Indignation of workers in the auto industry increases in the face of GM factory closures

"Everyone – Ford, Chrysler, GM – must go on strike now"

Indignation of workers in the auto industry increases in the face of GM factory closures

By
Jerry White

November 29, 2018

Indignation in auto factories and working communities escalates after General Motors announcement on Monday of the closure of five plants in the United States and Canada and job cuts of nearly 15,000 employees and employees. Mary Barra, CEO of GM, said "these actions will increase the potential for long-term revenue and revenue generation," announced that three badembly plants in Detroit, Lordstown, Ohio and Oshawa, Ontario, would be closed. Next year, as well as two transmission plants in Baltimore, Maryland and the suburbs of Detroit in Warren, Michigan.

The Detroit-based automaker reported a 38% increase in North American profits in the third quarter and is poised to make $ 10 billion in profits this year and $ 42 billion in the last five years . Wall Street celebrated the announcement of the closure, boosting GM's stock by nearly 7%, ensuring that much of the estimated $ 6.5 billion in cost savings from here 2020 would be channeled to wealthy investors through ongoing share buybacks and dividend payments.

The job cuts have been hailed in the main editorials of the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and other media controlled by the company. Trump and the Democrats who granted GM $ 500 million in tax relief, as well as the United Auto Workers (UAW), have launched false protests centered on GM's demand for the closure of factories in China and Mexico. However, big business and UAW support the relentless campaign to reduce wages and working conditions of workers in order to devote more money to financial elites and businesses.

"It's capitalism at its best," said Angela, a Fiat Chrysler worker from Kokomo, Indiana, about the plant's closure. "It shows that they only care about the stock market. Christmas is coming and I can only imagine the pressure these workers will have when they try to buy gifts for their children, knowing that they will not have a job next year.

"When Trump and the media say the economy has never been so good and there is record unemployment, they are driving up the BS. I can not think of any other country in the world that has spread more than America. Then they tell us that it is the fault of Mexico or China, or that desperate immigrants are taking jobs … I'm just sick of all the scapegoats.

"What has changed since the crash of 2008? They bailed out the super-rich and all the companies. But for us, workers, we have received nothing. What is the level of security of our jobs? We are desperate and avoid creditors, and this is supposed to be the best case. "

The global financial crisis of 2008 was followed by the restructuring of GM and Chrysler by Obama in 2009, which resulted in halving the wages of all new workers, the end of the eight-hour day and the elimination of Jobs Bank, which provided a semblance of income protection for laid-off workers.

In exchange for the surrender of these concessions, the UAW has gained control of a multi-billion pension health care trust and the majority of GM's shares. After reselling 40 million shares to the company last February (for a $ 1.6 billion return), the UAW still retains 100 million shares currently valued at $ 3.67 billion of dollars. When GM's shares skyrocketed after the announcement of the plant's closure, the value of the union's holdings increased by $ 214 million.

As it has done over the past four decades, the UAW signed contracts in 2009, 2011, and 2015, on the premise that the increase in corporate profits would "secure" jobs.

With the growing number of strikes and mbad demonstrations of workers in the United States and around the world, this GM initiative tells Wall Street that it will not be necessary to stop making the most of the workers' profits. In particular, the job cuts are aimed at countering the militancy of 140,000 workers at GM, Ford and Fiat Chrysler, determined to recover the lost income and make substantial gains at the end of their four-year work contract. in September 2019.

GM's announcement was followed by Ford's decision to abolish a position at two of its plants by cutting 500 jobs each at its badembly plants in Louisville, Kentucky, and at Flat Rock, a suburb of Ottawa. Detroit. The company says that there will be no permanent layoffs as the workers will be transferred to other factories. However, the jobs of many temporary part-time (TPT) and short-term (STS) workers, who pay union dues but do not enjoy the least protection from employment, are at risk.

An employee at the nearby Kentucky transmission plant told the WSWS: "The Louisville Assembly Plant has announced today that it is laying off employees. We heard that 500 people would be transferred to our factory. But what will happen to the TPT, the STS workers there? Most of them will be unemployed. This is totally unacceptable. "

"I'm not surprised what GM has done," said a GM contractor in the Detroit area. "It's cutting, cutting, burning and destroying people, families and communities. Look at Detroit 40 years ago. It was absolutely beautiful. Now, look at Flint. Everything they touch becomes s ** t.

