United Auto Worker’s President Bob King told more than 1,000 members and retirees of the UAW that the union’s very survival is at stake in its efforts to organize foreign auto workers. King spoke for over an hour, including this apocalyptic comment: “If we don’t organize these transnationals, I don’t think there’s a long term future for the UAW — I really don’t.” To date, none of the foreign manufacturers has agreed to Kings “set of principles,” and King has said they will pick their next organizing target within 90 days. He threatened that the UAW had already assembled a list of the 50 largest dealers of one of the targeted companies, in preparation for protests. King also admitted the union relied heavily on political favor to be successful, even in earlier decades, telling his audience that the 1936-37 strike in Flint, MI, would have failed if there had been a Republican Governor in office at the time. He encouraged the listeners to continue to back democrats, perhaps as the only other straw the UAW can cling to.
