Keynote Speech by UAW President Ron Gettelfinger
Feb. 3, 2008

Thank you very much. Thank you, Dick, for the kind introduction. And, thank all of you for the warm reception and just as importantly for the respect you show to the position I am privileged to hold.

Thank you also for the respect that you show to our Secretary-Treasurer Elizabeth Bunn, our Vice Presidents General Holiefield, Bob King, Cal Rapson, Jimmy Settles, Terry Thurman and our 11 regional directors. They do a terrific job representing our union and they are a pleasure to work with on your behalf every day and they certainly have earned the respect and the public recognition.

So thank you for the respect you show to all of our Board members.

Allow me once again to also thank former President Owen Bieber, who was just introduced. We have benefited so much from Owen’s wisdom and experience over the years. And he never misses a chance to continue to help us in any way that he possibly can. So thank you, Owen, for all that you do.

And President Emeritus Doug Fraser is with us in spirit and sends his best wishes and hope for a successful conference.

And I do, at this time, want to take the opportunity to thank everyone who’s involved in putting this conference together, including our CAP, Legislative, Public Relations and Retired Workers Departments and their staff and clerical. With the leadership of Dick Long, Alan Reuther, Roger Kerson, Linda Lash and their assistants, we hope this will be a very beneficial week for you personally as well as for your local union, your retiree chapter or your CAP council as the case may be.

While you are here this week we hope you will get to spend some time with our Legislative and International Affairs staff who do a great job for us: Alan Reuther, the director of both Legislative and International Affairs Department, we also have Barbara Somson, who is our Deputy Director of Legislative. We have Doug Meyer, our Deputy Director for International Affairs, and Sylvia Johnson, works out of our legislative office as a lobbyist, and we have Darius Sivin who spends his time both in Legislative and International Affairs. They all to a great job for us and thank you very, very much.

And Just as important, to each of you, our active and retired members, thank you for being here. And let’s just take a moment show our respect by asking the members of our Retired Workers Advisory Council and all of our retirees to stand. Please if you would, our retirees. [Applause] Thank you.

We need you more today than ever. Thank you for your continued involvement.

And from the standpoint of our active and retired workers, we do have a big job in front of us and we need all of you and our brothers and sisters at home to help us achieve our objectives during this election cycle, on the organizing front, in the collective bargaining arena and when it comes to our legislative agenda.

As the political season heats up, you’re going to be the ones – and we’ll be there with you – on the front lines: registering voters, working phone banks, participating in literature drops, going door to door and getting out the vote. It’s hard work and it’s time consuming, but we know you’ll be there.

And you need to know that based on all the input we received from our active and retired members, through your regional directors, our union has taken a no endorsement position at this time. And there is no doubt we that will have the opportunity to endorse a strong, pro-worker candidate for the White House.

Senator Clinton and Senator Obama are both our friends and support the basic right to organize, and will work with our union to pass the Employee Free Choice Act.

They each have a plan to achieve the goal of universal health care for everyone and understand that manufacturing matters, and both of them will work with us to create and preserve U.S. jobs.

So, we are quite confident that when the time comes, the best person for the job will be a candidate who listens to members of our union.

They understand that working families are the backbone of our economy and the heart and soul of our nation.

This election season, everyone agrees that America needs change.

And in the coming months, we will continue to hear the debate about what kind of change America needs and who can best achieve that change.

At the appropriate time, for our union, the choice will be clear. We won’t get caught up in politics or personalities. We’ll stick to the issues; the issues that matter to our members and to working families.

Our involvement in the political arena is grounded in the day-to-day reality of the core function of our union: That’s joining together with our co-workers to improve our workplaces.

Since we last came together in this forum two years ago you have been there, with us, as our union organized childcare workers, casino workers, auto dealers, auto parts companies and other employers.

In the collective bargaining arena, together, we have had to make difficult decisions in dealing with bankrupt companies. And, we’ve successfully completed negotiations with many different employers in every section of our union. Unfortunately, we currently have six active strikes and seven lockouts underway.

Our bargaining teams in auto negotiated innovative agreements that include production and investment guarantees that will preserve jobs for our members and for our communities and our nation.

We have successfully secured long-term health care for current and future retirees for the next 80 years including every seniority employee who was on the active rolls as of Sept. 14, 2007. Through an independent trust referred to as a Voluntary Employee Beneficiary Association, Big Three retirees health care will be funded with tens of billions of dollars in cash, stock and other assets. It is the largest transfer of assets, ever, from capital to labor.

But our work is not done. We’re not through as long as 47 million Americans have no health insurance and millions more are underinsured. We’re not through. We’re not through.

Because America’s broken health care system can’t be fixed at any one company or in any one industry. It’s a national crisis that requires a national solution.

