UAW President Shawn Fain said, “The Big Three is our strike target. And whether or not there’s a strike – it’s up to Ford, General Motors and Stellantis, because they know what our priorities are. We’ve been clear.” The UAW workers are fighting for a 46% wage increase, restoring their pensions, a 32-hour work week, and increased retiree benefits.

According to UAW, 98% of hourly workers and 99% of salaried workers at Ford voted to authorize the strike, 96% did at GM, and 95% at Stellantis.

UAW has not announced a strike as of now but if a strike does occur there is the potential for it to happen across all three companies for a 150,00-person strike. UAW has a strike fund of $825 million and in the event of a strike is prepared to pay the workers $500 a week in strike pay, which means they could maintain this strike pay for up to 11 weeks from existing funds if necessary.

When UAW members went on strike at GM in 2019 the strike cost GM $3.6 billion in profits. Whether a strike occurs this year and if it occurs across all three companies is yet to be seen, but if one does happen it will prove extremely costly for the automakers.

#DetroitMI #AutoUnitedAutoWorkers #UAW

Seattle, WA – On June 8, at the University of Washington-Seattle, over 100 people confronted the UW board of regents and University President Ana Marie Cauce in the morning prior to their meeting regarding their targeting of international workers. Organized by the UAW 4121, the workers lined the entrances of Suzzallo Library, and the UW administration was forced to deal with the consequences of their union-busting actions.

On June 7, at the beginning of the strike, the university distributed a message to multiple departments containing a distortion of facts concerning international scholars and the strike, along with a request for managers to notify them if visa holders are involved in the strike, citing a purported reporting obligation.

By labeling the RSE and postdoc strikes as a “strike by visa holders,” UW is distorting the truth and trying to create fear in international scholars by singling out their individual participation in strike actions. The UAW 4121 is determined to hold the university responsible for this behavior, which exemplifies their blatant anti-union stance and their willingness to manipulate the law when it serves their interests.

Members of the board of regents would normally enter the library through an unmarked side entrance, but the UAW was present at this entrance. The board of regents had canceled its meeting on Wednesday night, the beginning of the strike, and their Thursday meeting would typically begin when the library is closed to the public. The UAW’s presence forced the board of regents to recognize them and give them time for public comment – increasing pressure as the administration is forced back to the bargaining table.

Katie Osterhage, a research scientist on the bargaining committee, said, “We wanted to meet the board of regents and the president as they were walking in to start their meeting to confront them about the misleading communications they distributed about reporting international employees on visas. This targeting of our most structurally vulnerable colleagues is appalling”.

#SeattleWA #AutoUnitedAutoWorkers #UAW

Seattle, WA – On Thursday, May 25, members of UAW Local 4121 rallied in front of Drumheller Fountain as research scientists and postdoctorates prepare to go on strike at the University of Washington. At the rally, a strike date of June 7 was announced, and over 100 members of the union demonstrated their willingness to fight for a strong contract.

Two major demands of the bargaining team right now are around equity and pay-equity including childcare. Research scientist Tricia Wu said, “UW says they don’t have any money for childcare. Do we believe this?” The university’s administration has tried to violate state law in how it pays research scientists and postdoctorates. The university is attempting to force researchers to work for an hourly rate, rather than on salary. Many research scientists regularly use overtime to finish experiments, and the administration’s proposal would allow overtime requests to be denied even if they keep working to finish their projects – stealing their pay. Andrew Brown, a postdoctoral, said “Bargaining has slowed to a crawl because they spent so much time trying to evade the law.”

Speakers stressed the power that a strike gives workers at the university. Rebecca Bluett, a postdoctoral, said “Striking is the only option left to us.” If research scientists and postdoctorates stop working, research stops almost immediately, which damages the reputation and funding of the university. Other unions have sanctioned the strike and are likely to act in solidarity. The union has also prepared for the strike well in advance, with a strike fund to support those on the picket line, and over 50 strike captains trained. At the rally and afterwards, people signed up for shifts on the picket line. The crowd was motivated by examples from other universities, as Andrew Brown said, “After what happened in California, in Rutgers, how did they think we weren’t willing to strike?”

After the rally, the crowd marched to the administration building, occupying three floors of the building. In front of the president’s office, union members demanded a meeting with administrators, which was denied. An administrator tried to tell research scientists that she understands their concerns, while arguing for why they cannot be paid more. For the next few hours, dozens lined the halls of the building, continuing to organize ahead of the strike.

Support was not limited to those preparing to go on the picket line. Teaching assistants, student employees, and undergraduate students all attended the rally and sit-in, expressing solidarity with research scientists and postdoctoral researchers. Other members of the union not going on strike planned how they can support their fellow workers. Carlos Montes, a Chicano activist and labor organizer visiting Seattle, visited the sit-in, speaking to several union members about his own experiences. When the strike begins on June 7 preparations have been made, and the community is ready to turn out to the picket line.

#SeattleWA #AutoUnitedAutoWorkers #UAW

Nearly five dozen members of UAW Local 291 have gone on strike. The picketing began early Monday morning, Feb. 6, after the conclusion of a workers’ meeting during which the decision was made to take action.

The workers at AxleTech chose to go on strike because they believe they are being put at a disadvantage in the negotiation process, with essential information regarding insurance coverage being denied to them.

“We are on an unfair labor practice strike,” UAW Local 291 President Robert Mitchell said. “We hope to get an agreement soon to get our people back to work.”

In addition to the picketing, the members of UAW Local 291 are planning a support rally to be held at their union headquarters in Oshkosh at 9 a.m. on Saturday, Feb. 11.

#OshkoshWI #PeoplesStruggles #AutoUnitedAutoWorkers #UnitedAutoWorkers

Kohler, WI – Sheboygan County Circuit Judge James Bolgert approved a temporary injunction against striking UAW 833 members ordering them not to disrupt traffic around the Kohler Company property. UAW members have now entered the third day in their strike, over a two-tier wage system and a rising contributions to health care.

“We fully support the striking workers of UAW Local 833,” said Kas Schwerdtfeger, a UPS driver and rank-and-file member of Teamsters Local 344. “They are an inspiration to all workers in Wisconsin and we stand with them in solidarity in their fight for a fair contract.”

