League Plenary Session, June 6, 2012

The first plenary session opened with a performance by the Oklahoma youth Orchestra, conducted by Dr. John E. Clinton, playing excerpts from Carmen by Georges Bizet and Sarsen by Hilary Tann.

Jesse Rosen, League President and CEO, welcomed the delegates to the opening plenary session at Myerson Symphony Center. He commented that “youth symphonies are so important – they are keeping our music alive and are thriving. We must make it compelling for the kids.”

Blaine Nelson, Dallas Symphony board chair, offered the delegates a Texas welcome. He said that Texas is from an old Indian word that means friendship. This is the third League conference in Dallas, and is the 67^th League conference. It’s an important time – the theme is coming together and working together on the multiple issues facing our industry.

He also mentioned that Maestro  Jaap van Zweden received MusicalAmerica’s Conductor of the Year award.

Jesse then introduced various constituencies: musicians, board, volunteers, managers. There are 300 first-time attendees at the Dallas Conference.

“During this year’s conference, we will continue to work on having civil dialogues around tough issues. We must put the interests of our orchestras ahead of constituent interests. We must engage – we can’t go back.”

Keynote by Marty Mulloy, Vice President of Labor Affairs, Ford Motor Company and Jimmie Settles, Jr., Vice President, United Auto Workers.

You can watch their keynote address by clicking here. Their keynote starts at about 40 minute into the video.

Jesse’s intro: We face many difficult issues. It is relevant that management and labor built a relationship that allowed them to meet these external challenges. They are thriving – they shared understanding and shared sacrifice.

Marty Mulloy gave a brief history of Ford’s relationship with United Auto Workers (UAW). Ford Motor Company was  founded in 1903; Henry Ford was the industrialist of the 20^th century. Ford was organized in 1941 by the UAW – four years after GM and Chrysler. There was the battle of the overpass – a violent exchange. So the question is, do we really treat our union brothers with respect?

Jimmie Settles gave a clarification about the other automotive companies being organized in 37: “I’m a 4^th generation Ford employee. My Dad was hired right after union recognition, and he got his dad hired. Dad was a trade unionist, and my son is now working at Ford as an engineer – he’s on the other side.” Jimmy would ask his father, “What took so long to organize at Ford?” Ford was active in the community; Ford built the first housing project for immigrants and for folks migrating north from the south. So it was difficult to organize workers at Ford because of all they did for you when you got hired. At the beginning of World War II, we got organized because we got lucky. Walther P. Reuther was president of the UAW and some Ford goons came to beat up the organizers, but it just so happened that photographers were there – that’s what inspired them to get organized.

From 1976 on, we found a way to do the contracts without losing a day’s work. I’m proud to be a UAW member – I’m a product of 60s, when we had demonstrations for equality, putting the union in the forefront. Ford gave money to help end inequities. Today it’s an ongoing relationship, but it didn’t start yesterday.

Marty: In 2006 we lost 16.5 billion dollars – we lost 50 billion dollars (from 2001 to 1008). Very few companies in the world can survive a 50 billion dollar loss. Quality was not up to par, and labor costs were increasing. A new CEO, Alan Mulally, brought a team together and insisted that we quit living in denial. ‘It’s amazing how people will reject data if it conflicts with their cherished beliefs.’ And I’m talking about executives in world headquarters. I recommend a book, Good to Great, by Jim Collins. He wrote about the Stockdale paradox. Stockdale was the commanding officer at the Hanoi Hilton – he talked about those who lived and those who died. The most optimistic died – they died of a broken heart. The other group that died were those that had no hope. The Stockdale paradox is that you must face the data and accept the reality, but also never give up. So that was our calling card.