If workers do not stop plant closures, it will mean the further devastation of Detroit, Oshawa and the cities surrounding the Lordstown factory in Ohio, already devastated decades of deindustrialization and chronic poverty. A low estimate is that the effect of the closures would result in the removal of 35,000 related jobs in the supplier plants and service industries.

"We should strike across America. Everyone – Ford, Chrysler, GM, everyone – must go on strike now, "said a factory worker from the Detroit-Hamtramck Target Plant at the WSWS Staff Bulletin.

Tommy, who is already fired from the Lordstown plant, said, "We have a lot of people who are really upset and who feel like we've been fired. We are ready to do something to fight back. "

"This must be a movement throughout America," said another worker from Lordstown. "We have to think of it as a movement because defeat is not an option."

"The fight is for jobs. They are continually cutting jobs, "said a young employee of the TPT plant at FCA's badembly plant in Sterling Heights, who was previously working at GM's Detroit-based plant. Hamtramck. "There are a lot of workers in this factory who are trying to have enough time for retirement. The closure will affect workers throughout the Detroit area, including businesses and suppliers.

"TPT workers like me will be the hardest hit," she added, noting that these workers had no seniority or recall rights.

Among auto workers, there is universal hatred towards the UAW, which is mired in a corruption scandal involving the transfer of millions of dollars in bribes from Fiat Chrysler executives into exchange of the signing of business-friendly work agreements. Shortly before GM removes the second of three teams at Lordstown last year, GM's former GM vice president, Cindy Estrada, signed an agreement behind the backs of workers allowing her to outsource jobs to a lower-paying supplier.

"The UAW knew it was going to happen," said Dick, an FCA Jeep Jeep worker about the closures. "Estrada has probably set the stage for that. I am sure that GM will act to get more tax relief and will try to force workers next year during contract negotiations. The company will hang these factories to get the workers to accept more takeaway.

"I'll bet that the UAW will choose GM as the target company and tell the workers that they will have to take it on themselves if they want to get back to their jobs." If there is to be a fight, it will have to come from the workers themselves. "

"With regard to the UAW," added Angela, the Kokomo FCA's transmission officer, "it's an organization that will accept bribes, will grant their senior officers pay raises and will build cottages in Black Lake in the middle of a corruption scandal.They see the writing on the wall.The workers will abandon them and stop paying their dues, and they want to steal everything they can before going down.

"The only ones who will fight against these plant closures are the workers themselves. They tell us to tell the truth to power, but the problem is that those in power already know the truth about what they are doing to us, and they do not care about us. The working clbad will have to get up and take power. "

Mark, a 26-year-old part-time temporary worker at GM's Detroit-Hamtramck plant, said he had not learned of the shutdown until the next day. It's really discouraging. They told us they were "sorry," we discovered it this way. As far as the union president is concerned, we have never heard of it. "

After high school, Mark worked at Walmart for four years at $ 10 an hour. He got a TPT worker job at GM four years ago, but could never become permanent. He had to change plants several times because of temporary closures. Each time, he loses his seniority and can never get a permanent job. "I jump from plant to plant," he said. More recently, he left his position at the GM plant at Orion Lake in the summer of 2017 due to the extended shutdown. He earns $ 15 an hour and does not know what he will do in response to the announced closure.

"GM is just stuffing his pockets," he said. "We have the short term. That's how it works. We are used to it in America. The people who need it the most get the least. Those on the top are treating each other. If you are in the working clbad, you have to work constantly to survive. They will never give you a chance to live comfortably. You might think that we would be better treated because we are the ones who run the business on a day-to-day basis and they could not do it without us. "

In the absence of savings, Mark said that he could not afford a major repair of his car if it broke down. "I can afford to cover my basic needs," he said. "It's a struggle. It is frustrating to leave at 5 or 6 o'clock in the morning and many of us go home at 20 or 21 hours. So right now, you're back here. "

He stated that he thought that every worker was entitled to a full-time permanent job, not only in the United States, but also internationally. "Everyone deserves a job. If we have fought together in different countries to make sure we are on the same page, with the same salary, I think we could have an impact. I think the working clbad needs to work more as a clbad and make sure that it is not the few who are rich who dictate the poor. It is unfair and unfair. We should simply divide all the wealth so that everyone has the same amount. "

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