Koehler Co. filed for the temporary injunction, restricting picketers from disrupting traffic, in and around the facility, preventing vehicles going into the facility and occupying any property on the Kohler Co. property, including driveways. Another injunction barring mass picketing is set to be heard next week on Wednesday, Nov, 25.

The injunction comes after more than 1000 members and supporters marched about two miles from the UAW hall to the company the evening of Nov. 16. UAW members have formed an energetic 24-hour picket line outside the Kohler Co. facility they plan to continue until they win a decent contract. Picketers also stopped any vehicle attempting to get into the property to ensure no union members were going into work.

Koehler is trying to use the legal weapon of injunctions to kill the strike. This tactic is a favorite for companies that use these sets of legal maneuvers designed to disrupt and eliminate worker solidarity, strikes, pickets and other vehicles for organized labor. If the company had its way, all strikes would be illegal, taking away the voice of workers demanding decent wages, benefits and safe working conditions.

The striking workers of Koehler represent a new battleground for Wisconsin, as they are going into what will be their first 'Right to Work' contract.

“This strike is not just for us, it is also for the community. There will be a trickle effect if we all end up making $12 or $13 an hour. I want the kids and the grandkids of the area to have something to look forward to,” says Barbara Turner, a skilled trades worker on strike with UAW 833. “We're not looking for the world, we are just looking for a fair contract. That is all we are looking for.”

#KohlerWI #AutoUnitedAutoWorkers #UAW #KohlerStrike

Hammond, IN – By 4:00 p.m. Sept. 14, the negotiating committee from UAW Local 2335 had reached a tentative agreement with Lear Corporation. Over 700 workers walked off the job Sept. 13 demanding an end to the two-tier wage structure. In a major victory in the auto industry, the employer agreed to abolish the double standard in wages. Workers will return to work on Sept. 15 and have yet to ratify the agreement.

Fight Back! caught up with Mike Elliot, the chair of the Union Solidarity Committee of UAW Local 551 at the Ford assembly plant in Chicago. His local is the only local in the UAW that has a standing committee like this. Its mission is to build solidarity with other unions and social justice groups and mobilize members from the plant to picket lines, fights for justice, for women’s rights, human rights and even anti-eviction campaigns.

“Without solidarity, none of this would be possible. We set up shifts and brought out a great number of our members to the pickets lines at Lear,” Elliot said. “It was announced this afternoon that Lear Corporation agreed to abolish the two-tier wage structure and increase workers at the top by 1.5%”. The details of the agreement have not been made public yet, but workers on the picket lines were celebrating their fight today.

Elliot expressed how important this is to the 4500 workers at the assembly plant. “Our contract expires next year on Sept. 15, 2015. This is a major blow to what divides the workers: a two-tiered wage structure. You cannot survive long if you have people working next to one another doing the same work and one person is paid half of the other person.” Members of UAW Local 551 will be carefully building for their fight next year to dump the two-tier system there, he added.

#HammondIN #PeoplesStruggles #AutoUnitedAutoWorkers #UAW #Indiana #Workers #LearCorporation #AutoWorkers #wages

NAIAS bills itself as “the auto industry’s indispensable North American event” where “attention turns to Detroit for global unveilings and news from an optimistic industry.” (www.naias.com) Many autoworkers on the shop floor, however, don’t share the enthusiasm of “the industry” — meaning the executives, stockholders and moneylenders.

The billions in profits General Motors and Ford are raking in — and that Chrysler expects to start accumulating this year — have come at the workers’ expense. The Jan. 10 Detroit Free Press reported that these three companies have eliminated nearly 80,000 union jobs in Michigan in the past two years. Now, with an upturn in vehicle sales and an increase in the Detroit Three automakers’ market share, the Free Press stated that 28,000 new job openings will be filled this year.

The catch is that under a two-tier wage structure demanded by the U.S. Treasury in 2009, the pay of these new hires will be frozen at $14 an hour until 2015 — half of what higher seniority production workers currently earn. Many will be hired as temporary workers and remain on temporary status indefinitely.

The Rally for Jobs was initiated by the Autoworkers Caravan and supported by Factory Rats United; Warriors of Labor; Coalition of Concerned Citizens; Windsor Workers Action Center; Moratorium Now! Coalition to Stop Foreclosures, Evictions and Utility Shutoffs; and Supporters of Gary Walkowicz.

Walkowicz challenged the two-tier pay structure last year at the United Auto Workers Constitutional Convention as an opposition candidate for International president.

The rally addressed a number of issues. Frank Hammer, former president of UAW Local 909, explained that the current version of the Free Trade Agreement between South Korea and the U.S. would eliminate thousands of jobs in both countries. The only change from the original 2007 agreement is that the new FTA delays the lifting of trade barriers.

Wendy Thompson, former president of UAW Local 235, raised the demand that the many closed auto plants be reopened and retooled to produce the buses and trains — which the auto companies once built — needed to revitalize mass transit to reduce carbon emissions and combat global warming.

Walkowicz addressed the upcoming UAW National Bargaining Convention, calling on union members to fight to get back everything they gave up in the 2007 contracts with the Detroit Three and the additional modifications during the 2009 GM and Chrysler bankruptcies.

Abayomi Azikiwe, representing Moratorium Now!, stated that Michigan public sector workers were facing an attack similar to that directed at the UAW and called on those present to demonstrate against layoffs and service cuts during the State of the State address of newly elected Gov.Rick Snyder.

Greg Clark, Shop Chair of UAW Local 23, talked about the struggle of GM workers in Indianapolis against company plans to sell their plant to a supplier that would have cut their wages in half and taken away benefits. Solidarity statements were read from autoworkers in Canada and Brazil.

The demonstration was an important challenge to the capitalist position — unfortunately embraced by the UAW officialdom — that workers in the plants need to make whatever concessions deemed necessary to make the companies profitable and competitive.

#DetroitMI #AutoUnitedAutoWorkers #UAW

With the bankruptcy filings of General Motors and Chrysler, the UAW leadership has given up even more without a fight. Gone is protection against unemployment. More than a dozen plants will close, cutting 20,000 or more jobs. Pensions and health care benefits will be cut even more. Wages are being cut to match nonunion autoworkers, whose wages are also being cut, leading to another ‘race to the bottom.’ The UAW has agreed to no strikes for five years, giving up the fundamental fight-back for workers.

