United Auto Workers

“ When the United Automobile Workers demand a wage increase from the auto industry, [57] a single monolith is pitted against a number of separate, competing companies. The contest is an unequal one, for the union is able to play off one company against another. ”

“ With a huge unsold backlog of 1929 cars hanging over the market, the auto industry cut back to 3.36 million units in 1930, 2.38 million in 1931, and 1.33 million in 1932 and laid off thousands of workers. ”

“ By giving the auto companies a chance to restructure, we will shield the American people from a harsh economic blow at a vulnerable time. And we will give American workers an opportunity to show the world once again that they can meet challenges with ingenuity and determination and emerge stronger than before. ”

“ Now, my top priority in this administration is going to be to create 2.5 million new jobs, and I want some of those jobs to be in the auto industry. And so my intention is to have my economic team work with not only auto management, but also the UAW, and -- and talk to workers and find out, what can we do in order to assure that their jobs are preserved, but not just for the next few months, that they're preserved for years to come and that a next generation of autoworkers are going to be put in place. ”

“ With a million jobs at stake, I refused to let that happen. In exchange for help, we demanded responsibility. We got workers and automakers to settle their differences. We got the industry to retool and restructure. Today, General Motors is back on top as the world’s number one automaker.
Chrysler has grown faster in the U.S. than any major car company. Ford is investing billions in U.S. plants and factories. And together, the entire industry added nearly 160,000 jobs. We bet on American workers. We bet on American ingenuity. And tonight, the American auto industry is back. ”

“ Many of our major industries, such as steel, glass, rubber, and textiles, rely on the auto industry to buy a significant percentage of their output. It is estimated that at least one in five jobs in the United States depends, directly or indirectly, on the automobile industry. ”

“ When the Auto Workers were recently negotiating with General Motors for a guaranteed annual wage, what would have been the consequence if nothing could have been decided until a federal agency had determined whether the impact on prices or on the economy was proper? ”

“ Upon the proper adjustment of these factors within an industry and in relation to competitive activities may well depend the economic success of the enterprises affected as well as the employment and efficiency of the workers. The Motor Carrier Act lays little emphasis upon the clause we are called upon now to construe, 'qualifications and maximum hours of service of employees.' None of the words are defined by the Section, 203, devoted to the explanation of the meaning of the words used in the Act. ”

“ New plants, military establishments, and other concentrations of employment were located in areas served inadequately or not at all by public transportation. Many war industries increased their employment and thus were required to recruit the added personnel from greater distances than before. Inductions into the military service, migration of workers, and other manpower stringencies caused still further increases in the distances from home to place of employment. All of these factors had the effect of increasing the dependence of the war worker on automobile transportation. ”

“ Because today, the American auto industry is back. Since our plan went into effect, our automakers have added more than 640,000 new jobs. We’ve cut the Detroit-area unemployment rate by more than half. The Big Three automakers are raising wages. Seven years ago, auto sales hit a 27-year low. ”

“ War worker use of automobiles
This critical situation prompted surveys of war-worker transporta- tion by numerous agencies; and all of them pointed up the absolute need for the continued maintenance of the private automobile as a wartime transportation medium. A study of 749 war plants scattered throughout Michigan, made in 1942 by the State Highway Department, revealed that 75 percent of the workers in those plants traveled to and from their jobs by driving their own cars or riding with another private-car driver. ”

“ It would have had devastating consequences for our economy and our workers. With the short-term assistance provided by this package, the auto companies must bring all their stakeholders together, including labor, dealers, creditors and suppliers, to make the hard choices necessary to achieve long-term viability. ”

“ Of course, the cabs which were permitted by the Union to run earned plenty of money, but the drivers were not allowed to keep all of it. Those who worked were expected to contribute towards the support of those who did not, and for once in a way, that was a perfectly fair arrangement. Certain of the men on strike were sent out daily by the Union to sell tickets to the men at work. ”

“ All sorts of gear went by; rich gentlemen in stately pride, workmen with their week-day grime scarcely cleared from their faces, gay girls with parasols, honeymoon pairs, cars with men driving, cars with women at the wheel. The automobile is far more of a general utility in the United States than in England. Workmen, and, indeed, farmers themselves—not those who curse—have their own cars. They mortgage their property to get them, but they get them all the same. Even women buy cars for themselves, and are to be seen driving them themselves. ”

“ The relations between the state inspectors of factories and the ordinary police authorities are regulated in each state by its constitution. Prohibitions of truck in its original sense—that is, payment of wages otherwise than in current coin—apply to any persons under a contract of service with an employer for a specified time for industrial purposes; members of a family working for a parent or husband are not included; outworkers are covered. Control of fines and deductions from wages applies only in factory industries and shops employing at least 20 workers. ”

“ I can conceive of nothing more disruptive of congenial labor relations than arming employee, union and management with the potential for 'smarting' one another with exemplary damages. Even without the punitive element, a damage action has an unfavorable effect on the climate of labor relations. ”

“ Thus the acts 1831 to 1887, and also the act of 1896, apply to all workers (men, women and children) engaged in manual labour, except domestic servants; they apply not only in mines, factories and workshops, but, to quote the published Home Office Memorandum on the acts, “in all places where workpeople are engaged in manual labour under a contract with an employer, whether or no the employer be an owner or agent or a parent, or be himself a workman; and therefore a workman who employs and pays others under him must also observe the Truck Acts.” ”

“ Respondent's employees are represented by the United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America, UAW, in a single, multiplant company-wide unit. The 1958 agreement between union and company provides for maintenance of membership and the union shop. ”

