The Detroit News, Tuesday, February 5, 2008

The Detroit News, Tuesday, February 5, 2008

The Detroit News

UAW tries to improve image with leaders, public
Union officials meet Congress Democrats in wake of last year's fight over fuel economy.

David Shepardson / Detroit News Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON -- The United Auto Workers union is trying to improve its image with members of Congress and the public. Union officials are reaching out to Democrats this week at the group's biennial four-day political conference here in the wake of a bruising fight last year over increasing fuel economy requirements. The union is also looking to bolster its image with the public.

UAW President Ron Gettelfinger showed members of Congress four TV advertisements touting the fact that the union pushes for worker safety measures, tough import safety standards and building strong communities and said the ad campaign came at the request of members. The ads, which are being broadcast on TV and the Internet, are designed to "show a positive image, all of the good we do," he said.

Gettelfinger said the campaign was in response to concerns from members.

"This is important," he said, "because your board has listened to what a lot of members have said."

The union hired an outside public relations firm to produce the ads and tested them in five cities, including Detroit, Indianapolis, Nashville and Louisville.

Harry Katz, dean of the Cornell University school of industrial relations, said the UAW's effort to improve its image is a good idea.

"It's important to try to project what they are actually for and explain their strategy," Katz said.

That message is echoed by three Democratic U.S. senators who are speaking to the group this week, who also are urging the UAW to help get a Democrat elected president in November.

Democratic Sens. Jim Webb of Virginia, Claire McCaskill of Missouri and Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts are speaking to the group directly, but union members will be on Capitol Hill armed with a thick binder of the union's positions to meet with other elected officials.

Webb told members the Democratic Party needs to focus its message on the needs of workers and emphasize that "the well-being of the American worker is the No. 1 interest of the party."

Gettelfinger praised two Democratic candidates for president, Sens. Hillary Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois, but the UAW has not endorsed either. He avoided taking swipes at Obama for criticizing automakers and Clinton for calling for a 40-mile-per-gallon fuel economy requirement by 2020.

"They're both our friends," he said.

"We're going to stand with people that stand with us. Obviously our friends don't stand with us on all of the issues, but they stand with us on a majority of the issues."

Gettelfinger and Michigan UAW members had lunch Monday with the state's two senators, Carl Levin, D-Detroit, and Debbie Stabenow, D-Lansing, along with others from Michigan, including Rep. John Dingell, D-Dearborn.

"We have a common set of values about rewarding work, not just wealth," Stabenow said.

Dingell credited Gettelfinger with helping reach a compromise on energy legislation that passed in December with a reduced burden on domestic automakers that many other Democrats wanted.

Gettelfinger also vowed spend "a lot" on the presidential election.

"We're going to be out there," Gettelfinger said. "It's not about dollars and cents, but clearly we cannot outspend people, but we can outwork them, and that's what we intend to do."

Katz, the Cornell labor relations professor, said the UAW is "in a tough box; they're going to have to suck it up" and endorse the Democrat, since "their positions are fundamentally aligned with Democrats" except on the environmental issue of raising fuel economy standards. "What else are they going to do? They're not going to go for (Arizona Sen. John) McCain."

Gettelfinger said that no Republican was acceptable to the UAW. "We can't live with John McCain, that's the bottom line."

You can reach David Shepardson at (202) 662-8735 or dshepardson@detnews.com.