The ‘new’ GM that emerges from bankruptcy will be 60% owned by the federal government. Contrary to what the right wing is wailing, this is not socialism, but state capitalism. The goal is to ‘restore profitability,’ which means cutting the jobs, wages and benefits of workers, so that the government can eventually sell GM back to wealthy investors.

The federal government is pushing GM to close more than 2500 car dealerships, causing even more job losses. Fewer dealers will reduce competition and lead to higher prices (and more profits!) in the future. Two more auto parts makers (Visteon and Metaldyne) have already filed for bankruptcy and more are sure to follow. Michigan and the midwest, already reeling from double-digit unemployment, will suffer even more.

Rather than organize workers to fight, UAW was holding rallies made up mainly of paid union staffers with the tired old line of “Buy American” in recent weeks. The problem is not imports, it is that GM and Ford have not been investing in U.S. auto plants to compete with new factories built by German, Japanese and Korean automakers over the last three decades. Rather, they have been investing their profits from U.S. car sales to expand production in Brazil and other developing countries. Even as auto sales in the United States were tanking late last year, Ford opened a brand-new, billion dollar car plant in Russia. Further, the UAW has failed to organize any of the new car plants.

The bankruptcy of the UAW concession strategy and attempts to ‘partner’ with the auto corporations is plain for all to see. What is needed is a renewal of efforts to put the UAW and other unions following their path back on a class-struggle basis. This means organizing the workers to fight management, not trying to cut deals or rely on the Democratic Party. It will be a hard road, but it is what must be done.

#UnitedStates #CapitalismAndEconomy #Editorial #Bailout #Editorials #AutoUnitedAutoWorkers #UAW #GeneralMotors

Fight Back!: It seems like some important locals at Chrysler are rejecting the proposed contract. What are the main issues?

Shotwell: Two tier appears to be the main issue. Union members understand that two tier is “the concession that keeps on giving,” as Jerry Tucker used to say. Workers are concerned that eventually everyone's wages will be cut.

The contract calls for “non-core” workers to earn half as much in compensation with no pension and no health care in retirement. The contract does not define what “non-core” means. The union says that they will sit down with management and decide what jobs are “non-core” after the agreement is ratified. This 'after the rat' clause raises suspicion.

We do understand that 'non-core' jobs are basically the preferred jobs; the jobs earned by high seniority that enable one to get off the line and away from repetitive stress.

The establishment of an underclass in the union threatens solidarity in a very pointed way. Senior members will have a target on their backs. Management will have an incentive to get rid of them and new hires will envy their higher wages. No one likes two tier, it's cancerous.

Another important issue is the lack of job security commitments from Chrysler. The Chairman of the National Bargaining Committee, Bill Parker, asserted in his Minority Report that Chrysler will be able to use the 'non-core' item to whipsaw competition between locals precisely because they do not have product commitments from the company.

Finally, the issue of the VEBA which is a trust fund for retiree health care that will be managed by the union. The VEBA is under funded by 45% and will likely lead to higher out of pocket expenses for retirees down the road.

Fight Back!: What effect has the anti-concessions movement in the UAW had on this round of contact negotiations and votes?

Shotwell: Soldiers of Solidarity, which sprang up during the Delphi debacle, has roots in the UAW New Directions Movement of the 1980s, and branches in the generation that takes the internet and the cell phone for granted. SOS sprang out of the Delphi bankruptcy with a simple mantra: Concessions won't save jobs, pensions, benefits and wages. SOS gained notoriety during the Delphi struggle and an extensive network of communication developed.

SOS made actual contract language broadly available to the rank and file for the first time in the history of the UAW. The union published the Highlights, a sort of sales brochure for the contract, and SOS published the Lowlights, which cited actual contract language and page numbers.

SOS posted fliers which were easy to download and print. SOS made a network available to rank-and-file members so they could get accurate information readily and communicate quickly.

The day after Bill Parker distributed his Minority Report to the UAW-Chrysler Council it was on the internet. When a skilled trades committeeman, Shawn Fain, who was present at the meeting in Detroit posted his version of the events along with his challenge to the International, it spread like wildfire.

When the International cut the mic for the rank and file, SOS handed them a megaphone. Now they can't shut up.

Fight Back!: What's wrong with the contract that was ratified at GM and why did autoworkers vote for it?

Shotwell: The contract at GM is wrong for all the same reasons that the Chrysler contract is wrong. Namely, two tier, and a union-controlled, under funded health care VEBA for retirees.

The GM contract like the Chrysler contract rolls back some of the most significant gains the UAW made in collective bargaining: COLA and pensions. Ten cents per quarter will be deducted from cost of living adjustments and pensions are eliminated for new hires.

According to most reports, the contract passed by 66%. But 7% of those who likely voted were temporary workers who were promised permanent positions if the contract was ratified. Without the temp vote, the contract passed by 59%. [Temps at Chrysler were not promised permanent jobs.]

59% is a majority, but not a mandate for two tier, COLA diversions, or an under funded, union controlled VEBA.

I think GM workers were disadvantaged by voting first because that gave them less time to consider the consequences. GM workers also lacked leadership. There was not a Minority Report at GM and only one local union president, Al Benchich, advocated a no vote. And finally, I believe, the demographics at GM and Chrysler had a significant impact. The Chrysler workers are younger and more energetic and they are ready to fight back.

#UnitedStates #Interview #Interviews #AutoUnitedAutoWorkers #SoldiersOfSolidarity #VEBA #Chrysler #twotier

“They plan to cut our elected officials down to half of what we have now by eliminating half our union offices. Despite agreeing with the UAW last year to wait until contract time, they did this today, one day before the election. They did this despite the people who took days off to campaign and who spent hundreds of dollars on their campaign flyers, buttons and pens et cetera,” said Jordan.

In the face of this attempt to disrupt the union, Jordan adds Kokomo autoworkers will continue to fight, “From elections to product lines, management is sabotaging our work here in Kokomo. The membership of UAW Local 292 will not continue to accept these actions.”

