The Powerful History of the

New Directions Movement

In the Spring of 1986, 125 Region 5 local union leaders and activists who felt a sense of personal frustration over the direction of our union, formulated a series of resolutions which constructively questioned policies and strategies of the UAW. They issued a call for New Directions, drafted then Region 5 Assistant Director, Jerry Tucker, and mounted an election challenge for the Directorship of the Region.

News of the movement grew across the nation, bringing in the powerful Flint sector and setting a tone for rank and file to effectively implement change with local unions and the International, to return to basic union philosophies, and called for leader accountability. Throughout the years, rank and file, when frustrated with trends in locals have implemented new directions philosophies, called for more democracy within union structures, have challenged leadership, winning seats in local leadership.

By the mid 90s people such as Dave Yettaw, Wendy Thompson and others, ran for offices on New Directions slates, and won on their continued “voice of the people, and no concessions agenda.” But their struggle to maintain democracy in an era ever more concerned with “corporate unionism” was not easy. In the late 90s Dave Yettaw failed to win the presidential seat due to a well-devised character attack campaign against him. Wendy’s local leadership voted to implement a two-tier wage structure in 2004, though she opposed.

Since the late 90’s the rank and file have seen growing problems within their union structures and philosophy systems. As a result, many have implemented New Direction philosophies within recent campaigns, winning local seats, and becoming once again, “a voice of the people.”

Our history is strong. One that deserves proper education and analysis by all rank and file, leadership, and labor study majors.

Historical NDM Archives

NDM Voices 1987-1997

Fliers

Special Reports

Special Convention Supplements

The Voice of New Directions was a movement newsletter, received by thousands of members of the UAW-New Directions Movement. In NDM’s infancy it was sent to region 5 members, where the movement began. As the movement spread across the nation the newsletter took on a national emphasis, covering issues pertaining to job loss, plant closings, contract negotiations, shorter work time, democracy, accountability, and published special convention editions and special labor reports, in an effort to advance membership labor awareness.

Voice of New Directions is still pertinent to our struggle today, as it continues to inform and educate the working class on current issues, by explaining the origin of our current issues and struggles that began decades ago. The unique and irreplaceable voice of Victor Reuther, no longer with us today, resonates throughout the movement into our current struggles from “Voices” and continues to inform us and encourage the rank and file to stand up, and stand tall, as do many other strong voices.

These publications are specific to this website, and use is restricted to this website alone, as they are specific to NDM and are to be used for historical and educational purposes only. Transmission of files via e-mail for activism use is permitted and encouraged. Reprint information for publications or websites should be directed to uawndm@yahoo.com. We will put you in touch with appropriate parties.

Unfortunately, due to the resolution for internet use, these publications are not high print quality, therefore, if you would like high resolution quality for clearer reading, printing or personal use, we offer the voices collection, available by CD, for a contribution. This collection CD will soon be available for purchase on this website. If you would like to reserve a copy please email us at uawndm@yahoo.com.

History, News, and Message Board Portal

While there were many strong voices within The New Directions Movement, particularly in region 5, where the movement began, the purpose of this website is to emphasize national leaders, whose voices still echo through the past into our current struggles.

Powerful leaders within the movement: Jerry Tucker, Victor Reuther, Sophie Reuther, Dave Yettaw. You will find brief histories, and news articles on each of them in the news portal section of our website. You will also find current interviews and writings of Jerry Tucker associated with today’s labor movement.

You will also find information regarding UAW History, UAW International, General Motors, Chrysler, Ford, Independent Parts Suppliers, healthcare and two-tier wages concessions, and columns from today’s strong voices of labor in our news portal as well. This section of our website is new, and we are providing this service for educational and labor awareness purposes. Documents within this section were taken from a variety of sources across the Internet and are not copywrited or owned by NDM.

We also offer message boards in which UAW members may discuss current struggles within labor, and discuss means of resolution to difficult problems.

We encourage all visitors to read our news section and message boards to gain personal insight into the struggle and progress of the rank and file.

Thank you for your interest in NDM and we welcome your feedback through our NDM feedback, question and answer message board.

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