Lessons from the factory floor
Auto workers have something to teach the teachers

Educators are usually not viewed as having much in common with auto workers. Yet both groups use collective bargaining to achieve their mutual goals as working people: decent wages and working conditions. Auto workers began using unions and collective bargaining before most educators unionized and over the years have learned some lessons about labor-management relations. One outstanding model of that success is the Saturn/UAW factory in Spring Hill, Tenn. To share their skills and to recognize the positive bargaining relations of educators, the Saturn/UAW Partnership now gives annual Partnership Awards to educators who exemplify good bargaining relations on behalf of quality education.

This is only the second year that awards have been given to AFT locals and their school or college district "partners." Six partnerships won the award and were flown to Tennessee to receive their honor and to see the UAW/Saturn partnership in action. Winners this year included Lompoc (Calif.) Federation of Teachers; Illinois Federation of Teachers Local 673; Glendale (Calif.) College Guild; Macomb (Mich.) Intermediate Federation of Paraprofessionals; the Minneapolis (Minn.) Federation of Teachers; and the Illinois University Professionals at Eastern Illinois University. With the exception of the Illinois University folks, who had a scheduling conflict, the other five winners, along with their district partners, attended the award program. As president of Glendale College Guild, I was one of the lucky participants in this event.

Do the auto workers and Saturn Corporation have something to teach us? We sure thought so. Both the union and management participants were impressed with the unique labor-management relations at the Saturn/UAW plant. Conceived as a response to the decline in sales of American cars during the 1970s and 1980s, the factory is run as a partnership in which labor and management must come to consensus in order to function. All decisions, including purchase of auto parts and supplies, work schedules, vacations, salary and benefits, recruitment and selection, and conflict resolution methods, are defined in an "agreement" (we usually call it a contract). Even marketing decisions are jointly made by workers and managers.

We were impressed by the collegial relations between auto workers and their management partners. While the educators, both union and administration (plus a few elected school board members), were marveling at the auto workers and their managers, we also enjoyed seeing each other's good relations. You simply could not figure out who was "labor" and who was "management" during our two days together. The guiding focus was on educational quality and serving students. Clearly, the AFT winners have figured out something that works, and the UAW has taken it to a high level of refinement.

The auto workers understand that unless they produce a quality product, sales will decline and their jobs will disappear. They have a stake in making good cars, and they are rewarded for good sales in a profit-sharing system. Peer pressure ensures good employee performance, and problems are handled in ways that enhance both individual and collective well-being. For those of us with a background in 1960s-style politics, this factory appears to be run somewhat like a utopian workers' democracy! The employees are empowered, and, therefore, the production process works. In a similar way, public educators are increasingly reminded that if we do not produce a quality "product," we, too, will face "competition," such as vouchers and other privatization schemes that undermine our jobs and well-being.

As educators who negotiate with districts who have no profit motive and whose task is identical to ours (provide quality education), it seems obvious that we should be able to work together collegially to achieve the goal. Without employee empowerment, education doesn't work. Teachers and other educational employees must learn to work with administrators and school boards, and vice versa.

As we explored the methods that enable collegiality to exist, we shared ideas with each other and with our NEA counterparts, six winning teams from around the country who also use collegial systems of negotiating. Like the AFT locals, some use interest-based bargaining, some use consensus models, some mentioned "sufficient consensus" (70 percent agreement) as their guideline. In exchanging ideas for positive labor-management relations with the UAW/Saturn folks and with each other, we reinforced our beliefs in partnership approaches to providing quality education.

The Saturn/UAW relationship was not formed in a vacuum. Such an innovative approach requires true "buy in" from both sides, and the Saturn/UAW history reveals the profound motivation of both General Motors and the UAW: A fear that if quality cars could not be produced in an atmosphere of labor peace in this nation, the entire American auto industry might vanish, and both the corporation and the union would disappear as well.

Perhaps educators have not yet truly experienced a parallel situation, but the threat of privatization and vouchers surely ought to be enough to convince union folks and district management that we should be allies in the same endeavor: providing quality public education as efficiently and cost effectively as possible. It takes both sides to make collegial bargaining work. In places with years of mistrust and misunderstanding, it requires re-training of all participants to overhaul the system. But it can be done; the Lompoc (Calif.) Federation of Teachers, for example, went from annual impasse in bargaining to a consensus-based system in just a few years of hard work and collaboration.

Our mission is too important to our national well-being. We must open our minds to new ways of working. As the Saturn/UAW hosts told us, "Your product is our future. You have to succeed!"

--by Mona Field

Mona Field is president of the Glendale, Calif., College Guild, AFT Local 2276.

American Federation of Teachers, AFL•CIO - 555 New Jersey Avenue, NW - Washington, DC 20001