#KokomoIN #News #AutoUnitedAutoWorkers #AutoworkersFightBack #Delphi #UAWLocal292

Historically foreign companies like Honda often talked about building new plants up North, in places like Indiana, then typically built down South in the end. After stirring the pot a little – with state governments that are for sale to the highest bidder, and then spinning big business economic rhetoric to the masses, the majority of foreign auto makers almost always moved down to where majority of all the other foreign corporations are, the South. And for good reason: there are no unions. ‘Right To Work’ (for less) laws have played a role in this too.

Nowadays though, setting up shop in the South is not the issue for foreign companies like it was in the 1980s and 1990s. When was the last time you heard of workers in a Toyota plant being organized into a union? Indiana, Alabama, North Carolina, Michigan, it makes no difference. In 2005, American Honda sold 1.5 million Honda and Acura cars and light trucks, and North American counted for half of Honda’s annual global sales. 2005 was the ninth straight year of record annual sales.

To avoid unionization and to control wages and benefit levels the foreign-owned automakers generally match the unionized Big Three production wages. But they have a brutal policy of contracting out all the work that is not directly tied to production. What we need to realize is nearly a quarter of all the production workers in these plants are ‘temporary workers’ who do the exact same job as the old ‘permanent workers’ for half the pay and no benefits.

The pensions of workers at foreign-owned automakers are similar to the Big Three, but their legacy costs, such as retiree health care, are far less. What we must understand is that many of these workers will not last long enough to ever collect a pension at companies like Honda. Without an organized work force and a union contract they have a monstrous injury rate. As a result of this injury rate these temporary workers, our neighbors, are simply fired for the injuries they received while on their job.

Honda was hailed by Indians’s Governor Daniels and business leaders as a great opportunity for our state. Honda boasted about how they make the most profits per vehicle in the auto industry. What they did not boast or hail about was Honda’s industry wide record for worker injuries. Honda, according to reports from the United Auto Workers Union, injured workers at four to ten times the rate of comparable union represented plants.

According to another report in 2002 by UAW organizers, Honda accounted for over 1% of all reported ergonomic injuries in all industries in the United States from 1998-2000, peaking at 1.25% in 2000.

It is not just Honda. Nissan, Toyota and most other foreign auto makers moving factories to the United States have similar reports.

As wages and work rules decline at the Big Three through buyouts and plant closures, we can all expect these foreign automakers to follow suit. Without union contracts and representation in place, workers like those that Honda will employ in Indiana will suffer the brunt of these policies and changes.

Union leaders would tell us that we need to, “buy American” as the solution, but the strategy of protectionism here has failed. This strategy continues to keep organized labor around the world from uniting together. Unions needs to reformulate our strategy. Building a union hall across the street from every foreign owned auto factory in the country might be a good start. But we are going to need to first put current and new members in the ones we have built already.

The ultimate problem and challenge of organized labor is more than anti-worker laws, foreign companies in the South or big business politicians. The ultimate problem is labor’s own policies and strategies.

Until workers begin to understand their collective interest in organizing themselves, workers’ rights will continue to erode. As we have seen at Delphi Corporation, it only takes a few loopholes in the law and a $4 million hit man to pillage a company. Laws, just like politicians, serve only to divide and neither one can unite workers to their common collective interests.

The first step must be for workers around the world to dismantle their top-down bureaucracies and to build our unions into real, democratically organized, bottom-up fighting machines.

Todd Jordan is a member of UAW Local 292 and has played in the important role in the rank-and-file autoworkers movement.

#UnitedStates #Commentary #AutoUnitedAutoWorkers #AutoworkersFightBack #UAW #Honda #BigThree

“The destiny of the American working class and the UAW is at stake in Elkhart, Indiana. If we cannot beat back the attacks in Elkhart – or deal with fights like those of the Boilermakers in, Meredosia, Illinois – we are in real trouble,” says Rob Wilson, a rank-and-file leader of UAW workers at Caterpillar who is working to organize the event. “There is enough spare change in the pockets of workers who care, to support every striking worker,” he adds.

The loosely formed coalition of rank-and-file activists working on the event includes members of various union reform and direct action groups including Soldiers of Solidarity, Members for CHANGE, War Zone Education Foundation, Enhanced Fight and Solidarity Now, as well as members of various unions.

The solidarity event will take place Dec. 16, 2-5pm at the North Side Church of the Nazarene Fellowship Hall, 53569 County Rd. 7, Elkhart, Indiana.

#ElkhartIN #AutoUnitedAutoWorkers #SolidaritySleigh #UnitedAutoWorkersLocal364

Las Vegas, NV – The United Auto Workers International convention was held here, June 12 – 15. This was the first convention I have ever attended. It was an honor and a privilege to be elected by the membership (active and retired) to represent them at the convention. The convention was a thorough learning experience in regards to the issues that exist not only throughout our Local and International Union but our society as a whole. I was given a lot of information on what to expect so I was not stunned by what I observed. Nauseated, maybe – surprised, no.

When reviewing and voting on the rules we observed our first glimpse of the theme that was to punctuate every event of the week. Mike Parker, a convention delegate from Local 1700 Chrysler, made a motion to amend the rules allowing resolutions to be submitted from the floor of the convention and debated for adoption. Although Mr. Gettlefinger and others extolled the need for change in the UAW, delegate after delegate stood to proclaim their opposition to any change in the rules stating, “We have done it this way for 33 consecutive conventions; the rules are fair and democratic; don’t change them.” I attempted to speak in support of the motion waving a sign in an exaggerated manner. Even while I was waving the sign the chair President Gettlefinger asked if anyone was in support in region 4. The chair did not recognize me at any time throughout the entire week. The motion was defeated, with the exception of possibly a dozen delegates dissenting

Mike Parker also stated that due to the unprecedented attack on Auto Workers at Delphi, GM and Ford Motor Company we should have a more open discussion of the issues and democratic debate. The chair, Mr. Gettlefinger, stated that this was the Constitutional Convention and these were issues for the Bargaining Convention that will possibly, allegedly, maybe take place in 2007. This was a startling statement considering we were voting on resolution after resolution that had nothing to do with the Constitution.

