how different the history of unionism in the steel industry has been from that in auto...

...They were there, as they've been since the BSIC was established in 1966, to bolster the power of the USW president vis-a-vis the steel locals...

...Unfortunately," Johnston explained, "we were not able to make an effective course correction in the rising cost of wages and benefits which now threaten basic steel's survival...

...But as July passed without any concrete proposal being revealed, worker attitudes hardened...

...During concession bargaining in July, industry negotiators led by U.S...

...But McBride chose to limit his activities to meetings with the union's secondary leaders, because his relationship with his membership is different from Fraser's...

...Johnston's attacks on the steelworkers' union leaders are hard to imagine in auto...

...This must be some kind of a plot, why else won't they tell us what they want...

...instead, the company and UAW President Fraser combined to criticize union militants who had organized against concessions...

...On Aug...

...Steel's current attacks on the union...

...Concession bargaining proceeded differently in the two industries in large part because the two unions differ greatly, and they always have...

...6, U.S...

...Given all the anger steelworkers felt towards their employers, it seems clear that even had the steel companies genuinely desired to reach an agreement, concessions would only have been possible had President McBride legitimated the companies' demands by campaigning for concessions himself, as President Fraser did in auto...

...Now the company is pursuing its tough line with demands for major work rule changes at the Chicago South Works and Johnstown, Pennsylvania facilities...

...A comparison between how the United Automobile Workers conducted negotiations and the USW's experience throws into high relief the lack of communication, trust, and leadership that currently imperils one of the country's most important organizations of working people...

...by February, rank-ahd-file opposition to givebacks convinced a majority of local union leaders to vote to break off talks...

...HOW DIFFERENT was the story in steel...

...That seems a valuable thing to have as one faces the great challenges that lie ahead...

...It is the very isolation of the USW presidency that, in all likelihood, accounts for U.S...

...When Lloyd McBride, president of the United Steelworkers union, announced on May 28 that the Coordinating Committee Steel Companies wanted to "talk to" union representatives about the industry's financial traumas, observers predicted that steelworkers would follow autoworkers in making substantial monetary concessions to their employers...

...According to Business Week, U.S...

...Then, after a union referendum approved a package giving Ford wage concessions in exchange for promises to improve workers' job security, President Fraser convinced the GM Bargaining Council to reopen talks with GM...

...Many, perhaps two hundred, members of BSIC are drawn from plants not directly affected by the bargaining...

...Steel believes it needs, the company has abandoned the effort to maintain the ' 'cooperative relationship'' that obtained between the company and the union since 1960...

...Not only did the company's chief negotiator denounce the union leadership for cowardly capitulation'to rank-and-file pressures, he charged their failure of nerve would prolong unemployment and reduce American steel's competitiveness...

...in steel, the decision was made by the Basic Steel Industry Conference, a body-of six hundred local presidents...

...Rob Persons, a local staffer at Inland Steel's East Chicago plant, reports that when the company held its first meeting to make the case for takebacks, probably a majority of the local members were ready to go along...

...IF one needs further evidence of the fact that the UAW president has more influence over his members than does the steelworkers', one need only look at the mechanism used to decide about concessions in the two unions...

...Steelworkers, tike most industrial workers, are angry with management because their working conditions are poor and management authority is oppressive...

...when he met with local presidents in June, he merely passed on the companies' request to discuss their financial problems...

...Amidst a prolonged and vociferous debate conducted throughout the union, GM employees ap...

...From the onset, relations between leaders of the locals representing the big steel mills and the International .union officers in Pittsburgh have been filled with distrust and tension...

...Today, more than forty years later, McBride's grip on the locals comprising Basic Steel is still not secure...

...What happened to the emerging partnership of labor and management that was going to lead America to competitive vitality in international markets...

...President McBride was never willing to advocate re-opening the contract to consider negotiations...

...Johnston warned the union that "continued unwillingness to make any effective accommodation . . . will injure more and more people...

...Steel's purchase of Marathon Oil is the best, and most inflammatory, example, but steelworkers know that diversification is on the agenda of all the major steel producers...

...When the United Automobile Workers' GM Council voted to break off talks in February, GM was tough - it announced the closing of four plants and threatened to shift more work overseas - but it did not attack the UAW leadership for the breakdown in negotiations...

...In auto, all employees at Ford and GM represented by the UAW were -eligible to vote on concessions...

...in both his election campaigns for union president, McBride's vote at the mills was unimpressive...

...But now that President McBride has failed to deliver what U.S...

...In addition, steelworkers have seen their companies begin abandoning the industry in recent years...

...Is it surprising that steelworkers were not happy with the thought that their employer would use the wages they forfeited to speed its disentanglement from the steel industry...