The UAW finds itself on the pro side of free trade - and taking heat from other unions.
The AFL-CIO has ramped up its vocal split with the United Auto Workers by announcing its opposition to the trade deal with South Korea, which the UAW has endorsed.
The announcement underscores the growing rift the UAW faces in an increasingly divided labor movement. With rare exception, other unions are bitterly opposed to the trade deal despite concessions that the autoworkers believe will open up the Korean market while delaying any changes that could boost Korea’s share of the U.S. automotive market.
Rich Trumka, AFL-CIO president, said the proposed U.S.-Korea trade deal does not live up to the fair trade model and does not contribute to a sustainable global future.
“We believe we must move towards a more democratic, sustainable and fair global economy with broadly shared prosperity for working people around the world. Reaching that goal will require deep-seated reforms in current trade policy, as well as in our own domestic labor laws and other policies,” said Trumka, who praised the Obama administration for attempting to address concerns of American autoworkers.
The AFL boss acknowledged that with pressure from the UAW – as well as from Ford Motor Co., which had actively campaigned against an earlier pact with Korea that would have opened the American market more quickly – significant improvements were worked into the revised agreement.
“However, the labor movement’s concerns about the Korea trade deal go beyond the autos,” Trumka said. “It is clear that in both the United States and South Korea, workers continue to face repeated challenges to their exercise of fundamental human rights on the job – especially freedom of association and the right to organize and bargain collectively,” he said.
Both Hyundai and Kia operate assembly plants in Georgia and Alabama in the U.S. where workers face constant pressure not to consider joining any union, AFL-CIO and UAW officials have complained.
“We are also concerned that the trade agreement leaves open the possibility that goods produced in the North Korean free trade zone, the Kaesong Industrial Complex (KIC), could in the future gain access to the United States,” Trumka said.
Over the past two decades, American unions, despite their differences, have presented a united front in their opposition to trade agreements.
“The experiences of union members and working people with too many flawed trade deals like the North American Free Trade Agreement and China’s accession to the World Trade Organization do not justify optimism that this deal will generate the promised new jobs,” Trumka asserted.
However, the split in union ranks has made it less likely union leaders can derail the trade pact with South Korea promoted by the Obama administration.
UAW President Bob King, in a decision that surprised and angered other U.S. union leaders, has endorsed the proposed trade pact with South Korea, noting the changes will help American automakers and autoworkers in the U.S.
King an AFL-CIO board member, said the first Korean trade deal negotiated in 2007 would have given 90% of Korea’s auto exports to the United States immediate duty-free access on the day it took effect. “Under the current proposed agreement, duty elimination is now delayed until year five of the agreement, giving U.S. automakers the time to reverse the damage caused by decades of South Korean protectionism, King said.
“Also with this agreement, cuts in the U.S. 25% truck tariff (on imports) are substantially delayed until year eight of the agreement and then are phased in though year ten of the agreement. Under the 2007 proposed agreement, truck tariffs were cut immediately from the day the FTA entered into force,” King said.
Thus, King contended, the agreement substantially reduces the chances South Korean manufacturers will decide to export any kind of trucks to the U.S. which is something of a victory for the union, which has thousands of members dedicated to building trucks for General Motors, Ford and Chrysler.