Day two saw another blow to democracy. Gary Walkowitz brought to the attention of the delegate body a proposed submitted resolution that would have allowed retirees the right to vote on those contracts that diminish their retirement pension, health care or other benefits. It required 207 delegate votes simply to get it on the floor to debate it. When the chair called a vote to call the submitted proposal up for debate only nine delegates voted in favor of allowing a debate. While on break I asked a delegate wearing a Ford hat what he thought of the proposal and he said, “I thought we should at least discuss it.” When I asked him if he raised his hand in favor of bringing it on the floor he said, “Oh no way.” “Why not?” I asked. “Because they are watching me,” he replied.

Wednesday brought a farce called an election, the preordained replacement for retiring Vice Presidents and Regional Directors. On Tuesday afternoon an invitation was passed around inviting people to a Sunshine breakfast provided by the Administrative Caucus. I am not a member of the Administrative Caucus so I did not attend. When arriving at the Convention Wednesday morning it was adorned with thousands of balloons and on every table was poised Administrative Caucus election material. Virtually everyone was wearing a nauseating sticker that proclaimed, “I am on Ron’s Team.” I was asked why I didn’t come help decorate. My reply was, “Because I was not invited to decorate. I was invited to an Administrative Caucus breakfast.”

Thursday brought more regurgitation of the same rhetoric of the previous part of the week. John Sweeney, President of the AFL-CIO, spoke and there were more resolutions to stamp. Sunday when we arrived I browsed through the resolution book and when I saw the resolutions on Veterans Protection and National Security I decided I would put a speech together. Being a veteran I thought I am entitled to speak to these issues I earned it through ten years of service. Again I was denied access to the floor and was not recognized by the chair.

The last resolution to come up was one for protecting the 40-hour week. I was stunned when I realized there was not one word in the resolution about protecting the eight-hour day. I began to realize that the other delegates might be unaware that at Caterpillar Inc. they have started Alternative Work Schedules (AWS) and Irregular Work Schedules (IWS) that are three thirteen-hour, twenty-minute days (Friday, Saturday and Sunday) over the weekend. The Alternative Work Schedule might also be three twelve’s (Friday, Saturday and Sunday) and four hours on Monday. I was planning to oppose this resolution from the floor, merely to point out the fact that in some places the eight-hour day is being violated. The plan was cut short when someone made a motion to bind the remaining resolutions together and vote on them. The motion passed with one person speaking in favor and one opposed then someone called for the question and the motion passed unanimously with myself abstaining.

To summarize: I along with the other four delegates from Members for CHANGE represented our active and retired membership as promised. We hand-delivered a letter with the issues we ran on to the International Executive Board; additionally we mailed the letter to the president’s office and to the media. We voted in favor of debating the retirees’ right to vote on contracts that took any benefits away from them. We met and networked with other delegates.

There is not an enormous difference between the strategy set forth by the UAW International and that of the recently split off Change to Win Coalition that left the AFL-CIO last year. They give lip service to ‘organizing the unorganized,’ while ignoring the needs of the already organized. The UAW allegedly will diversify their portfolio, leaving current active members at Delphi, Ford, GM and other major industrial manufacturing employers such as Caterpillar wondering whose survival are they worried about.

The UAW convention demonstrated that that the labor movement needs real change. We needed a labor movement that bases itself on the principals of democracy, solidarity and the recognition that an injury to one is an injury to all. There is no seniority date for dignity and justice.

#LasVegasNV #Commentary #AutoUnitedAutoWorkers #AutoworkersFightBack #UAW #Delphi

The Members for CHANGE! candidates elected were George Cornwell, the first shift Grievance Committeeman in building KK; Brian Kerr, the Chairman of the KK Grievance Committee; Rob Wilson, a delegate to the General Council and Alternate Grievance Committeeman; James B. O’Connor, a retiree and former president of UAW Local 974; and Sharon Clarkson, a retiree and longtime UAW activist.

James B. O’Connor, former president of UAW Local 974 stated, “This election is historically a precursor to the general election for executive offices; normally whoever takes these delegate positions are the ones going in next election.”

The Members for CHANGE! team demonstrated a renewed commitment to rank-and-file workers, who turned out in astonishing numbers for the election. The Members for CHANGE team also vowed to build intergenerational solidarity between retirees and the next generation of UAW men and women.

Rob Wilson emphasizes, “Power at the bargaining table comes from an involved, informed, empowered and mobilized membership and community support. Rank-and-file active workers and retirees have made a definite statement, ‘We believe it’s time for change.’”

Local 974 represents approximately 5800 UAW members who are employed by Caterpillar Inc. and workers at amalgamated units Norforge, PMP, Tazewell Machine, and LTD Industries. Local 974 is also the lead bargaining local during negotiations with Caterpillar.

“This is a victory for the membership – active and retired. They won one for themselves, and they deserve and will get all the credit,” said Wilson.

The UAW Constitutional Convention, held every four years, is the highest policy-making body of the union. The Constitutional Convention delegates have the sole authority to amend the UAW constitution, debate and adopt resolutions and define the powers of the International officers.

The Convention comes at a critical time for UAW members. The auto corporations and other employers have lunched big attacks on wages and benefits. Delegates who want to resist these attacks have a vital role to play.

#PeoriaIL #News #AutoUnitedAutoWorkers #AutoworkersFightBack #MembersForCHANGE #UAWLocal974 #UAWConstitutionalConvention

Flint, MI – Chanting, “Not one dollar, not one dime! Cutting wages is a crime!” more than 75 auto workers joined together here for a spirited picket line at the Delphi auto parts plant, Feb. 16. Many on the picket line were members of the rank-and-file auto workers organization, Soldiers of Solidarity. Coinciding with the end of sparkplug production at the plant, the protest slammed Delphi/GM’s demands for concessions.

The picket line took place despite a decision of by the heads of UAW Local 651 to cancel the protest that was planned for that day. As many see it, Local 651 officials used bad weather as an excuse to cancel the picket, march and rally that they never wanted to hold in the first place.

After the picket line, auto workers packed a nearby sports bar for an indoor rally. A banner reading, “Spark the movement,” hung out front. Speakers called for a serious and determined resistance to concessions at Delphi.

