CAW set to endorse Hargrove's successor

Canadian Auto Workers President Buzz Hargrove, who fought to retain Canadian workers' high wages even as the country lost thousands of auto jobs, announced his retirement Tuesday.

Hargrove, who has led the CAW for 16 years, said he will step down no later than Sept. 15. Hargrove turns 65 in March, which is the union's mandatory retirement age for any officer or staff member.

Hargrove endorsed 53-year-old Ken Lewenza, president of CAW Local 444 in Windsor, Ontario, to replace him as the new president of the CAW, which is Canada's biggest private-sector union. Hargrove was a member of Local 444 when he worked as an autoworker. Hargrove assistants Hemi Mitic and Tom Collins also are in the running for the presidency.

Lewenza called Hargrove his mentor.

"It's the end of an incredible era of leadership," he said.

Hargrove's successor will be elected by 800 local union delegates at a constitutional convention that will likely be held within the next 30 days. The new president would then have to be re-elected at a convention in August 2009. Hargrove said he would have stayed longer but he didn't want to be a distraction to that leadership race.

"I love my work. I love giving voice on behalf of working people," he said.

Hargrove said his only regret is the decision last month by General Motors Corp. to close a truck plant in Oshawa, Ontario, just a few weeks after the company concluded labor talks with the CAW. GM said the closure, which will affect 2,600 jobs, was necessary because of weakening demand for trucks.

"We were really betrayed by General Motors in our bargaining. I have to solve that before I leave," Hargrove said. He said he wants to ensure as many job and product commitments from GM as he can.

CAW membership ballooned under Hargrove, from 170,000 members in 1993 to 250,000 in 2008, as the CAW merged with the Service Employees International Union and other groups. But at the same time, the union was hemorrhaging auto jobs. The CAW had 46,000 members from major automotive companies in 2000; that has shrunk to 32,500.

Tony Faria, a marketing professor and automotive expert at the University of Windsor, said Hargrove was an aggressive leader who may have done more harm than good to the Canadian auto industry by insisting on keeping high wages even as automakers hit hard times.

In the most recent round of negotiations with the Detroit Three, which ended in May, Hargrove agreed to freeze pay but refused to agree to a two-tier system that would pay newer workers less. The Detroit-based United Auto Workers, which represents U.S. auto workers, agreed to a two-tier system last fall.

"I feel he's taken a very short-term approach to negotiations," Faria said. "Basically, Buzz's approach has always been: Get everything he can out of every contract, the heck with what that means for the future. I don't care if that means financial difficulties for the Big Three or loss of future jobs."

As a result, Faria said Canada is one of the most expensive places in the world to assemble cars. By 2011, when the latest agreements with the Detroit Three expire, Canada's wage and benefit costs will hit $80 an hour, Faria said, or $20 to $25 higher than U.S. rates.

Faria said Lewenza would probably bring little change to the CAW. Lewenza also has rejected two-tier wages and has said he would continue Hargrove's policies, Faria said.

Hargrove was among the leaders of the CAW when it split from the UAW in 1984, saying the UAW was giving too many concessions. But he disputed his reputation as a militant, saying there has been only one plant shutdown over labor issues since he took over the union in 1992. By contrast, the UAW just ended a three-month strike against parts maker American Axle and Manufacturing Holdings Inc.

Gary Chaison, a labor specialist at Clark University in Worcester, Mass., said Hargrove is representative of the more radical, socially oriented nature of Canadian unions, but he also has a deep understanding of the auto industry.

"Buzz understands that the problems of the auto industry are not really labor problems, they're market problems. But that doesn't do him any good," he said. "He's in a difficult position. He's willing to take a stand but he realizes he can only go so far because of the nature of the economy and the industry."

Hargrove said the Canadian government should be offering more support for the industry, which has seen sales plummet because of high gas prices and consumer worries over the economy.

"I feel like I'm retiring and taking the whole auto industry with me, things are so bad," he said.

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On the Net:

Canadian Auto Workers: http://www.caw.ca