Dave Yettaw

EVENT

Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr. Dave Yettaw.

January 8th, 1947 - April 14th, 2005.

If you aren't from Flint, or are not involved in union politics or the UAW, then you may not have heard of this guy. He was a driving force in the reform wing of the UAW (known as the New Directions Movement) for the last twenty years, once president of Flint's powerful and militant Local 599 (to which my father belongs), and an emphatic voice in local politics. He figures into Flint story in a similar manner to such galvanizing figures as Ruth Mott and Woodrow Stanley. Like these figures, Dave strove to direct the evolution of Flint in a specific direction, not through the vague approval of the public and private sector, but through the rigorous pursuit of his own philosophy, through conflict, contention, and controversy, and with concrete objectives.

Personally, I have no personal experience with Dave Yettaw, and little I could consider to be an objective foundation of knowledge concerning his achievements. On the local level, such things are not as carefully documented. There is, however, an obituary that was written by the Flint Journal (in one of their better moments of reporting) that suggests the man's passion and charisma, a very maudlin memorial written by the Uncommon Sense and, most succinctly, the following obituary posted by Yettaw's family:

YETTAW, David Edward - Age 58, of Oscoda, formerly of Mt. Morris, died Thursday, April 14, 2005 at his home in Oscoda. His Life Tribute Ceremony will be held 4PM Sunday, April 17, 2005 at the Miles Martin Funeral Home in Mt. Morris. David's family will be present to receive friends on Saturday from 12-8PM and Sunday from 9AM until the time of service at 4PM. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be considered for David's grandchildren's college fund. Envelopes are available at the funeral home. David was born January 8, 1947, in Mt. Morris. Upon graduating from Mt. Morris HS, he enlisted with the US Army and served for 3 years in Vietnam and in Ft. Bragg, North Carolina. While in North Carolina, he and Linda Gramer would unite in marriage on March 24, 1966. In the late 60's they would move back to Michigan and David began his career with GM. He worked for many years with Buick and would go on to serve as Committee Man, Educational Director and serve 3 terms as President of Buick Local #599. He retired in 1997 and soon moved up north. David's passion was helping the underdog and ensuring that the rights of the workers and the standards of the union were upheld. Left to cherish his memory are his wife of 39 years, Linda, 2 daughters, Kimberly Yettaw and Shawn Haubenstricker, 2 grandchildren, Sheldon and Ashley Haubenstricker, mother, Maunee Yettaw, 2 brothers, Liland and wife Donna Yettaw, Harold and wife Gloria Yettaw, sister, Marilyn and husband Fran Reed, many family members and friends. Friends may share memories, prayers and stories online at www.martinfuneralhome.com.

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It is difficult to determine what Yettaw's lasting influence will be, and there should be more objective discussion on that question, since the answer will be important to Flint, General Motors, the UAW, and the relationship between all three. Even with plenty of friends and family as members of the UAW, I find its inner workings a little arcane, but I'll try to sketch out a profile of Yettaw as I understand him.

The eighties were probably Flint's lowest point. In twelve years local GM employment plunged from from 78,000 to under half that number. Downsizing coincided with the continued advent of import cars. Meanwhile, due to the priveledges of seniority, among other factors, the economic ills affected some populations, such as recent black and white migrants from the south, worse than others. The city became increasingly segregated and divides in the school district, among city offices, and between the North Side and the rest of the city were exacerbated along racial lines. Flint experienced its worst years for crime, and was also identified with many high-profile failures such as Auto-World and Windmill Place. Roger and Me came out in the 80s. While the city has continued to shrink and suffer from deindustrialization through the subsequent decade-and-a-half, the eighties, situated almost within grasp of Flint's glory days were particularly bitter.

If there was a prevailing emotion that united these developments, it was one of retreat, withdrawal, reluctance, entrapment, and ultimately, desperation. Flint's government, crippled by internal loggerjams, typically responded to GM's withdrawal by offering huge tax incentives, even at the expense of smaller industrial firms eager to take advantage of a ready-prepared infrastructure. The UAW struck a more conciliatory note, urging worker concessions in the hopes of making GM more competitive. I haven't the economic or historical background to pursue any of these statements to a full conclusion, but whatever the intentions of these organizations were, they were clearly playing a defensive game, and were even more conscious of the uneven odds.