Delphi CEO Robert Miller wants to cut wages and benefits by more than 60%. This is the leading edge of an attack by the owners of the auto corporations. Their goal is to destroy an entire way of life for workers and their communities, transforming the industry into one characterized by low wages and benefits. The outcome of this battle has an impact on the livelihood of everyone who works for a living.

#FlintMI #News #AutoUnitedAutoWorkers #AutoworkersFightBack #UAW #Delphi #SoldiersOfSolidarity

Decatur, IL – Nowhere in organized labor is the failure and treachery of business unionism more indicting than in the United Auto Workers (UAW). Today, that treachery threatens not only the existence of the organization, but the fundamental values upon which the union was built. If there exists a saving grace for the UAW, it is not in the halls of Solidarity House [UAW headquarters in Detroit], but in the rank and file resurgence against the devastating concessions at Delphi and Visteon, parts suppliers to the auto industry. The massive job losses and concessions, including tiered wages and benefits, are not a new occurrence, but a carefully crafted course that involves not only the bastards of the boardroom, but top UAW leadership as well.

Looking back at the UAW and its transformation from a fighting union to one of compliance, partnership and ‘jointism’ with the employing class we find a sorry record.

Doug Frazier became UAW president in 1977. He joined Chrysler’s board of directors and defined the path of destruction the UAW would follow. But no UAW leadership team could equal the incompetence of Frazier’s successor, Owen Beiber, who took over in 1983. Rather than fight for UAW members, he immersed the UAW in jointism – labor/management cooperation schemes that signaled to the auto corporations that the UAW was an easy mark. Under Beiber, the policy concessions, now so vivid in the Delphi debacle, took root in the agriculture and implement division of the UAW at Caterpillar Tractor and John Deere.

In 1992, the UAW struck CAT only to voluntarily return months later. Tiered wages, erosion of benefits for retirees, health care cost-shifting and attacks on the parts division were at the center of the dispute. The struggle continued more than six years while UAW members worked under imposed conditions. During the dispute, UAW President Beiber retired, passing the briefcase to Stephen Yokich. Caterpillar amassed a record 450-plus labor violations, many of which involved 250 illegally terminated employees – bargaining chips for a ruthless corporation. So confident was Don Fites, CAT CEO, that he could cut a deal, he openly boasted the company would be vindicated of all charges. How could he have known this unless he was receiving assurances from UAW leadership? During the length of the dispute, it was clear the UAW had no winning strategy and was doing nothing to secure a victory.

In 1995, at the AFL-CIO convention in New York, President Yokich stood before Decatur, Illinois unionists, including UAW local leaders from CAT announcing, “I will not hold up a contract for thousands of UAW members for a few hundred discharges.” Most of those discharged had done nothing wrong, but Yokich was willing to sell them out, angering Decatur unionists.

At CAT, Yokich forced a vote on a sellout contract several times, but a savvy rank and file rejected it – insisting discharged members be returned to work. The Decatur local, under the leadership of Larry Solomon, was key in rejecting attempts to settle without justice for the discharged members. The largest local, 974 in Peoria, Illinois, voted in favor, after the former local president, Jerry Brown, who vowed never to accept it, was given an international union job and returned to sell the contract.

Perhaps the defining element in the Caterpillar battle was the treatment of the parts division. Thousands of jobs were lost; benefits were cut and most alarming, tiered were wages so low UAW members were eligible for food stamps. The distribution center in York, Pennsylvania was mostly moved to a new nonunion facility in North Carolina. So horrible was the sellout, the local president in Denver, Colorado, Joe Vasquez, committed suicide when his members voted to accept it. During the dispute at CAT, the John Deere contract was settled under similar conditions without so much as a whimper from the UAW.

Both contracts were negotiated under the direction of Richard Shoemaker, who headed the agriculture-implement division of the UAW. Both contracts gave a glimpse of the future for the parts divisions in the auto industry and showed where UAW leadership stood on the issues and who they were standing with.

In 1998 another struggle took shape in Henderson, Kentucky, involving UAW Local 2036 and Accuride Wheel, a parts supplier. After a short strike and return to work, Accuride locked out the 650 members of Local 2036. Accuride demanded a contract no union could agree to, except of course, the UAW.

After more than a year of paying strike benefits, the UAW told Accuride (a week before they told Local 2036 leaders) that they were ending strike benefits to local members. Maintaining wages and benefits at this parts supplier would go against the concessions at CAT, John Deere and where the auto industry was headed.

Local activists and supporters from across America organized a picket of the UAW headquarters in Detroit. Yokich responded to the embarrassment by restoring benefits at double the rate, but only for several months. Less than a year later, Yokich decertified the local and handed the jobs of 650 loyal UAW members over to scabs forever. Many of those members, including local President Billy Robinson, had helped build the 22-year-old local from the ground up. The UAW Regional Director who vowed to stay with the local, “for as long as it takes,” was none other than Ron Gettlefinger, current UAW International President.

This past year, Gettlefinger negotiated a poverty-level contract at a parts supplier in Indiana that allowed some members to move to another facility and maintain current wages and benefits, but denied those members the right to vote on the contract. In spite of the UAW constitution, Gettlefinger has played a major role in forcing UAW members to work under conditions that place them at the poverty level. A rank and file resurgence is now threatening his poor leadership and his credibility with the executives in the big three. Gettlefinger’s occasional militant speech now rings hollow with UAW members – and it should. His history is one of defeat, maybe even betrayal, and the gruff persona he portrays, hypocritical. One is reminded more of the blowhard caricature, Yosemite Sam, than Walter Ruether.

The growing rank and file movement in the UAW has its work cut out. The auto corporations are out for blood. It’s time UAW members take things in their own hands.

#DecaturIL #Commentary #AutoUnitedAutoWorkers #AutoworkersFightBack #UAW #Gettlefinger

A statement from Soldiers of Solidarity, the group that organized the march, noted, “ Corporate greed, not necessity drives GM/Delphi’s planned attack on workers and our communities. Delphi was a healthy, debt-free corporation in 1999 after they were spun off from General Motors. The pension was fully funded. Delphi had no retirees. Six years later Delphi is broke. They drained the pension fund and the stock is worthless.”

