The Detroit Free Press has published one of the best reads I have had in a while – How UAW Benefits Shaped An Immigrant Family. This is an in-depth look at how a family from Italy came to America, got a job in Detroit and experienced many of the bargaining gains for UAW members by Walter Reuther. The change in culture between employer and employee is highlighted in this brilliant article.
When my great-aunt Clara Corso died late last year, the 93-year-old suburban Detroiter had never set foot in an auto factory, never pulled a third shift attaching bumpers and wasn’t even a “Rosie the Riveter.”
What she was, however, was a post-World War II Italian immigrant, a widow whose final days involved intensive and expensive medical care that was completely covered, at no cost to her surviving relatives, because of what else Clara Corso was: The surviving spouse of a long-deceased, UAW-represented autoworker at Ford Motor Co.
Though he had died 42 years before her, my great uncle Michele’s rich benefits carried Clara comfortably to her grave, thanks to an innovative labor deal struck 17 years ago that still benefits the automaker, its workers and, like my great-aunt, their dependents.
When I read this article the commitment between union and company then versus now comes to mind. Obviously, the company saw the union member as important to the success of the company, so important they agree to cover the members spouse for decades if needed. Do you think that is still the case?
