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M-TH: Autoworkers shutdown General Motors
Charles Brown marxism-thaxis
Wed, 01 Jul 1998 17:13:44 -0400
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STRIKE! UAW WORKERS WALK THE WALK
By Claire McClintock
FLINT, Michigan -- Shortly after 10 a.m. on June 5, United Auto
Workers (UAW) Local 659 vented months of pent-up frustration and
marched out the East Gate door at the Flint Metal Center. Led out
with both the UAW and American flags, the workers carried "UAW on
Strike" signs and shouted "U-A-W!" They were met at the gate with
hugs, handshakes and high fives by scores of other Metal Fab
employees as well as union members from other UAW locals from
around the Flint area.
Shouting, jeering and howling we marched to the main road and were
met with honks of horns from vans and trucks alike driving up and
down Bristol Road. It was exhilarating to be able to flex our
union muscle.
AN EXPLOSION WAITING TO HAPPEN
Conflicts at General Motors (GM) have grown in recent years with
seven strikes called by UAW last year. At the Flint Metal Center,
labor woes surfaced when in 1994 the local contract was opened and
replaced with a new "competitive" agreement. The contract
disrupted long-standing and hard-won work rules, work standards
and classifications.
Workers could not reconcile GM's record-breaking profits and new
hi-tech investments with the deterioration of workplace dignity.
However, GM played the "job" card, promising future work. This
included a letter of agreement signed by the division vice
president promising cradle and other work, including "A/W" and "G"
cradles. The membership reluctantly passed the special agreement.
Last year's regular contract talks brought even more demands by
management, squeezing out more workplace changes. GM announced a
$300 million investment to try and offset the controversy. This
time, the workers flatly rejected the contract. However, it was
brought back to vote and the contract passed by a slim margin.
PROMISES MADE, PROMISES BROKEN
In February of this year, Regional Manager Tom Brody of the GM
Metal Fabricating Division informed the UAW that cradle work would
in fact not be coming to the Metal Fabricating Plant. He also
added that other anticipated project work was now in question.
Negotiations soon began to try and resolve the issue. In the
meantime, management abuses and harassment on the shop floor, and
even on the gates, escalated along with mounting unresolved
grievances. The Shop Committees asked for and received an
overwhelming authorization to strike. Authorization does not mean
the plant will automatically strike. It just means that it may
strike.
On Sunday afternoon of the Memorial Day weekend, while Metal Fab
workers were out of the plant, management locked all the gates,
turned off all of the telephones, hustled in scab workers and
truckers to a plant dock, and, like "thieves in the night," rushed
GMT 800 dies out of the door. These dies are needed to produce the
new extended-cab pick-up truck to be launched in the fall. With a
strike threat looming, GM needed to protect what is considered one
of the most important new products in years. At this point,
cooperation and the bargaining table itself were null and void.
When they moved the dies, they called the Union out. The following
Wednesday, the International Union issued a 5-day notice to
strike.
A DAYTON REPLAY WITH HIGHER STAKES
The 17-day UAW strike at Dayton, Ohio in 1996 shut GM down. The
Flint facility carries some of the same features. Like Dayton, the
issue here is work promised to us that GM refuses to deliver. And
like Dayton, the Flint plant could shut down GM in a matter of
days. The plant is the producer of sheet-metal parts, hoods,
finders, as well as engine cradles, impacting a number of auto
products and virtually all truck production. The situation gives
tremendous leverage to the UAW. Finally, like Dayton, we face a
formidable adversary with deep pockets (GM ate $900 million in
losses as a result of the Dayton Strike).
But this is where the similarities end. First of all, Flint has
the largest concentration of GM workers in the world
(approximately 33,000 workers, down from 77,000 workers in the
late 1970s). Flint is the birthplace of the UAW -- not just a
union town, but UAW country. The emotional ties and commitment to
the contributions of the labor movement cannot be underestimated.
Of the seven area UAW locals in the Flint area, five have taken
and approved strike votes.
Within days of sneaking the dies out of Metal Fab, state and local
governments had just given GM tax breaks to build a new engine
plant, hiring 700 displaced workers to the tune of a staggering
$53,000 per worker.
GLOBAL COMPETITION: WHO BENEFITS?
We, the workers, cannot live with the downsizing, plant closings,
worker intimidation and harassment. We cannot reconcile GM's
record-breaking profits built on the backs of a community whose
unemployment rate is 25% with an ever-growing new class of
jobless, part-time, temporary and otherwise disposable workers,
many of whom are our children and grandchildren. This strike is
then about our families, our children and our community vs. the GM
corporate family and its bottom line.
GM is aggressively carving out its own niche in the global market.
The hi-tech revolution is sending shock waves around the world,
and capitalists like GM are joining the party. "We must get
competitive to survive in the global economy" bombards GM on the
shop floor, at the bargaining table, and in the media. We have
learned the hard way that this "competitiveness" is a code word
for reducing labor cost. This is done primarily by investing in
labor-replacing equipment such as robots. As a back-up, GM seeks
to exploit the cheapest labor possible, be it Mexico, China, or
the sweatshops sprawled along the I-75 corridor.
In our heart of hearts, we knew when we walked out of the plant
that we carried with us the aspirations and hopes of a closing
Buick City, a barely open V-8 plant, a sold Carpenter Road plant,
as well as a battle-weary Chevrolet Manufacturing Complex. A
victory at Metal Fab is critical. Without it, the good life that
our founding members fought for and passed on to us (without a
strike fund or a bargaining table) may take years to recoup.
******************************************************************
This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE (Online Edition),
Vol. 25 No. 7 / July, 1998; P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL
60654, [EMAIL PROTECTED] or WWW:
http://www.mcs.com/~league
For free electronic subscription, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]
with "Subscribe" in the subject line.
Feel free to reproduce; please include this message with
reproductions of this article.
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