On Nov. 8-9, employees at the Fuyao Glass America plant in Moraine, Ohio, will vote on whether to be represented by the United Auto Workers union. The union has argued that its presence in the factory will improve workers’ safety. But the historical record at UAW-represented plants calls this claim into question.
The UAW desperately needs a win in Moraine. Private-sector union membership is at a historic low of six percent, according to Labor Department data. This isn’t for lack of trying: The UAW suffered an embarrassing (and expensive) loss this summer at a Nissan plant in Canton, Miss., where workers decisively rejected the union’s pitch.
The union is leaving nothing to chance this time, rolling out endorsements from Dayton’s mayor, State Rep. Fred Strahorn, and a handful of Montgomery County political figures (On the flip side, 15 state representatives signed a letter warning against “outside forces” coming into the plant). But its primary focus is not workers’ politics, but their workplace safety. The Fuyao plant has faced past scrutiny from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and the UAW says it can help fix what ails the plant.
If there are problems in the Fuyao plant, the company has an obligation to fix them. But the evidence from OSHA suggests the UAW might not be the most effective partner in this venture. Between 2000 and 2014, the agency had a partnership with UAW at plants for a “Big Three” company where it represented workers. The union’s safety track record at some of these plants was best-described as abysmal. At plants in Kansas City and Dearborn, the safety violation rate was nearly four times the industry average.
This wasn’t a problem isolated to a few locations: Between 2003 and 2009, the safety case incidence rate at all UAW plants with the company in question was as much as 65 percent higher than the industry average.These plants later experienced significant safety improvements, but the data suggest that it was OSHA’s involvement, rather than the union’s presence in the plants, that made the difference.
If the union’s work rules don’t always improve safety, what they can do is put a plant at risk. On its Fuyao Forward website, the UAW dismisses the notion that the company would move elsewhere. “Fuyao’s Moraine plant isn’t moving anywhere,” it confidently proclaims. Ohioans should know better: At least eight auto plants have shut down in the state since the 1980s, with thousands of jobs eliminated. Auto industry suppliers have scaled back their Ohio presence and moved production to less-costly (read: non-union) locales in Mexico.
In fact, the UAW bears direct responsibility for past jobs lost at the Moraine plant, which had been one of GM’s “most productive and cooperative factories.” According to reporting in the Wall Street Journal, the UAW struck a deal with GM that shut the 2,500 Moraine workers out of the auto recovery, barring them from a transfer to another plant. The reason? The employees weren’t part of the UAW.
More recently, the UAW has even expressed a willingness to play “chicken” with the jobs of its represented employees. Recently, a UAW Local in Grand Rapids, Mich., said it “would support” the decision of one local manufacturer (Dematic) to close its U.S. location and move jobs to Monterrey, Mexico. Put differently: The UAW would rather 200+ employees lose their jobs than make any concessions in negotiations with the employer.
This is the kind of short-sighted behavior that has caused employees elsewhere to think twice before embracing the UAW. Fuyao employees might consider this evidence and decide that UAW representation is a risk worth taking. But they shouldn’t be fooled into believing that the union’s cumbersome work rules are a silver-bullet safety solution — and that the union won’t put their jobs at risk.
F. Vincent Vernuccio is former special assistant to the assistant secretary for administration and management at the Department of Labor under President George W. Bush.
If you would like to write an op-ed for the Washington Examiner, please read our guidelines on submissions here.