“Delphi ’s failure is not the fault of workers, it is the fault of overpaid, incompetent frauds. GM/Delphi planned the bankruptcy in order to break the contract and dump their responsibility to retirees onto American taxpayers. If the court sanctions this scam, other multinational corporations will follow suit. Delphi is the test case, ” the statement continued.

Most of those at the demonstration were rank-and file-members of the United Auto Workers. The UAW did not endorse the protest and has a record of making big concessions to the auto corporations.

The stage is set for a major confrontation between this crucial section of the working class and some of America’s biggest corporations. All workers have a stake in the outcome of this battle.

#DetroitMI #News #AutoUnitedAutoWorkers #AutoworkersFightBack #UAW #Delphi #SoldiersOfSolidarity #GeneralMotors

Fight Back! interviewed Gregg Shotwell, a key leader of the rank-and-file movement that is growing inside the United Auto Workers. A worker at the Delphi auto parts plant in Cooperstown, Michigan, Shotwell helped organize the mass meetings of autoworkers that took place over the past two months. These meetings led to the formation of the rank-and-file organization, Soldiers of Solidarity.

Delphi workers make auto parts for General Motors and for all practical purposes the two companies are the same. Delphi has filed for bankruptcy. Bankruptcy courts are used by many corporations – for example those of the airline industry – as a vehicle to escape union contracts, slash health benefits and gut pensions.

This rank-and-file upsurge in auto has put the heat on UAW President Ron Gettelfinger. On Dec. 30 the Wall Street Journal noted, “Growing resistance from auto workers is putting pressure on the head of the industry’s most powerful union and threatening the tenuous ties he has forged with Detroit's Big Three.”

As Fight Back! goes to press, negotiations concerning Delphi workers are continuing between the UAW and GM.

Fight Back! : General Motors and Delphi are pushing for huge concessions. What do they want from Delphi workers?

Gregg Shotwell: Cheap labor. Delphi wants to dump their obligations to retirees – pensions and health insurance – onto the taxpayers. Delphi also wants to cut our wages in half, reduce benefits, close plants and lay off workers. But it’s not just about the money. Delphi wants to break the union by imposing a contract that would make our day-to-day life in the factory miserable. Delphi does not want to honor seniority rights or human rights. For example, no excuses would be accepted for absence from work and discipline would not be grievable.

Fight Back! : Rank-and-file meetings of auto workers have drawn large numbers and the organization Soldiers of Solidarity has emerged from these mass meetings. Why such an enthusiastic response? What are the goals of Soldiers of Solidarity?

Shotwell: The enthusiasm is a direct result of two things: One, the severity of the threat and two, the lack of a strong response from the leadership of the UAW to the threat.

In the meetings we turn control over to the members. People who never had a voice before are given an opportunity to speak their minds to an attentive audience of peers. Participation is direct and energetic. It makes for an exciting atmosphere.

Our goals are simply to resist concessions and to exert rank-and-file power by involving all the members in an organized effort to assert our dignity. We are not helpless victims. We control production. We can make or break profits. We have power.

Fight Back!: A call has been made to ‘Work to Rule.’ Practically speaking what has this meant?

Shotwell: Work to Rule is a method of challenging management control by insisting that all rules – safety, production and quality standards – be observed to the letter of the law.

When we Work to Rule we stop giving the boss that extra effort that makes the difference between profit and loss. We withhold our knowledge because the bosses do not show us respect. We used to give a baker’s dozen for the price of twelve. But with Work to Rule the boss gets just what he deserves.

It’s simple. The machine stops. The boss says, “What’s wrong?” I say, “I don’t know.” He asks the job setter who replies, “I don’t know.” He asks another coworker who replies, “I don’t know.” Then we all look at the boss and he starts sweating because he really doesn’t know.

Bosses like to boss. So do them all a favor and give them lots of bossing to do. The boss will like you for it and everyone will be happy keeping labor costs down by outsourcing all decisions to the boss.

Work to Rule is safe and legal because we insist on following every rule and code in the book. We observe the high quality standards that the bosses demand. We observe all the safety procedures that the laws demand. The result is a slowdown in production but by the bosses orders, not ours. We just do what we are told, no more, no less.

Fight Back! : Do you think it will be necessary to strike against Delphi and/or GM? Why or why not?

Shotwell: The president of the UAW has stated that it appears we are on “a collision course” with Delphi. GM and Delphi are one and the same. We have to impact both companies to reach a fair agreement. I believe a strike is inevitable because GM-Delphi is determined to impose drastic wage and benefit reductions and to severely weaken our union.

If we do not fight back and resist this anti-worker agenda, I believe that all workers, not just auto workers, will suffer.

Full employment is a workable reality. A living wage is simple justice. Security in our old age is a fair reward for a life of labor. A national insurance plan that covers everyone is the only reasonable solution to the medical crisis in America. Health care is a human right.

A nation’s prosperity depends on a system of just rewards, not the degradation of the working class.

#UnitedStates #Interview #Interviews #AutoUnitedAutoWorkers #AutoworkersFightBack #UAW #Delphi #RonGettelfinger #SoldiersOfSolidarity

Delphi filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Oct. 8. With Steve ‘The Hatchet’ Miller, CEO of Delphi, at the helm, the company blames health care payments for retirees and labor costs as factors contributing to Delphi’s financial crisis. Approximately 24,000 General Motors workers were sold out in 1999, when GM spun off parts manufacturing and created Delphi Corporation. Now Delphi is trying to renege on collective bargaining agreements and pensions that they are obligated to pay. The company is asking for enormous benefits concessions and wage reductions – from $27 an hour down to $9 an hour – or it will ask a bankruptcy judge to nullify the contracts with UAW-represented employees.

Since early November, auto workers across the nation have rallied to what some union officials are calling ‘rebel’ rank and file meetings. The meetings were initially called by Gregg Shotwell, a longtime UAW activist and Delphi worker. The meetings began in Grand Rapids, Michigan on Nov. 6. The Nov. 6 meeting saw hundreds of UAW members from across the auto industry, including General Motors, Ford, Visteon, Chrysler, Caterpillar and John Deere, who came to hear and voice concerns.

