Gettelfinger blasts GOP's tactics

He says union was 'set up'; Corker says he couldn't get a date for union to take pay cuts.

Louis Aguilar / The Detroit News

Union Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger and Senate Republicans from the South spent Friday blaming each other for killing the congressional bailout that would have provided emergency loans to keep the domestic auto industry going until January.

Hours after the Washington deal fell apart, Gettelfinger was at Detroit's Solidarity House charging that a minority of southern Republicans was trying to "set up" the union by demanding concessions no other party -- the automakers and bondholders, for example -- were being asked to accept.

The breaking point of the negotiations was the UAW's refusal to agree to lower wage and benefit rates as soon as next year, Gettelfinger said.

"The GOP caucus was insisting the restructuring had to be done on the backs of workers and retirees rather than have all stakeholders come to the table," Gettelfinger said. "They were trying to pierce the heart of organized labor while representing foreign brands," that have plants in the southern United States and use non-union workers.

Shortly after the UAW press conference in Detroit, Republican Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee roared back at the union from Washington. Corker suggested the union bore the burden for the measure's failure.

"I offered them a solution," Corker said of the Thursday talks. "Our caucus was 100 percent behind it. Do we own it, or does the UAW own it?" Corker chided Gettelfinger for not participating in the discussions. "I asked him to come to the table, not assign somebody to come back and forth. It didn't work out."

Corker said he proposed that wages and benefits of UAW members be lowered next year to match rates at American plants run by foreign automakers, and gave the UAW the chance to pick the date when the pay cuts would be made. He could not sell a compromise to other Republicans without that agreement. "We just could not get a date," Corker said of his Thursday discussions with the UAW. "It was an amazing thing to me."

Gettelfinger countered there is no way to tell what Republicans mean by competitive wage and benefit rates. In the 2007 labor agreement, the UAW agreed to slash starting wages and benefits for newly hired autoworkers at the Detroit automakers to as low as $14 an hour. Those cuts don't affect current workers, whose hourly pay and compensation is about $55 an hour. The figure climbs to more than $70 an hour when automakers' costs for health care for retired workers and retirement benefits are factored in.

The hourly pay and compensation at foreign automakers is about $45 an hour, labor analysts say. Gettelfinger said that excluding benefits, UAW workers earn just over $28.12 an hour in wages, on average. That compares with $30.45 an hour, which includes profit-sharing bonuses, for non-union workers at Toyota's Georgetown, Ky., plant.

The UAW's back is up against the wall, said Gary Chaison, labor professor at Clark University in Massachusetts.

"This whole bailout, at least today, has become a debate that is very ideological and geographical, and the UAW is in a very difficult position now," Chaison said. "It's become about the American labor movement, about North versus South, about labor and anti-labor, about free trade versus regulation. Gettelfinger must be frustrated because he's a practical guy, but, with this ideological fight now, it limits his options and how much he can bargain."

Gettelfinger indicated Friday "we were prepared to make further concessions" but didn't provide details.

The debate over UAW wages and benefits is something that's often argued, even in Detroit. UAW members such as Local 22 President George McGregor say they occasionally have to defend themselves to other working-class residents.

"I get it sometimes from the cashier where I buy my groceries over on the east side," of Detroit, McGregor said, who represents workers at GM's Hamtramck Cadillac plant. "I'm wearing my shirt with the UAW logo, and I'm paying cash, when the cashier asks, 'How come you all make so much money? It's unfair,' " McGregor said.

In the student center at Wayne State University on Friday, a group of classmates also were discussing the pros and cons of UAW wages and benefits.

"If you put in the seniority, I don't see why you should lay blame towards them," said Courtney Griffith Jr., 18, of Detroit, whose father is a GM hourly worker.

But Mikaela Manley, 18, of Oak Park, says the wages of UAW workers should be cut. "A lot of them don't even have college degrees, and here we are, working hard and sacrificing to get an education, and yet they will get paid more than us," Manley said.

You can reach Louis Aguilar at (313) 222-2760 or laguilar@detnews.com.