And we, we, all of us, have an obligation to keep working and keep fighting until we have a single-payer, universal, comprehensive, national health care program that covers every man, woman and child in America – because health care should be a right and not a privilege for those who can afford it.

On so many other issues, brothers and sisters, our work is not complete when we are done at the bargaining table.

Our nation’s failed trade policies, have led to the destruction of hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs.

And it’s going to take political action to fix unfair trade agreements.

When companies go into bankruptcy, our union is going to fight as hard as we can, in court and at the bargaining table, to win the best contract possible for workers and retirees.

But we also need fundamental reform of our nation’s bankruptcy laws. To accomplish that, we simply need political action.

And no matter what the obstacles, our union is going to continue to help workers who want to organize.

But as the situation stands today, it seems that every time we win elections the National Labor Relations Board decides to change the rules.

When graduate teaching assistants at private universities started to organize, the Republican appointees to the NLRB took away their rights.

We had union elections in several of those worksites, but the NLRB refused to count the ballots. The Board told those workers: Your vote doesn’t count.

And if that wasn’t bad enough, with a stroke of a pen, the Republican appointees to the Labor Board suddenly re-classified millions of workers as “supervisors”, and said they had no right to form a union either.

And after thousands of workers joined our union and other unions through the simple, straightforward card check process, the Republicans on the Labor Board decided to change the rules, and make the card check process much harder.

They issued a ruling that says a minority of workers can sign a petition giving them a chance to overturn what the majority has already decided.

Harold Meyerson, a columnist for the Washington Post, calls the NLRB the “National Labor Ruination Board.”

And we’re going to fight all of these unfair rulings as vigorously as we possibly can. But when all is said and done, brothers and sisters, there’s only one real way to repair the ruin and the wreckage that George Bush and his anti-worker appointees have made to our nation’s labor laws.

We need and must have and must be engaged to invoke political action.

That’s why we’re here this week. We’re going to work together to fine tune the most forceful and effective political action program we can possibly deliver.

The framework has been established to further motivate us.

When Bush assumed the presidency we had a budget surplus – budget surplus -- of $236 billion. And by fiscal year 2007 that surplus has turned into a $354 billion deficit. That motivates us.
For the period 2001 thru 2005, 40,000 manufacturing facilities have closed. That motivates us.
And since January of 2001 our nation has lost 3.2 million manufacturing jobs. That motivates us to fight back.
And meanwhile, the U.S. trade deficit for goods and services for 2006 was over $763 billion. That motivates us to fight back.
And we can hardly remember that in 2000 a gallon of gasoline cost around $1.59. Unfortunately, we all know and experience the cost of filling up today. And we also know that ExxonMobil earned a record breaking $36 billion in ’06, and $40.6 billion in ‘07. That motivates us to stand up.
And at the same time, between 2000 and 2006, median income has gone down by $1,000. That motivates us to register voters.
We have thirty-six and a half million Americans living in poverty. That says to us, we must do more.
In the meantime, Fortune 500 top CEO’s made an average of 364 times the average pay of American workers in 2006. That says to our time is now to stand up and stop this kind of misguided behavior on the part of America’s CEOs.
We all know that America’s economy is at risk with uncertainty, and we have to do something about it.
And we know that a record number of American families are struggling around the kitchen table in an effort to make ends meet so that they don’t lose their homes.
It’s so easy to see why the economy has surfaced as the number one issue in this presidential campaign. So that motivates us.

Because again, we hear that the 2008 election will be about change. And brothers and sisters, the change that we need is to take our country back on behalf of hard-working Americans who made it great in the first place. That’s what we need to do. That’s our directive. That’s our marching orders.

We need to take America back for the hard-working families who made it great in the first place.

Are you with us on that? Will you stand up with us on that? Will you go out and register voters on that? Will you get out the vote? Will we win?

That’s what we need out of you. That’s what we need, brothers and sisters. Carry this message home. We have to have you in our corner helping us to get the job done.

And with the uncertainty of the U.S. economy, leaders of both parties now agree that the best way to stimulate our economy is to put money in the pockets of middle class families.

Duh?
We all have to admit, it’s a pretty simple idea. If you put money into the hands of working people, you increase consumer spending power and that helps our economy grow. Makes sense, right?

But right now, working people are in no position to drive our economy. Our wages are stagnating, and middle-class jobs are disappearing.

But let’s give credit to the that Democrats in the House and Senate who got it right when they raised the minimum wage right after they won a majority in the 2006 elections.

Because there is an excellent way to put money into the pockets of people who really need it and who will spend it to help our economy grow.

And let’s also acknowledge that the Democrats got it right – really got it right -- when the House passed the Employee Free Choice Act in 2007, and Senate Democrats put together a majority in favor of the bill.

