Behind the UAW's Aw Shucks Smile

[Geee]

American Spectator:

Bob King's pants are on fire. Or they would be if the old saying ("liar liar…" ) were true. The United Auto Workers (UAW) President announced a change in strategy earlier in December, saying that his union would not target specific automakers in right to work states for unionization. Instead, King claims that the UAW will use a more diplomatic, less adversarial approach to organizing employees at these plants.

Conveniently, the shift comes less than a month before the end of a year in which King vowed to organize at least one non-union automaker. Gary Chaison, professor of industrial relations at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, told the Wall Street Journal that the change in tactics is really "a retreat." He added, "I think they are in the embarrassing position of trying to announce an organizing drive that has yet to come to fruition."

Indeed, the truth behind King's announcement is that union leaders are beginning to realize that a head-on organizational drive will not work. The UAW has tried that time and again and workers have consistently rejected its efforts. The union has repeatedly failed to organize employees at factories owned by Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Hyundai Motor Co, Kia, Volkswagen, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz.

So what is the UAW to do? In a recent interview, King tries to portray himself as the nice guy saying, "We are not going to announce a target at all.… We are not going to create a fight." Later in the interview King acknowledges the difficult spot he and his union find themselves in -- and a way out of it. "It really is ultimately up to the companies," he said.

Therein lies the rub. The union knows that workers do not want to join it, so they need to muscle their way in through the board room. In pursuing that strategy, the UAW remains as aggressive as ever, even as it claims to change its tone.