This automatically set the stage for Dave, who personified the opposite of "retreat, withdrawal, reluctance, entrapment, and desperation" to offer a unique and inspiring voice, and one that would be deemed reckless and discordant with prevailing wisdom. Among those who knew him, he was loved or reviled.

The New Directions movement emerged out of the embattled 599, one of Flint's most powerful locals, including the Buick City complex and representing tens of thousands of workers. Yettaw had already represented this local for two years, and now asserted that the leadership of the UAW was somewhere between incompetant and corrupt and that the union's tactics of accommodation, even with the very best of intentions, only invited General Motors to abuse the union. The UAW, he asserted, should not back down in negotiations and that UAW leadership should more accurately reflect the makeup and beliefs of the rank-and-file.

New Directions, as it continued to develop under Yettaw, also envisioned a hard-sell "long term" view, that called upon American workers to expect to make sacrifices, not in the hopes of appeasing the auto industry, but to encourage unionization in the developing world. In Dandaneau's book A Town Abandoned (a verbose and frustrating read, but maybe worth it for the useful results of interviews), Yettaw effectively argued that a global union movement could adjust to and influence the viscittudes of a global economy.

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The two most dramatic moments of Yettaw's career both occurred during his association with New Directions, one involving an important success, and one involving an important failure.

The important success took the form of the 599's strike in 1994, which happened against the advice of UAW leadership. Considered an "offensive strike" in that it demanded GM hire more workers to relieve the increasing demands and tempo of work, the move was particularly effective because Buick City, at the heart of the 599, was a cricial link in a number of assembly processes, and was thereby crucial to numerous of other facilities. Of course, critics turn this strength around to observe that exploiting such a status made Buick City a liability to the corporation. The union won the strike in four days.

The important failure involved Yettaw losing the presidency of the 599 in 1996, in part based on allegations that GM would seek to close Buick City if a New Directions slate was elected. New Directions lost. GM announced the closing of Buick City just a couple years later. Today, what was Buick City is the nation's largest brownstone project, a treeless, lunar landscape of rusting fence and chunks of concrete, two miles long.

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Of course, many of Yettaw's critics have cited a belligerance and an arrogance on his part. In some cases, his tone may have turned willing listeners off to perfectly reasonable ideas. Specific examples, such as the subversive wording of a vote on striking (those who voted against the strike were labeled "lily-livered" on the ballot) or Yettaw's choice to hang the portrait of the UAW president facing the wall, in a closet (again, from Dandaneau, if I remember correctly), and general, such as extended rants at meetings and conventions, certainly alienated much of the UAW's leadership.

To Yettaw, there was no shame in this, since he was merely expressing his view, and in one sense, he was applying his philosophy of how the UAW should deal with GM in his own relationship to a leadership that he felt poorly represented the rank-and-file. That said, he did not maintain his support from below. At best, the ends only justify the means so long as the means are achieved. There is ample evidence that Yettaw may have gone needlessly far in his disregard for convention and respect, and that his liberties may have damaged the perception of New Directions among many possible supporters.

Yettaw remained an active voice in the UAW, and by extension, Flint, until he died. He was fifty-eight years old.

Myself, my knowledge is sufficiently limited that I can't form a complete opinion on Yettaw. Based on his comments in Dandaneau's book and scattered about the web, I am inclined to agree with a lot of his arguments. That said, I can't account for a level of excess in his words and actions. "I do not feel that you deal with a power like GM from a kneeling position," Yettaw said. A worthy response may be, "nor will any power listen when you simply spit on their shoes."

Nevertheless, Yettaw was a visionary his whole life and embodied much of the life, energy, and force both the UAW and Flint have lost over the decades.

It is for his life, energy, force, and vision that he will be remembered.

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Bear in mind that I pieced together these information from a number of sources, and in some cases I'm relying on my own faulty memory. In this spirit, I not only invite comment and dissent, but correction. Please let me know if any of my citations are in error and direct me to more reliable information.