UAW President, Jones, and former President Williams identified as co-conspirators in the corruption scandal one day before the expiry of the contracts

UAW President, Jones, and former President Williams identified as co-conspirators in the corruption scandal one day before the expiry of the contracts

By
Tom Hall

September 14, 2019

President of the United Auto Workers, Gary Jones, and former President, Dennis Williams, are the "UAW Officials" and "UAW Officials" in the criminal complaint filed Thursday against from the UAW Region 5 Director, Vance Pearson. Detroit News reported on Friday. the New cited three anonymous sources for his report.

The houses of Jones and Williams were raided two weeks ago by FBI investigators as part of a national campaign that also included Jones' most important lieutenant, Pearson, when Jones was director of Region 5, and former assistant of Williams, Amy Loasching.

In criminal cases, the federal authorities have identified four current and former senior officials as complicit in the embezzlement scheme. The government has reported many cases in which the "A" and "B" representatives of the UAW have spent money on workers' fees for golf outings, champagne bottles and the like. worth $ 400, cigars and rentals of several months in private villas in Palm Springs, California, all covered with forgery. expense reports.

The latest discoveries create an unprecedented situation. Less than 24 hours before the expiry of the car deal, the current and former presidents of the UAW have been exposed as gangsters and the "union" as a criminal syndicate.

At the time of writing these lines, Jones retains his position as president of the UAW after an emergency meeting of the International Union Executive Council (IEB) on Friday afternoon. UAW officials coming out of the meeting refused to answer journalists' questions. Jones' chauffeur and several other people physically prevented an Associated Press reporter from approaching Jones to ask him questions.

There is no doubt that intense divisions within the trade union apparatus on how to proceed – a faction of the EIB is favoring the ouster of Jones in order to prevent a takeover of the union by the federal government, according to the press release. Detroit News-the fact that Jones remains president of the union is an additional measure of contempt of the union apparatus for the base. This clearly shows that the UAW is determined, one way or another, to enforce corporate dictates, which require further cuts in health coverage and massive hand expansion. -d temporary and part time work.

After voting for more than 96 percent in favor of strike authorization, auto sector workers seeking to fight to recover their wages, benefits and lost jobs, and to end to the hated two-speed system are becoming more aware that they must face a fight not only the bosses of the automobile, but also the pro-business union.

However, while the media had warned that a discredited and weakened union apparatus would fail to control the explosive anger of the workers, the UAW is stepping up its plot with automakers. This is the importance of the union's silence following its crisis meeting on Friday. The pro-business organization is seeking to devise new ways to undermine workers' activism and sabotage their struggle.

CNN Business and News from the automobile Yesterday reported that the target company General Motors and the UAW were increasingly considering extending their contract temporarily. News from the automobile reported that "two people informed on the subject say that GM may request a temporary extension of the contract and may pursue other options, including seeking third-party assistance." Many media have claimed that the possibility that an indictment hangs on key leaders of the UAW may have made further litigation impossible.

The purpose of such a maneuver would be to gain time to force concessions. The reference to "third-party assistance" suggests that an extension of contract could be combined with federal mediation or some form of monitoring.

It is all the more urgent that auto workers are now taking action to take charge of the battle of the contract. There is no time to waste on forming base committees in every factory to coordinate a national struggle of GM, Ford and Fiat Chrysler (FCA) workers to cancel decades of concessions and earn wages, benefits and job security that workers need and bring all temporary and part – time temporary workers to a maximum.

Workers must form their own independent democratic struggle bodies from the UAW to coordinate the national strike action and appeal for support to auto workers in Canada, Mexico and around the world as well as teachers, Amazonian workers and the working class as a whole.

Regardless of the tactics developed between the UAW and the automakers – whether it's an extension of the contract, a lease, a symbolic strike, or government intervention – the union will strive to defeat the workers and the workers must be able to assert their rights. own interests.

Workers must hold meetings in each factory to elect their own leaders from the most reliable core employees, list their own demands and prepare an action plan to mobilize self-employed workers from across the country and around the world. .

The situation is now at the edge of the knife. There are many possible scenarios that can take place in the next 24 to 48 hours.

Recovering everything is the prospect of a federal receivership. The latest accusations "[increase] the likelihood that the government would come after the union with a RICO charge (similar to that used to place the Teamsters union under federal receivership in the 1980s), Erik Gordon, a professor of commerce at the University of Michigan, said the Detroit News .

