UAW-GM-Delphi Paid Educational Leave Program
Working with speakers representing Congress‚ the Executive Branch‚ business and labor organizations‚ and public interest groups‚ the National Institute for Work and Learning (NIWL) served as the coordinator of the Washington seminar for the United Auto Workers (UAW)-General Motors (GM) Delphi program. In this role‚ NIWL designed and implemented this effort to improve worker and manager understanding of the governmental process and its impact on the automobile industry. Issues explored during the week included international trade‚ health care reform‚ environmental concerns such as clean air‚ the federal role in labor-management relations‚ and the impact of lobbying on the governmental process. Beginning in 1985‚ NIWL conducted more than 90 Paid Educational Leave (PEL) Washington programs for the UAW-GM Center for Human Resources. More than 2‚500 union officials attended these sessions‚ together with approximately 800 of their management counterparts.
PEL represented a unique step in collective bargaining in the United States. It came at a crucial time when the UAW and the auto industry were faced with rapid change and unprecedented challenges. The impact of new technologies‚ the transformation of the international competitive environment‚ and the changing demands on the workforce all produced effects which not even the experts could predict. PEL provided an avenue for instituting a program of leadership development throughout the GM-union structure.
As the centerpiece of the PEL Program‚ the UAW-GM Center for Human Resources developed a course of study which emphasized both training in leadership skills and the study of economic‚ political‚ and technological forces affecting the auto industry and the collective bargaining environment. The course materials were developed in collaboration with experts in the various fields and in the area of labor education. The PEL course was an intensive and ambitious series of seminars for local UAW members and GM management. These participants‚ selected from GM plants nationwide‚ traveled to Boston‚ Washington‚ and Detroit where they met with leading experts in the fields of economics‚ new technologies‚ labor-management relations‚ automobile production‚ business organization‚ governmental policy‚ and leadership development.
During the course of their week in Washington‚ in their meetings on Capitol Hill and at Executive Branch agencies‚ the PEL participants met with policy makers and gained insight into the ways that political‚ legislative‚ and regulatory processes work. The primary focus was on two policy level issues: 1) the impact of the governmental process on auto manufacturing‚ using health care reform as a specific issue deeply affecting the auto industry; and 2) international competitiveness‚ using world trade and development issues as the basis for discussion.
Participants also met with National Labor Relations Board officials and other leaders to discuss the governmental process as it affects labor-management relations. In addition‚ the participants met the staffs of the UAW and GM Washington offices and talked with officials from public interest groups.