Gettelfinger's Message: Everybody Is Just As Important As the Next Person

Ron Gettelfinger, who rose from the assembly line to the head of his union, has never forgotten where he came from.

That was obvious Saturday (April 19, 2008) when Gettelfinger spoke to Livingston County Democrats at the 25th annual Winans Dinner.

"Everybody is just as important as the next person," Gettelfinger told the more than 150 people at the event at the Hamburg VFW Hall, in Michigan's Livingston County.

Based on his behavior, Gettelfinger believes it. The president of the UAW arrived for the 6 p.m. event, stayed the entire evening, and mingled freely with everyone in the crowd, working his way from table to table to shake hands with anyone who wanted to visit with him. Above, he introduces his wife, Judy, to guests at one table.

And after downing his dinner, he sat for a lengthy interview with reporters.

Then in a rousing keynote speech, Gettelfinger laid out his belief in the fundamental equality of all human beings.

When the United Auto Workers lobbies for measures such as an increase in the minimum wage, it's not UAW members who benefit, he said, since its members make more than that. Millions of non-represented workers benefit. And improvements in worker safety laws benefit all people, not just union members, he said.

"We're proud of who we are and what we stand for," the UAW president said.

Recently, he said, a fellow union employee told him of stopping to fill up for gas at a gas pump and noticed the total left on the pump from the previous customer -- $1.79. "That's a world a lot of people don't see," he said.

Gettelfinger also justified the union's support for single payer, universal health care that covers everybody.

"Why shouldn't the person who comes to my home and picks up my garbage have the same health care as a CEO? Their life is just as important," Gettelfinger said.

Concern over UAW retiree benefits is what prompted the UAW to want to take over administering health benefits for Delphi Automotive Systems workers in 2005, he said, noting that employers have figured out how to declare bankruptcy, move operations overseas, rake in millions of profits, and walk away from their obligations to past employees.

In its 2007 contracts with automakers, the union also agreed to administer health care, and Gettelfinger promised, "You don't have to worry about your health care ... There will be health care for every retiree who is retired today and into the next 80years. We're confident of that."

Gettelfinger stressed that the UAW values the auto industry and wants to see it survive because of its importance as an economic engine. As a result, he said the union had made many recent sacrifices in order to preserve jobs.

Yet he said those sacrifices seem to go unnoticed by news reporters who focus on "greedy unions" while ignoring excessive executive compensation.

While Gettelfinger mentioned the head of American Axle, who made $258 million between 1997 and 2007 and now "wants workers to work for nothing," he made it clear that the problem is broader than that. In 1976, the average chief executive officer's salary was 36 times the average worker's salary. In 1993, it was 131 times as great. But by 2005, the average CEO was making 369 times the average worker's pay.

"Why is somebody not talking about that?" he asked. "It does make my blood boil when I see what these executives are rewarding themselves with based on the performance of their workers."

Gettelfinger said he was willing to take criticism in the media for bringing up those issues.

But he got little criticism from Saturday's audience, which interrupted him several times with applause.

Stay tuned for more posts on other themes in Gettelfinger's talk