We called up the UAW in 2006 – this was pre-Lehman Brothers – and the word on Wall Street was that Ford Motor Company would go bankrupt in 2007. We called the UAW and changed our relationship. First of all, we opened the books; we made sure the union thoroughly understood the facts. It was a dramatic change in our relationship with the union – we even shared the cycle plan, which is the most cherished and secret thing we have [when new models are coming out]. The UAW are our business partners, and we shared this with them; it’s a secret because we don’t want our competition to know when new products are coming out.

Jimmie: Let me take you back to 1982. We were the only real game in town – we were focused on how many grievances we’d filed, and how much hell we could raise.

In the 1980s, we had a huge number of workers. Mine was one of the largest and the most militant plants at Ford – we were closed after 10 years because of competition, and Ford moved the work out of the US. But we weren’t focused on quality. Since the 80s we’ve been working together because of the competition. We always joked, “Don’t buy a car built on Monday or Friday” because the labor force was more focused on fighting one another than quality. This is where the lemon law came from.

They finally sat down and said that they needed to talk to the union. Employee involvement meant ‘we’re going to listen to you.’ Since 1982, we’ve had circle meetings, with the workers given respect. We are now not adversaries but partners. So we now ask, ‘How can we partner together? We now care abut profits.” When Ford prospers, we prosper. It’s such a simple formula. We now have transparent profit sharing. We still have problems everyday – we have an arbitration case right now but it’s a disagreement – we can agree to disagree and still remain partners. We take it on the shop floor, we meet in teams. We’ve seen a crisis and we’ve seen an opportunities for our members to have some job security.

Marty: We use a strategy called Interest Based Bargaining (IBB), where  instead of focusing on your position, you focus on your interest. It’s soft on people and hard on issues. We used to be hard on people and soft on issues. We also said, ‘Put yourself in the other guy’s shoes. Listen before you talk; don’t blame. And show respect to your negotiators.’

Let me give you an example. In 2007 before bargaining, we sat down with UAW leadership and we showed them the ‘holy of holies’, our cycle plan. We were going to close two more plants building big SUVs, and they were transferred, after we’d already closed six plants. “is there something we can do to get our wages and the entire contract, including work practices and product development– how can we structure a business equation where we can survive? There’s a new plant in Louisville — the new Escape was going to go to Mexico but now we’ll have 4,000 people working three shifts. For every line job, 10 other jobs are there – it’s the multiplier effect.

We did the same with the Michigan assembly plant – we’re building the Focus there, now that we can make money on a smaller car in the US – it’s another 3-shift operation with another 4000 jobs. In our most recent negotiations, we were going to close the Flat Rock MI plant where we made Mustangs – we were going to move it because 1-shift plants don’t make sense. But now we’re bringing the Fusion there and it will be another 3-shift operation with another 4000 jobs. We also did an Ohio assembly plant – we’re bringing back a truck that was made in Mexico to Ohio – that’s another 2000 jobs. In this last agreement, we committed to the US $16 billion in investment and 12,000 jobs in the US, and that’s working with UAW.

Jimmy: The first agreement got off to a rocky start. The first few votes voted it down. I thought they weren’t explaining it properly. People are afraid of change. Just recently – Ford decided to keep a car production in Europe, and they explained their reasons to our leadership. They could make more money on that car in Europe but they promised to bring another car to the US.  Ford makes more money from trucks than cars. But when there’s a downturn, people stop buying trucks and people get laid off. We’re elated about the new cars being made in the US.

We have learned how our members can work in teams. They resented it at first – but we just kept at it and we can break through. It makes us more productive – we can institute efficiency changes.

Marty: Two other negotiations taking place – the toughest part of my job is negotiating with management. Everyone has to get on board. Negotiations is a team sport. There must be no surprises on opening day. We’re preparing now for 2015 in order to get more jobs. It’s an ongoing process and requires continual dialogue.

Jimmy: We could not negotiate ourselves out of a job. We make certain we had some job security. I can get married to an issue but you have to be flexible enough to come to a solution.

Marty: The enemy of collaboration is arrogance. The reverse is humility – you must listen, participate and collaborate.