INDIANAPOLIS, IN, August 31 — “Get Out! This is our hall!” “Traitor!” “Go Home!” That’s how hundreds of GM workers greeted UAW International reps on August 15. The standing-room only crowd of hundreds of stamping plant workers, members of UAW Local 23, had no intentions of cutting their wages in half to save their jobs. As the International reps headed for the doors, the workers jumped to their feet and started chanting, “Take [UAW Local President] Ray [Kennedy] With You, Take Ray With You!”
As part of the GM bailout restructuring by Obama, this plant is to be closed. JD Norman Industries made an offer to buy the plant, but made 50% pay cuts a condition of the deal. Last May, the workers voted 384-22 against reopening their contract. Despite this, Kennedy and the UAW International continued to negotiate with GM and JD Norman, reaching a deal they planned on ratifying at the August meeting. This is what new UAW President Bob King calls the 21st Century UAW, where the bosses and the union partner up to screw the workers.
They gave workers one day’s notice and provided them with “highlights” of the proposed contract before trying to bum-rush them into cutting their wages in half. Instead, the workers told newly-annointed UAW Region 3 Director Mo Davidson to take a 50 percent pay cut. One worker said, “They’re not representing us, they’re representing their 17 percent stake in GM,” referring to the UAW’s stake in GM as a result of the federal restructuring and bailout.
The majority of workers here have high seniority and many are GM “migrants,” having moved from plant to plant as factories shut down. They are not afraid of one more closing. They have learned the hard way, from years of exposure to GM’s and the UAW’s “whipsawing” of one GM local against another, that concessions don’t save jobs.
By casting their fortunes with those of the auto bosses, the UAW has gone from 1.5 million members to under 350,000. 150,000 of those are in casinos, legal aid offices, college campuses, state and city workers and more. The domestic auto industry is over 50% non-union and the restructuring of the past few years has cost yet another 200,000 jobs and seen wages cut in half. The devastating racist nature of these attacks is evident in the streets of Detroit, Flint, St. Louis, Lansing and a host of other GM towns.
The current crisis of 30 million unemployed and underemployed will be with us for years. The UAW hopes to increase its numbers by partnering with the bosses and enforcing a low-wage economy. UAW President King hides behind the banner of “social justice,” but will put thousands in the streets to march for the same Democratic Party politicians who have failed workers so miserably while expanding the endless “oil war on terror.” GM workers are exposing the real nature of the UAW leadership. Building a mass PLP in basic industry will ultimately crush these maggots and lead the working class to power.