Such a maneuver of the Trump administration would not be aimed at "cleansing" or democratizing the union. As in the case of the federal surveillance of the Teamsters, it would aim to prevent a basic rebellion of self-employed against the corrupt apparatus of the UAW.

Fearing that auto workers are out of the control of the UAW, the Trump administration and the corporate elite are using increasing lawsuits against union officials – six UAW officials so far – to put pressure on the union so that it does not adapt to the demands of the workers and on the contrary imposes the new concessions requested by the car manufacturers.

But the federal government plays with fire. Industry analysts worry more and more that the government is exposing the UAW's corruption in the US and will provoke a storm of opposition that will make ratification of any contract virtually impossible. "GM has no interest in having a weakened UAW," analyst Kristen Dziczek told CNN. "They do not want to reach an agreement in principle with the leaders on the other side of the table who can not get it ratified by [the] classify and put away. "

In addition to a contract extension, another possible scenario is that the UAW is calling for limited "Hollywood" strikes in several General Motors factories to allow workers to let off steam. The UAW is already deliberately isolating workers in the event of a strike of this kind.

Yesterday, the union signed contract extensions at Ford and Fiat Chrysler. This is done to break the unity of the auto workers and force each section of workers to take one business at a time. Meanwhile, automakers, their Wall Street sponsors and the UAW are collaborating to wage a joint attack on the workers.

Representatives of the local union of the GM plant in Spring Hill, Tenn., Ask cleaners and housekeeping workers to cross the picket line in the event of a strike by assembly workers. And amidst the general feeling of a total strike, union officials and so-called team leaders moved into the shop floor to urge Ford and FCA workers not to go out at midnight tonight.

The union also announced the idea of ​​calling several hundred janitors employed by Aramark in five GM plants whose UAW contracts expire at the same time, and then instructing auto workers to respect their picket lines.

In one way or another, the UAW wants to limit any action so that it has the least possible impact on GM's bottom line.

In a Friday editorial, however, the Detroit News have expressed the fear that the workers' anger is so explosive that even a symbolic strike can quickly escape the control of the union. Urging the UAW not to call the strike, the editorial board wrote: "UWW officials need to know that it is much easier to strike workers than to bring them back to work … [autoworkers] can not trust any proposition that Jones brings them, and therefore refuse to ratify it as a form of protest. It could easily turn what should have been a short strike into a much longer strike. "

Another possibility is that the UAW and General Motors announce an agreement in principle at the eleventh hour or shortly after the expiry of the deadline, as was the case in 2015. Although this remains a distinct possibility some analysts consider it more and more distant. because of the likelihood that an agreement negotiated for months behind a wall of silence will be rejected by members. On the other hand, the dubious circumstances behind the ratification of the Ford contract in 2015 demonstrate that the UAW is perfectly willing to stuff the ballot boxes and threaten the workers with their jobs in order to obtain concessions.

The media has been speculating for months that GM and the UAW could reach an agreement combining major concessions, including increased use of interim measures and other measures to reduce labor costs. work, with the reopening of one of the four US plants that GM plans to close. December, probably assembly of Detroit-Hamtramck. President Trump would no doubt welcome such an agreement as a victory for "American jobs".

Whatever the ultimate preparation of the UAW and GM this weekend, the auto workers must take the initiative and make sure that their aspirations and interests are not betrayed by another rotten maneuver. If a strike is triggered, workers should elect basic strike committees to urge workers at each plant to participate in a common fight.

They should appeal to all categories of workers in Detroit and the country to join a counter-offensive against decades of declining wages, factory closures and social inequality. They should call for a joint fight with workers in Canada and Mexico, where GM workers have already expressed their solidarity by opposing GM's efforts to transfer additional production to the Silao complex to offset production. lost in the event of a strike.

Thursday's online conference organized by the WSWS Autoworker Newsletter, This conference, which brought together an international audience of 300 people, demonstrated the powerful links that unite US auto workers and their brothers and sisters in Mexico and around the world, facing the same attacks against the US. jobs and standard of living.

the World Socialist Website stands ready to help the workers in every way possible to create a new basic leadership. Go to wsws.org/auto and start the fight today by the auto workers.

<! – blog comments powered by Disqus ->