UAW asks GM employees to work after their contract expires

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UAW asks GM employees to work after their contract expires

By
a report writing team WSWS Autoworker Newsletter

September 14, 2019

The United Auto Workers union announced Saturday night that it will allow 46,000 General Motors workers' contract to expire at midnight and keep it at work, even though GM continues to call for the abolition of health care benefits. health, the closure of factories and the increase in the number of temporary and low-paid contract workers.

This betrayal of the UAW goes against the strike mandate of 96% of workers at GM, Ford and Fiat Chrysler (FCA). While auto workers are ready to leave Saturday night at midnight, the UAW is deliberately using them to demobilize and disorient them while collaborating with the company's leadership to impose another favorable contract on the company.

The fact that the UAW leaders have not called for a symbolic strike is an indication of the fear of quickly losing control of even limited action and releasing the strength of the working class . The UAW wants to announce a settlement while the workers are still in the factories, fearing that once the workers leave their jobs, they will not be able to bring them back to work.

The union fears that a strike – particularly one that forces the company to withdraw – does not favor worker activism and undermines its corporate policy. With his henchmen, UAW President Gary Jones, who faces an imminent criminal charge of bribery, believes union leaders must prove that they are always helpful to the government and businesses for plead successfully.

This underscores the urgency for auto workers to remove the UAW from contractual struggle by organizing grassroots committees and preparing a fight to mobilize the 158,000 GM, Ford and Fiat Chrysler workers. The UAW and companies must no longer be allowed to challenge the will of workers and sign a contract that will have devastating consequences for auto workers, their families and future generations of workers.

Workers leave their job at Fiat Chrysler's Sterling Heights meeting.

On Saturday evening, the Vice President of the UAW, Terry Dittes, sent a letter to the presidents of GM locals, workshop presidents, finance and other local officials, announcing that UAW would pursue negotiations with a view to reaching an agreement and that "no decision or action would be taken. until the IEB [International Executive Board] meets at midnight and the National Council meets at 10 am on Sunday. "

In comments aimed at core employees worried about being kept in the dark for weeks on the status of negotiations, or even on the UAW's claims, Dittes said that "some progress has been made". Say, however, that "significant differences remain between the parties with respect to wages, health care benefits, temporary employees, job security and profit sharing".

The fact is that the UAW and the companies have reached an agreement long ago and that the "negotiations" are nothing more than strategy sessions to decide how best to get the agreement out facing the massive opposition of the workers. Even if Dittes' comments are taken into account, it means that the UAW forces workers to stay at work under conditions where GM has not moved its iota of its demands.

The UAW International Executive Council, consisting of President Gary Jones, Secretary-Treasurer Ray Curry, Vice Presidents Terry Dittes (GM), Rory Gamble (Ford) and Cindy Estrada (FCA) and Nine Regional Directors will meet at midnight tonight. . The same body held a controversial meeting yesterday in which it demonstrated the union's contempt for the workers by voting to keep Mr. Jones in power, although he is now involved in a ploy in which officials of the union said he was in power. UAW have diverted more than a million dollars from their funds for golf outings. luxury villas, champagne and other luxuries.

On Sunday, the UAW Council of Ministers will hold a private meeting at 10 am at the Renaissance Marriott Hotel, which will be followed by a press conference. The body, made up of local union leaders from GM factories across the country, will decide what action to take. Far from the feelings of the workers in the workshops, the UAW hopes to get clarification on the situation of the local union bureaucrats, while giving them the order to walk to stay the course on the opposition.

The UAW may still feel compelled to call for a limited strike or other tour de force to let off steam and regain some credibility with the workers. Such action, however, would be designed to have the least impact on corporate net income, while creating better conditions for reaching a favorable business deal. A three-day walkout at GM and a six-hour strike at Chrysler in 2007 were followed by the introduction of the two-tier wage system.

The workers are determined to fight GM, which has made profits of $ 35 billion over the last three years, while spending more than $ 10 billion in share buybacks for its wealthy shareholders since 2015.

The same goes for the Ford and Fiat Chrysler workers. On Friday, the UAW extended contracts with other automakers to divide workers in the auto sector, even as the big three companies work together to impose new concessions. Stewards and team leaders have been spreading through the factories to tell the workers that they should not go out tonight.

A Fiat Chrysler worker at the Sterling Heights Assembly plant told the WSWS Autoworker Newsletter"A lot has been taken away from us. If we all get up now and go out, businesses would lose millions in the first hour of the strike. The people of the United States should close the whole country. We are ready. All together would be more powerful than billionaires. Production is connected around the world and we work on the same products as Canadian and Mexican workers. This makes it an international struggle.

"I worked C crew [swing shift] at SHAP for five years. People are so tired that there are a lot of accidents with C Crew workers trying to get home. You can talk to any doctor and he will tell you how bad this change is for your health. I've heard senior management say that Chrysler will never give up the Crew Crew because it's too profitable. "

Like other global manufacturers, GM has reduced tens to thousands of white-collar jobs and production, and is closing five factories in the United States and Canada, including the United States. Iconic assembly plant and factory in Lordstown, Ohio. its only assembly plant in Detroit.

Plant closures, announced late last year, are part of GM's and the UAW's joint strategy of using job threats to advance even deeper concessions. In the past, UAW and automakers have announced so-called "factory economy" agreements including "competitive wage structures" and other concessions, including commissioning factories with mostly lower-paying second-level workers, as well as temporary and contract workers who has to pay UAW dues but can be hired and fired at will.

The self-employed have already seen this game plan and are determined to prevent this from happening again. They know that the whole "bargaining process" is a fraud, because those who claim to be negotiating for them have been exposed as bribe takers working for management.

To end this corporate-UAW conspiracy, workers must take control of the negotiations and contract out of the hands of the UAW by establishing basic factory committees. Workers must hold meetings in factories and on social media to elect these committees, formulate their own demands and prepare to intervene directly to thwart any decision of the UAW having adverse consequences for workers and their families.

What is needed is a real struggle to mobilize the 158,000 workers of GM, Ford and FCA and much larger groups of the working class. This includes making contact with GM and other auto workers in Canada, Mexico, Korea and other countries, and putting in place a common fight for the defense of jobs and jobs. of the standard of living.

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