Autoworkers Under the Gun: A Shop-Floor View of the End of the American Dream by Gregg Shotwell & Jerry Tucker & Lee Sustar

Author:Gregg Shotwell & Jerry Tucker & Lee Sustar [Shotwell, Gregg & Tucker, Jerry & Sustar, Lee]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Economics, Labor
ISBN: 9781608461639
Publisher: Haymarket Books
Published: 2012-02-14T06:00:00+00:00

Put the Backbone Back in the UAW

(January 31, 2006)

Whenever someone tells me that Miller has toned down his rhetoric and softened his approach, I recall what Vietnam veterans told me about the jungle when it got real quiet.

Wagoner said it would take GM six months to switch suppliers if the UAW struck Delphi.

Miller called for a cease-fire.

Delphi workers from Athens, Alabama, to Lockport, New York, report that management is stockpiling. Workers at plants that supply Delphi report a jump in orders as well. Looks like Miller took a page from Ho Chi Minh.

The facts on the ground lead me to believe that Miller’s idea of labor peace is Shoemaker holding his coat while he beats the snot out of a line worker.

Coincidentally, “soft landing” is street lingo for a quiet fleecing where the mark is too frightened to squeal.

Corporate mouthpieces talk about restructuring in the same tone of voice that chicken hawks talk about collateral damage.

The wheels are greased. Union officials police the peace. No one has heard anything in weeks. Mobilizing@Delphi, the six-union coalition that includes the UAW, makes the sound of one hand clapping. I don’t need to speculate. I got eyes, man.

I know when the leopard lies down in the grass, he’s prepared to attack.

In Coopersville, Delphi hired twenty new workers. One was a former contract engineer. He came in as an electrician. He doesn’t even own tools. A few of the new hires were former supervisors.

One man’s hunger is another man’s weapon.

Gettelfinger gave GM the largest health care concessions in UAW history. Look what it got us: plant closings, job cuts, more threats.

No sooner is one concession made than another one appears. Dick Shoemaker with one hand over his heart and the other in his pants.

Contract negotiations have already begun, but UAW officials haven’t held a strike vote or asked the rank and file for resolutions. The Concession Caucus says, “We have a plan,” but all we have seen so far is an orderly retreat turned into a rout.

If Delphi members had a benefit guarantee from GM, it wouldn’t be on the table. But apparently, it’s in negotiation. GM is dictating the terms, and Shoemaker is taking shorthand.

The Concession Caucus accuses SOS of being divisive. My favorite accusation is “socialist.” The capitalists are eating our lunch every day and we are supposed to be afraid of socialists? GM is partners with China and the Concession Caucus tries to red-bait me?

The SOS goal is straightforward: save jobs, pensions, benefits, wages.

Where’s the wedge?

If UAW officials don’t agree with those goals, they should stand up and state their case for concessions publicly. If UAW officials don’t agree that workers are worth fighting for, than we should elect delegates to the national convention who will demand “equality of sacrifice” from the International. Cancel their pensions, cut their wages, slash their health care, and eliminate their jobs.

It’s time to ratchet the jack another notch.

Put the backbone back into the UAW.

Delphi workers are facing the bayonet today, but the impact of the attack will be broad and deep.

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