“ The automobile, the autocrat of the present day, has little of the missionary spirit; but it has made its imperious demand for good roads all over the country, and legislation now authorizing convict labor on State roads is not only responding to this demand but is partly solving the vexed problem of the employment of convicts. ”

“ Moreover, the stark fact is that here, as in the 'newsboys' case, the union's effort was to improve the economic status of the grease peddlers. This is made clear by the stipulated facts:
'These self-employed peddlers have no established places of business; no employees, except an occasional loader; no capital investment except a small equity in a truck; no skill or special qualifications except the ability to load, unload and drive a truck. ”

“ Companies in search of cheap labor have discovered the USA, or at least some parts of it, and achieve here efficiencies that at home, under labor laws originating from a literate pragmatics, are not attainable. Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Porsche, and many Japanese companies train their labor force in South Carolina, Mississippi, Arkansas, and other states. The usefulness of the people these companies train is almost equal to that of the machine, unless the workers are replaced by automation. ”

“ My Administration will prioritize setting clear standards, expanding key infrastructure, spurring critical innovation, and investing in the American autoworker. This will allow us to boost jobs—with good pay and benefits—across the United States along the full supply chain for the automotive sector, from parts and equipment manufacturing to final assembly. ”

“ Of the future of the automobile and of products allied with it or sharing in its construction and prosperity, as continuing money-makers, all indications are that the profits already taken out of the motor car industry in the United States are but placer croppings, and that the years to come will record the workings of the real vein. This real vein, in the opinion of the man who looks ahead, is in the use of passenger cars, haulage trucks and motor tractors by the fifty million of the population of this union of states who are on or of the farm. ”

“ The motor vehicles pay only a small part. Naturally they can often haul passengers and freight at a relatively smaller overhead and capital, lower taxes and lower maintenance costs for their right of way.
Also we, the national government, allow them to operate free from many restrictions which would ensure safety to the public and fair working conditions for labour. We should not give them any unfair competitive advantages over the rails. ”

“ But there is nothing in the labor policy indicating that the union and the employers in one bargaining unit are free to bargain about the wages, hours and working conditions of other bargaining units or to attempt to settle these matters for the entire industry. ”

“ But the taxameter is far too useful an innovation to be suppressed at the word of the Cab-drivers' Union. The public must remember that the taxameter gives them the protection for which they have been sighing for years, and that if they are determined to enjoy its benefits the Cab-drivers' Union is powerless to prevent the boon. It may order a strike, but the spectacle of men refusing to work because they are not allowed to overcharge their customers will be more novel than edifying. ”

“ A case in point is the automobile industry. Unemployment peaked at 28 percent in 1980. By this July, auto industry unemployment was down to 6.1 percent, and there were 153,000 more people at work in auto industry jobs than 4 years ago. ”

“ Many Trade Unionists were working for the Bus Company and were more concerned about their conditions of work than about the handful of drivers who were their own masters. But the Unions had begun to stress almost solely the question of hours and of wages; to fight for good conditions but no longer for control or ownership: to demand security but to agree to abandon many of their rights in return. ”

“ If they fail, then, instead of having to rely upon the switchmen alone in the support of that grievance, as now happens, they can call to their aid, not only all the switchmen, but the firemen, the conductors, the brakemen, and engineers. They can call to their aid the boilermakers, the machinists, and the blacksmiths, the shopmen and yardmen and office men; and, if it becomes necessary, they can command the combined support of all the organized workers of that entire system. ”

“ The automotive supply chain, which employs three times as many workers as the automakers, has also shown renewed strength. However, we still have a long way to go.
Over the past 2 years my Administration has undertaken coordinated efforts on behalf of automotive communities, including targeted technical and financial assistance. ”

“ Thus the transportation unions stand about shrugging their shoulders while the shop unions have their national agreement taken away from them. And in turn the shop unions consider it none of their funeral when the Stationary Firemen, Maintenance of Way, and other groups lose the eight-hour day. ”

“ A majority have expressed the opinion that our exports of trucks and pleasure cars will take a big jump soon after peace is declared. But seeking for a peace after the years of warfare has become the least of the American auto maker’s trouble. Great war orders have been received and filled by the American makers of trucks. ”

“ To give an idea of the fearful competition of the Diesel motor, one must imagine an invasion of hordes of strong and tireless men from an unknown country that are willing to work incessantly for twenty-four hours every day for about 10 cents. Wherever there is work done by a gang that possibly can be done by machine power, the "Diesel motor men" will take it away from the unskilled laborers, those extravagant gentlemen who ask a fair wage for a fair day's work. ”

“ Stimulating influences in the formation of this, one of the earliest, and one of the most comprehensive and sincere co-operative industrial associations, were the necessity for presenting a united front, which legislation adverse to the automobile created, and of popularizing and inspiring confidence in an innovation. ”

“ There is a doubt current as to whether a master is liable to his driver under the Workmen's Compensation Acts. This is not so, the first Act, that of 1897, referring to servants in a factory and certain other employments; although some places which to the lay mind would scarcely seem to be included in the word 'factory' have been held by the judges to be so classed, there seems no possibility of a motor-car being held to be a factory. ”

“ The owners assume no responsibility to Oklahoma for damage to the cargoes.
Under the collective agreement covering the drivers among its employees, the drivers enjoy certain common employment privileges such as collective bargaining, seniority rights, death benefits, immunity from discharge except for cause, military-service protection, and vacation pay in an amount based on their average weekly pay. Owner-drivers may be discharged for cause. ”