From Milford to Rawsonville, from Ford to Visteon,

UAW 898 Celebrates Its Past as it Builds Its Future

UAW Local 898 will celebrate its 60th anniversary on July 23. Where and when did it all begin? On July 23, 1941— only a few short months before Pearl Harbor — a group of employees in a small Ford Motor Company plant in Milford, Michigan, received its official charter from the United Auto Workers of America (UAW). The charter they received was number 898. There were 300 members and only one product, the old Chandler Grove Carburetor. It remained the only product made by that Ford plant and its union members until September of 1957 when the plant and the union moved to Rawsonville. Today at Rawsonville we have 2,300 members and our workers manufacture many different parts for many different automakers. We are still Ford employees but Rawsonville has been spun-off from Ford Motor Company and is now a Visteon plant.

Benefits we have received from contracts over the years deal with basic working conditions, sick leave, representation, grievance procedures, seniority, transfers and promotions, layoffs and reinstatements and, of course, strikes and lockouts. Today, many of the original benefits have been expanded and additional items have been added. Now Local 898’s members have a good sound retirement plan, 401 K plan (TESPHE), paid vacations, much improved hospitalization and sick leave benefits, jury duty and bereavement pay and, that added factor that makes our hourly wage higher, Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA). We also have many joint programs that help workers and their families both on and off their jobs.

Under wages and hours, the original contract called for the company to pay rates in several classifications "at least as high as those paid by the major competitor" in auto, cement, glass, steel and tire industry. Employees working on first and third shifts received five cents an hour in addition to regular pay, and time and one-half was paid for work on Sunday and holidays.

But before there was a UAW 898, the UAW had to organize Ford. The year1941 was remembered for violence. It began with the most violent, bitter strike in the history of the auto industry. Henry Ford had sworn his company would never unionize; he would close the doors first. Under the leadership of the young Reuther Brothers the strikers stood their ground. Their historic victory in March of 1941 brought the last of the "Big Three" into the UAW.

There was no company wide agreement at that time. Each location had to be approached and won individually, but the Rouge settlement sent a clear signal to workers at all the other Ford locations. The first Ford agreement was signed June 20^th, 1941 and UAW Local 898 was chartered July 23 of the same year. The Milford Plant was built in 1938 for the purpose of producing the Chandler Grove Carburetor. During the mid 50’s Ford Motor Company wanted to bulldoze a hill behind the plant in order to expand the operation. The village fathers denied their application. The plant closed and Rawsonville became the new home of the Ford Motor Company Carburetor Plant in September of 1957.

Products and workers from Waterford, Manchester, Ypsilanti, and the Rouge would join the original Milford group, which worked at the Ypsilanti Plant until Rawsonville was ready. When they moved to Rawsonville the floors were still dirt and some of the walls were not finished!

Local 898 members purchased property on Textile and Rawsonville Road for $1,800.00 for a union hall. Although the location was perfect, it was sold for $2.000.00 because it was determined by the membership to be too small for a local hall and parking. The current property was purchased in 1960, and the new Local 898 Hall was dedicated on June 10, 1961.

The fifties saw the uncertainty of the whole process of closing out the old "village industry" plants and bringing their operations together into larger, more modern facilities. The pain and resistance of workers forced to relocate or drive many miles to do jobs they had been doing for years near home spilled over into their efforts to establish relationships with new co-workers. Each of the new groups brought its own methods and attitudes to the work place.

The sixties brought the growth of the civil rights movement and anti-Vietnam movement. There were clashes between black and white, young and old, patriots and anti-war protesters. The Seventies shook the national economy with an oil embargo. Then it eased and car sales started up again. At its peak, we had almost 6,000 hourly employees at the Rawsonville Plant.

The sudden jolt of the layoffs of the period of 1979 through 1984 hit the membership of Local 898 like a bomb. Membership began a steep decline that was expected to end with the plant closing by 1990. In 1982 the National Agreement was reopened for local negotiations for the purpose of establishing a Pilot Employment Guarantee, or PEG, agreement. It was voted down by a large margin.

It was at this point that a group of concerned rank and file members approached Dave Curson in the hope of convincing him to return to the table. He told them he would do that only if over half of the plant population would sign petitions asking for another vote. The second vote was positive, and, on March 12, 1984, the American automotive industry had its first job protection package. The growth of Employee Involvement, utilization of the learning lab, and ever increasing participation in other educational opportunities boded well for the future of the Rawsonville Plant and Local 898.

The nineties saw more growth. We finally started hiring again and a third generation was working at Rawsonville. Looming over this was reorganization at Ford that started with parts plants being put into an APO designation. Rumors of a spin-off proved eventually to be true. The Rawsonville Plant is now part of Visteon, though most UAW 898 members remain Ford employees.

However, today, there isn’t the same feeling that we can work things through. The threat is darker, and colder. During the 50’s & 60’s the movement was between Ford owned, American based union represented plants. Today, the company has become a true multi-national corporation. After divestiture of its parts plants, Ford can buy parts from anyone, even the formerly GM owned Delphi plants. Jobs are outsourced without regard to anything but the bottom line. Mexican autoworkers accept wages of fifty-eight cents an hour. Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia are cutting the ground out from under the Japanese auto industry. The next sixty years will bring us new challenges. The Mexican "free trade" agreement, the determination of a conservative controlled government and press to break the Labor movement. The pressures are the same as they were during the twenties and thirties when union membership was less than 11% of the work force.

Now more than ever we are threatened in the market place, by the government and some times by our own members. We need to remember the past and use it to build a future, a future with UAW 898 and Rawsonville still in it. Let’s continue to work hard and play hard and build parts and build the union. We know how and we can do it.

The past is a lesson. The future is what we make of that lesson. The Visteon spin-off wrote a new chapter in labor history. The letter that protects the future of every UAW-Ford worker on the roles is a dangerous double-edged sword for those coming into our membership as UAW-Visteon members.

The National Ford Department has made it clear that, while Visteon's labor relations’ provisions may mirror the UAW-Ford agreement, they can not even be considered a starting point for a new UAW-Visteon contract for 2003. Under the existing UAW-Visteon "contract", will one ever be allowed to opt for traditional Blue Cross-Blue Shield or for any health insurance other than an HMO? There could be a 401-k instead of an employer paid retirement plan. Retirees may have a "cafeteria" style benefits system that could result in retired members choosing between adequate benefits and increased money in their retirement checks.

Unfortunately, when 2003 rolls around there will be very few UAW-Visteon members. Rawsonville currently has less than ten and management is well aware that it is in their long-term best interest to keep that number down. Virtually every UAW member working at Visteon plants will be covered under the next UAW-Ford agreement. It will be hard to maintain solidarity when the membership's personal best interests may be in direct conflict with those of such a small minority, but it must be done. To do less ignores the lesson of the past and deserts the cause of protecting our brothers' and sisters' future.