Defend jobs, wages and benefits! Vote “No” on Chrysler-UAW concessions! Oppose job cuts at GM!

[DainBramaged]

The Socialist Equality Party urges auto workers to reject the mass layoffs at General Motors and the sweeping givebacks being demanded by Chrysler, the Obama administration and the United Auto Workers. We call on workers at GM, Chrysler and throughout the auto industry to begin organizing mass opposition to the corporate assault on their jobs and living conditions.

The UAW is moving quickly to force through massive concessions at Chrysler, which come on top of the 2007 sell-out contract. Union executives have scheduled votes Wednesday on contract revisions reached by the UAW on Sunday night.

The vote is a mockery of democratic procedure. For weeks, the UAW has been in closed-door negotiations with Chrysler and Fiat executives and the Obama administration. As always, workers have been told absolutely nothing about these discussions. Now the companies, government and UAW are hoping to use the threat of bankruptcy to pressure Chrysler workers into signing away their jobs, wages and benefits. Workers will be given the contract on Tuesday, giving them less than 24 hours to consider the implications.

While Chrysler workers are being kept in the dark for as long as possible, anyone with doubts about the implications of the new concessions need only turn to the announcement by GM CEO Fritz Henderson. GM released plans to eliminate 23,000 hourly jobs—more than one third of the entire workforce—and close 16 plants! This is what is in store at Chrysler and the entire auto industry, as the financial elite seeks to restructure the companies to ensure a high return for Wall Street.

Chrysler workers should overwhelmingly vote down this new round of concessions. Everything the union is telling workers is a lie. The new agreement comes on top of thirty years of unceasing attacks on wages, working conditions and pensions. Among other things, supplemental unemployment benefits will now be slashed just as the company prepares to lay off thousands of workers.

On Sunday, the Canadian Auto Workers forced through sweeping concessions on Chrysler workers in Canada, including wage and benefit reductions of C$19 per hour per worker. One day later, GM announced that it would slash its Canadian workforce by more than half, destroying nearly 6,000 jobs.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/apr2009/auto-a28.shtml


anarchy anarchy anarchy close the factories, let's thumb our noses at Obama for dictating poverty wages for Union members.

[Hannah Bell]

1. agreed, they're playing the workforce both ends against the middle.

since the 80s & earlier.

unfortunately, i have no say in the matter.

[safeinOhio]

2. Kind of left something out

UAW(workers) will get 55% of the company. Would kind of put the workers in control of the future. If it survives they can direct profit toward workers. Major bankruptcy and the workers are last in line to get zilch. But then the S.E.P. has no horse in this race. Easy to be hard nosed with some one elses job.

[Hannah Bell]

5. the workers don't get it. the "union" gets it.

[NYC_SKP]

3. Majority ownership by the workers sounds good to me. What does the S.E.P really want?

I'd like to hear what a Chrysler factory employee has to say about all this.

:shrug:

[Hannah Bell]

4. Contract betrayal will give UAW majority ownership in Chrysler

By Jerry White
29 April 2009

In the agreement worked out at Chrysler, the Obama administration has elevated the United Auto Workers to the position of chief cost cutter, tasking the UAW with the job of slashing jobs, reducing wages and benefits and imposing more brutal conditions of exploitation on the workers it claims to represent. The Chrysler agreement will serve as the model for a similar betrayal of General Motors workers.

The White House will give the UAW majority control of Chrysler, with 55 percent of the company’s stock, and a 39 percent ownership stake in GM, making it the second biggest GM shareholder. The federal government will own more than half of GM stock...

The UAW, which is being advised by the Wall Street investment firm Lazard, will gain seats on the auto companies’ boards of directors and will play a major role in restructuring and downsizing the firms, from product selection and ensuring “competitive labor rates” at key suppliers, to reviewing the company’s global production plans.

Once thousands of jobs are cut and the workers are stripped of what remains of the gains won in past struggles, the share value of Chrysler and GM will rise, guaranteeing vast profits for Wall Street and its junior partner, the UAW.

The UAW is seeking to ram through the new contract with Chrysler in a ratification vote today—less than 24 hours after workers were given the UAW’s list of contract “highlights.”...

Everything workers have traditionally associated with a trade union—the right to strike, higher wages and benefits than non-union workers, shop floor protections, a chance to retire with a secure pension and health care benefits—has been jettisoned.

There will no longer be even the pretense of collective bargaining and contract guarantees. Instead, according to the contract summary, wage and benefit rates “will be based on Chrysler maintaining an all-in hourly labor cost comparable to its US competitors, including transplant automotive manufacturers.”

In other words, UAW workers will be paid the same or less than non-union workers at the Japanese-owned factories in Mississippi, Alabama and other southern states—with one difference: They will still have to pay dues to the UAW.

Under the terms of the agreement, time-and-a-half pay for working more than eight hours or on weekends will be eliminated, with overtime calculated instead on a weekly basis, i.e., for hours worked over 40...

