A New Labor Movement for a New Century
29 August 1997
A New Labor Movement for a New Century
A Labor Day Message from UAW President Stephen P. Yokich
DETROIT, Aug. 29 -- Following is a Labor Day message from UAW
President Stephen P. Yokich:
Labor Day 1997. The story is this: All over America, workers and unions
are reinventing the labor movement.
America's working men and women are serving notice. We are not going to
stand on the sidelines and watch while multinational corporations and Wall
Street dictate all the rules. And more and more workers are again realizing
that unions still offer the best way for us to win a seat at the
decision-making table.
Now, I realize that's just the opposite of what many self-styled experts
are saying about the future of unions.
Some argue that unions can't do anything for workers because in the New
Economy corporations are just too powerful. But, then, that's what they said
about General Motors back in 1937, too.
Others admit that unions have helped in the past. But they argue that
workers don't need unions today, because unions like the UAW have accomplished
what they set out to do in the 1930s and 1940s. In other words, there are no
more battles to be won.
The fact is, as we head for the 21st century, unions have more to do than
ever.
Yes, by many measures the U.S. economy is booming. Corporate profits, CEO
pay, and the stock markets are setting records. Inflation and unemployment
are the lowest they've been in years.
Yet many Americans have every reason to say -- please don't give me any
more "good" news. Sure, more Americans are working. But more and more are
stuck in part-time or temporary jobs. You've heard the joke, yeah there are
millions of jobs out there -- I know one guy alone who's got four of them.
And then there's the question of pay. Last year, the average compensation
of CEOs shot up 54 percent to $5,781,300. But the average worker got a 3%
raise.
At the workplace itself, in the name of "competitiveness," employers are
trying to turn back the clock to near sweatshop conditions. Excessive
overtime, 12-hour shifts, line speed-ups, no relief, vacations postponed are
more and more common.
This "profits-are-everything" mentality is taking a serious toll on family
life. Anti-union types like to talk about "family values." But when it comes
to protecting the rights of working parents to have the time to help their
kids with homework or go to their Little League games, they are working night
and day to weaken both unions and the laws that prevent employers from working
children and adults harder than ever.
Put it all together and it's no surprise that unions and working Americans
are answering the so-called new economy with renewed labor vitality.
That's why Teamsters delivered the powerful message to UPS that low-wage
part-time jobs take our economy backward -- not forward.
Just in the last few months, thousands of UAW members at GM local unions
have stood up to management's efforts to violate the contract provisions that
protect vacation and relief time they have earned.
At Action! Motown, a crowd 100,000 strong, jammed downtown Detroit in
support of the newspaper workers' struggle for justice with Gannett and
Knight-Ridder.
On college campuses, young people are fighting for their rights to
organize and bargain collectively. For example, more than 10,000 University
of California graduate teaching assistants have joined the UAW.
From Watsonville to Washington -- American workers have every right to
stand up for their rights and fighting for a future that keeps our economy and
our democracy healthy.
This Labor Day and every day thereafter -- that's just what we are going
to keep on doing.
SOURCE United Auto Workers