Another meeting held Nov. 13, in Kokomo, Indiana saw another good crowd of concerned workers from the local area and across the nation. December meetings were held in Saginaw on Dec. 4 and in Flint on the 11th. During the Saginaw meeting an open motion was made from the floor to adopt a name for this workers’ movement. They unanimously approved the name “Soldiers of Solidarity” and decided to create buttons featuring such slogans as S.O.S. and WTR, for ‘work to rule.’

The meetings have not only focused on the crisis but on direct shop floor actions such as ‘work to rule.’ Work to rule emphasizes building communication on the shop floor and building solidarity among workers by strict adherence corporate and safety regulations. Following these rules to the letter has the effect of slowing production.

The meetings also talked about preparing for a strike and working without a contract. Larry Solomon, former President of Local 751 and present Chairman of Solidarity Now and George Cornwell, a UAW Local 974 Grievance Committeeman – both UAW veterans of the mid-1990s labor war with Caterpillar Incorporated – talked about their experiences working without a contract and work to rule.

The crowds at these mass meetings have been diverse, drawing from across the auto industry. The mood of the attendees is that a great battle is coming their way and the consensus is that every concessionary contract sets precedence for the corporations’ demanding more concessions. The broad-based support and concern prompted Shotwell to open the December meetings up to all workers, union and non-union, who are concerned for the Delphi situation.

For decades auto workers have enjoyed the fruits of the previous generations’ efforts and now there is a call from many at the meetings for a broad social movement uniting all workers and every faction with interests tied to the current corporate warfare against working people. While the labor movement has always emphasized political action, many people voice tremendous distrust for all the politicians within the current two-party system. Feeling betrayed by the Democratic party, many believe that only a united nationwide movement will force political change.

Rank-and-file auto workers plan to picket the Detroit auto show on Jan. 8, the showcase event in the automotive capital. Subsequent meetings are planned for Milwaukee, Jan. 15 and an unconfirmed date for Troy, Michigan in late January.

#UnitedStates #News #AutoUnitedAutoWorkers #AutoworkersFightBack #UAW #Delphi #DetroitAutoShow

The contract creates what amounts to a four-tier wage system: Full wage employees (pre-1998), ‘New Hires’ (with a 35% reduction in wages), ‘Competitive Wage’ (at the Morton parts division) and the nationwide ‘supplemental’ employees (who get wages only – no health care benefits, paid holidays, vacation or sick days etc.).

The contract also forces workers and post-1992 retirees to pay premiums for health care coverage, as well as deductibles and co-pays beginning in 2006, ranging from $1000 to $3000. The premiums in the last three years of the contract are said to be fluid, with rates to be a percentage based upon the corporate cost of the premium which could be anything, considering it is the company’s plan.

Making matters worse for unionism, the ratified agreement included UAW-endorsed concessions which sacrificed the union members’ incentive compensation pay (a benefit worth far in excess of an estimated $20 million per year) in exchange for marginally reduced premiums and co-pays.

Union members resoundingly rejected – by over 90% – a similar company proposal in April 2004. In August 2004 union members again rejected what the company referred to as its, “last, best and final offer.”

During negotiations, CAT CEO Jim Owens was quoted as saying we need to eliminate the, “us – theyisms within Caterpillar.” The company is plugging a ‘one team’ culture ideology, and according to them we are embarking on a ‘cultural journey.’ They have spread the Team Leader (Junior Foreman) concept to more business units, heavily recruiting from the underpaid UAW new hire ranks.

In dealing with workers the company uses the ‘my way or the highway’ and ‘shoot first and ask questions later’ approaches to disciplinary action. At times the company abandoned all forms of progressive discipline (like verbal or written warnings) and put workers on the street for the first offense and sometimes for minor infractions, especially for union reps.

Another slap in the face: The corporate propaganda technique of taking workers out of the shop on company time for reward lunches when a division meets sales goal. On Sundays in the Peoria area, the company has taken workers on chartered buses to Chicago for an all expense paid, all you can eat, day at the ball game. These are just examples of the corporation throwing crumbs to working people while shareholders rake in the billions and managers get record-breaking profit sharing checks at the expense of working people.

Meanwhile many of us, particularly New Hires, with wages reduced by 35%, merely wish we could afford to take our wives and children out to dinner in a local area restaurant. Many of the UAW members in all the locals from Decatur, Peoria, Aurora and nationwide drive distances of 60 miles (or more) to go to work at Caterpillar – yet with fuel prices ranging over $2 per gallon the company has done nothing to help us. That does not begin to touch on the pain felt by the Morton parts division employees, referred to as Competitive Wage, who make far less than the manufacturing New Hire rate.

The company justification for the wage concessions was that they wanted to pay the average national manufacturing wage. The national average is arrived at by taking the highest known wage and the lowest and calculating the middle. Traditionally, major corporations like Caterpillar have made up the high end of the wage spectrum, which helps hold the average up. When enormous transnational corporations begin making average wages their goal, the average just keeps getting lower and lower.

Members want change!

There is growing support and interest in the Members for CHANGE team of UAW activists founded in the UAW Local 974. A young up-and-coming union activist, Rob Wilson, and a 30-plus year seasoned veteran, George Cornwell, joined forces in early 2005 to make bids for president and bargaining chairman of the local. While the bid was unsuccessful, they utilized it as a launch platform for local union-wide and community-wide activism.

Wilson, uses his veteran planning and strategic skills to the advantage of unionism, while working to build community support – frequently writing in local area newspapers challenging the corporate propaganda and writing for the Local union paper on shop floor issues. George Cornwell combines the visionary leadership style with a worker rights agenda and an in-depth knowledge of arbitration precedence that wins shop floor grievances.

Caterpillar struck back at the growing rank-and-file movement by discharging George Cornwell in March, within days of his nomination for the Local-wide bargaining chairman position. CAT claimed ‘inappropriate behavior,’ stemming from a verbal altercation with management during a grievance procedure. Cornwell was performing his duties as Grievance Committee Chairman (a federally protected status) when the episode took place. He was reinstated to work on Sept. 19 and the group celebrated with the first of many Solidarity Day rallies on Sept. 24.

#PeoriaIL #AutoUnitedAutoWorkers #Statement #AutoworkersFightBack #Caterpillar #UAW