By Doug Cunningham

The earth shook in the U.S. auto industry in 2007. As the United Auto Workers sat down with the Detroit 3 automakers to negotiate a new contract, it was clear that the wages and benefits standards the UAW had built over decades of struggle would be attacked. UAW President Ron Gettelfinger sounded a defiant note at the UAW’s convention.

[Gettelfinger]: "By drawing on our courage and solidarity, we can and will rise to the challenge and forge a better future for generations to come. Solidarity, solidarity, solidarity forever!"

As he sat down at the bargaining table, Gettelfinger sounded like the UAW would fight to defend the middle class lifestyles it had won.

[Gettelfinger2]: "We are fighting for defending the middle class. We’re fighting for good jobs for America. It’s not just about us, these negotiations are about everybody."

But in the end, after two brief strikes, the UAW agreed to take on the burden of health care for retirees, saving the auto companies billions of dollars. The union also agreed to slash wages and benefits for thousands of new hires. The auto companies announced plant closings and slashed tens of thousands of jobs. A majority of UAW workers approved the concessions, but UAW dissident groups like Soldiers of Solidarity fought the concessionary contracts. Jerry Tucker, a former UAW Executive Board member active in the New Directions UAW dissident movement, was incredulous when the UAW said the new VEBA health care trusts funded with about 60 percent of the total financial liabilities of the companies, would be solvent for 80 years.

[Tucker]: "I have no idea what they’re smokin’ there, because there's never been an eighty-year period in U.S. history when we didn't have a significant cyclical downturn two or three. That's really a weird comment to be quite honest, to say we've insured somebody for eighty years when in reality the first large recessionary period could easily wipe that entire thing out."

Sam Gindin, a labor educator and former Canadian Auto Workers union leader, said the concessionary deals negotiated in 2007 in the U.S. are awful.

[Gindin]: "It’s bad on every score and it’s going to have ramifications. The parts industry is going to get hammered now, especially with this lowering of the wage rates. They hammered the Big Three workers by threatening outsourcing and carrying out outsourcing to the parts industry. And now they’re going to whipsaw the parts industry by threatening to take it back, because they’ve gotten so much from the Big Three."

Thirteen million jobs in the U.S. are directly supported by the auto industry, so the ramifications of what happened to the auto industry in 2007 will reverberate for decades throughout the U.S. economy. Auto workers produce a higher level of output than any other single industry when measured in constant dollars, according to the Alliance of Auto Manufacturers. Yet the next generation of auto workers will be paid about half of what today’s U.S. auto workers earn. Solidarity forever will never be the same.