Detroit Free Press:. "UAW contracts once heralded American Progress. Will they in 2019?"

[muntrv]

UAW contracts once heralded American progress. Will they in 2019?
JOHN GALLAGHER | DETROIT FREE PRESS | 12 hours ago


If you want to see the future of the American middle class, look no further than next year's contract talks between the UAW and U.S. automakers.

For the past 70 years, what happened to America's middle class often happened first at UAW negotiations here in Detroit.

In the 1940s, the UAW under its legendary leader Walter Reuther won concessions we now think of as middle-class entitlements. The UAW won the first paid holidays for General Motors workers (in 1947), the first employer-paid and jointly administered pension program at Ford (in 1949), and fully paid hospitalization, surgical and medical insurance for retirees (in 1964).

Those victories by the UAW helped create broad middle-class prosperity in the United States. They helped define what became known as the American Century, the dominance on the world stage of the American example. (See more at link below)
https://amp.freep.com/amp/2160813002

[MichMan]

1. I wonder what effect all the corruption convictions will have ?

The recent number of corruption convictions will undoubtedly play a role in whether or not the rank and file will trust UAW management in the next round of contract bargaining.

[AJT]

2. It is a global economy and global manufacturing is part of it.

The past power of the UAW was because there was no other economically viable alternative in manufacturing. There is no going back. We have to figure out a modern solution for a modern problem.