Now the Employee Free Choice Act would – and I say would -- have enhanced democracy in America’s workplaces, and made it easier for workers to form their own unions.

And we all know again – putting money in the pockets of the middle class, right? - when workers form unions, they bargain for better wages which delivers the increase in consumer spending power that our economy desperately needs.

But let us remember in November that a minority of Republicans in the Senate used the power of a filibuster to block passage of that vital legislation. Let’s not forget in November.

And finally, we have to recognize that there is no sound strategy to stimulate our economy that does not include an aggressive plan to rebuild America’s manufacturing base.

Putting money in the hands of working people is a good start. But, if most of what they buy turns out to be made overseas then the new sales, new factory orders and new jobs that are created are going to be created somewhere else.

We don’t need Congress to stimulate the economy of some province in China. We need to stimulate new jobs and economic growth in Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois,Iowa, New York California and all over this country. That’s what we need to do – all over this country. Not some province in China.

We need a trade policy based on human rights, worker rights, and protections for consumers and the environment.

When our shores are swamped with products from countries where workers have no right to organize free and independent unions, everybody across the board loses – except corporate America and corporations around the world.

In many instances, workers overseas are unable to bargain for a better standard of living and a safe workplace – which they richly, richly deserve. And workers here are forced to give up wages and benefits in order to compete.

That’s not fair to workers here or workers abroad – and it’s an unwise policy for our country and for our economy.

It’s going to take a lot of work to fix NAFTA, CAFTA, the WTO and other flawed trade agreements. In the meantime, the very least that we can expect out of this Congress and the President is to do no more harm.

Right now, that means stopping the proposed U.S., Columbian and Korean and Free Trade Agreements in their tracks. Stop them in their tracks.

And listen to this. I’m just trying to refresh your memory. In reference to Korea, last year, the South Korean auto companies sold 700,000 vehicles in the United States, while all of the U.S. producers – I say all of the U.S. producers, the Big Three and the foreign nameplates -- sold just somewhere in the neighborhood of 7,000 cars and trucks in Korea.

Seven hundred thousand. Seven thousand. That’s another one of those “duh” statements.

But you know what? That’s not free trade. And that’s not fair trade. That is theft of American jobs. Theft of American jobs is exactly what it is.

Congress should reject both of these agreements, and tell the Bush Administration to come back with agreements that level the playing field.

And we also need incentives targeted at key industries like the UAW’s proposed Marshall Plan for the U.S. auto industry.

Our plan would reward companies that produce hybrids, fuel cells, clean diesel vehicles and their key components in the United States.

American workers want the opportunity to build the components and the automobiles of the future.

In Europe and Asia, governments treasure their manufacturing industries, and develop policies to preserve and enhance industrial jobs.

In this country, we have the most open market in the world and we’ve stood idly by while entire industries have disappeared: Toys. Textiles. Televisions. Computers. And the list goes on.

Brothers and sisters, if we don’t mobilize for change, it won’t be long before we lose the rest of our industries as well, including the industries where the majority of our manufacturing members work: auto, aerospace and ag-imp.

So, the stakes in this election could not be any higher.

Our jobs are on the line. Our industries are on the line. They’re at risk. And the future of our children and grandchildren hangs in the balance.

We cannot afford to be complacent, simply because the polls and the pundits say this could be a good year for our candidates. We all know, in this room, that the only poll that really counts is the one that takes place on Election Day.

So between now and Election Day, our job is to talk with our families, our friends, our neighbors our co-workers, and anybody we associate with. Let’s keep talking about the issues that really matter and the solutions that really work.

If we keep laying out the issues and keep working in the months ahead, we can strengthen an already strong movement that will bring real change to Washington DC.

Change that will bring health care to those who need it.

Change that will restore balance to our economy.

Change that will make a difference to working families.

But let’s be clear. The kind of change we’re talking about is a direct challenge to the forces of wealth and privilege in this country. They will strongly resist our efforts. But we’ll be ready.

We’ll be ready because every single one of us is committed to working as hard as possible to win this election on behalf of working people.

But we’re not going to do it as individuals. We’re going to do it together, as a team with other members of organized labor and our coalition partners.

We can do it. We have to do it. For our country, for our membership and for our union.

We will bring change to America, and build a better country for working families.

And in so doing, we will honor the great social vision of our union. A vision that reaches beyond our own membership, beyond the bargaining table, and across international borders. It’s a vision of people working together to build a better world for everyone.

With union in our hearts and solidarity in our spirit we will move forward together. We will stand up for working families and brothers and sisters we will win in November!

God bless America and God bless the UAW, God bless all of you.

Solidarity! Solidarity! Solidarity Forever!

Thank you very much.