Perhaps the most brutal treatment is being meted out to retirees and their families. As part of the deal with the Obama administration, the UAW agreed to accept half of the $10 billion owed to its already underfunded Chrysler retiree health care trust (known as a Voluntary Employee Beneficiary Association, or VEBA) in Chrysler stock, instead of cash. Previously, the UAW—which will oversee the provision of medical coverage to some 125,000 retirees and their dependents beginning January 1, 2010—said there would be no changes in benefits until 2012. It has now agreed to immediate “benefit adjustments.” These include sharply higher drug co-pays and the elimination of vision and dental care. While the UAW claims that pension benefits for senior workers and retirees have been protected, it is widely reported that Chrysler intends to dump its pension obligations onto the government’s already underfunded Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation. This would entail severe cuts in pension benefits...

On Monday, GM issued a new job-cutting announcement, making it clear that the Obama administration and the UAW are conspiring to eliminate tens of thousands of additional jobs. GM will cut another 23,000 hourly jobs—one third of its blue collar workforce—and close up to 18 of its 47 US manufacturing facilities. In addition, it will eliminate the Pontiac brand and cut almost half of its dealerships, a move that will destroy tens of thousands of dealership jobs...

While the big investors, the auto bosses and the UAW will secure their interests, GM workers, like their counterparts at Chrysler, face disaster...

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/apr2009/chry-a29.shtml

[Hannah Bell]

6. Michigan autoworkers denounce Chrysler-UAW concessions

Al, a worker at the Warren Truck Assembly plant in Michigan, asked: “How do they expect us to vote on a contract that we haven't heard anything about? This is a decision that is going to change the lives of tens of thousands of auto workers, and we’re not even being given a chance to know what’s in it. We need at least a week; they want to cut our retirement plans by half and we’re getting 12 hours to think about it.”


Greg, a worker at nearby Sterling Heights Assembly, said: “I think this is a scandal. They are trying to scare people into taking buyouts. I think the people who head the UAW don't care anymore. Their pockets are getting full.” He said that he expects the contract to pass regardless, because “everybody is afraid of losing their jobs.”

Dan, another worker at Sterling Heights Assembly, said: “What can we do? They have put us in a hard spot. You can’t find a decent-paying job any more. It has been nothing but concessions for the last 30 years."

“The UAW is a business,” he said. “They don’t represent the workers. A lot of people don’t like it, but it’s hard to get people to take a stand when they know they could lose their jobs by speaking out.”

Jack, another worker at Sterling Heights, said, “I don’t like this contract at all. I don’t feel Rod Gettelfinger has the right to negotiate with the company to give up our benefits. I'm telling people not to vote for it. All we have seen are takeaways. This contract cuts the benefits of the retirees and they don’t have a vote.”

“I think this whole thing is BS,” he continued. “They base themselves on the fear factor; people are afraid of losing their jobs. But we've been giving up everything we have. First Daimler came in, and then Cerberus; they've been laying people off, cutting benefits. All of it was to make the big guys rich.”

David, a worker with 16 years at the plant, told the WSWS, “We have already given too many concessions. The cuts are too much. The company is always saying we have to make sacrifices. At a certain point you have to draw the line. Executive bonuses have been on the rise for years. I think it is another ploy to squeeze more out of the workers.”

"I don’t think the government is willing to completely get rid of the auto industry. With all of the wars taking place around the world, they can't afford to. The US only got out of the Great Depression because of World War II. But they just want us to work cheaply and give concessions, so they hang the threat of bankruptcy over our heads.”

Many workers sharply denounced the UAW. One worker with 36 years experience said, “It's one crook paying off the other crook.” He pointed to the multibillion-dollar retiree health care plan Association (VEBA) controlled by the UAW. “When the UAW started the VEBA they said they had $89 billion. Now they say they only have $39 billion. Where is the rest? Once they got the VEBA they closed the door, you could not find out anything.”

Dee, with 23 years at Chrysler said, “I think what they are doing to the retirees is not right. You work all your life to try to get to a place where you don't have to worry, and what happens? The UAW doesn't care; they are keeping their stuff. They are supposed to be working for us, but they are working against us. They are not like they used to be. In the past they used to fight for us. Now they just work for the company.”

Dee indicated that she would not take a buyout if it were offered. “It's probably going to be hell, but I am too close (to retirement) to quit.”

Dee said that she had supported Obama, but her patience was wearing thin. “The Wall Street bailout was a disappointment. They just handed them money, but the workers are getting nothing.” Another worker at Sterling Heights expressed similar feelings, “We thought Obama was for us. That turned out to be a big wash over,” she said.


Donna, a worker at the Warren truck plant, said: “They didn’t cut pay, but they cut everything else. It's all the same, because we are going to end up spending the pay to make up the difference.” She said that many of her coworkers felt that if they don't accept cuts, “it is going to be like GM,” with tens of thousands of layoffs.

“It seems like Obama's campaign promises are taking a back seat to what the companies want; it's just like always,” she said. “He hasn't spoken a word about national health care since he got elected. He said he would help workers, but this hasn't happened. What many people don't understand is that 85 percent of health issues auto workers have are job-related, and after working this type of job, you can’t get by without healthcare benefits.”

"I've worked at Chrysler for 15 years, but it is not enough to retire. There is nowhere else to go if we lose our jobs here."

Donna denounced the way the vote was proceeding. She said that workers had been asking for weeks to find out more information on what they would be voting for. “What are we paying dues for?” she asked. “It’s just a sham,” she said. “It doesn't feel like this is America anymore. The American dream is dead.”

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/apr2009/ints-a29.shtml