Struggle by Indianapolis GM workers raises crucial issues

[Hannah Bell]

On August 15, hundreds of workers shouted down UAW International officials and threw them out of their local union meeting for negotiating a cut in wages from $29 an hour to $15.50. The UAW International had secretly negotiated the deal with JD Norman, a 34-year-old ex-stockbroker, who said he would buy the plant and keep it open only if wages were cut in half. Last May, UAW Local 23 workers overwhelmingly voted to reject any negotiations with Norman, a decision that the UAW ignored...Even now, the UAW is conspiring with the media, state and local politicians, GM and JD Norman to organize another vote...

The locals have no real independence from the International, and in the rare cases where locals have defied the UAW, they have been taken over by Solidarity House and broken up...Over the last period, two of the most notorious cases where this occurred involved Accuride workers in Henderson, Kentucky and Freightliner truck workers in Cleveland, North Carolina.

In February 1998, 425 workers, members of UAW Local 2036, walked out at Accuride— a steel wheel supplier for Ford and other truck manufacturers— against the scrapping of seniority, skilled trade positions, grievance procedures and all limits on subcontracting... In 2002, with workers still refusing to cave in, the UAW cut off strike benefits and pulled the local’s charter, ending twenty years of UAW representation at the plant.

In 2007, the UAW International removed the entire bargaining committee of UAW Local 3520 and got Freightliner to fire them for leading an “unauthorized strike.” The walkout— against wage and benefit concessions to which the International had secretly agreed— was called after members authorized a strike by a 98.4 percent margin. UAW officials came in to crush the strike... Using the threat of layoffs, the contract was pushed through in a second ballot. Following the strike, five bargaining committee members were brought up on charges of “behavior unbecoming of a union member.” While the local trial committee acquitted them, they have never regained their jobs.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/aug2010/auto-a27.shtml

[rpannier]

1. Sounds like the UAW International needs new leadership

The one's they have now appear to be as corrupt as most of Congress

[Sherman A1]

2. Just gotta love it, when the Union is in bed with

the company. These workers need a new union.

[xchrom]

3. Recommend - a little sunshine in those headquarters wouldn't hurt. Nt

[rfranklin]

4. Its the Beltway Syndrome...

They get into power and then forget who put them there. It becomes a deal worked out on the golf course or at the steak house which is then announced to the workers (voters.)

[NNN0LHI]

5. Did you see those scab US Honda and Toyota employees complain when they all got a pay cut?

No? They got the pay cuts too but we didn't hear any complaints from them at all about that.

I wonder why?

Don

[Hannah Bell]

8. what's so hard to figure out? if they complain, they get fired. That's no reason

for union workers to go along as their international sells them out for walmart wages.

[NNN0LHI]

9. But they all had a chance to unionize so everyone was playing on a level field

Instead they chose to scab off of my union. And now they have screwed my union, themselves and the next generation. And pretty much everyone.

The scabs and the people who bought those scab built cars are the ones who fucked these workers not the UAW.

Don

[Hannah Bell]

10. how have they screwed your union?

[blindpig]

6. k&r n/t

[Starry Messenger]

7. k & r