Challenging UAW giveaways

Soldiers of Solidarity Bulletin, Issue No. 15, October 10, 2010
Double-cross at GM-Lake Orion! "We didn't vote for this!"

UAW LOCAL 5960 members at Lake Orion Assembly had a shocking union meeting October 3. After being laid off almost a year while their plant was retooled for the Aveo [subcompact car], they were told that only 60 percent of them could come back to work for full wages. The UAW decided the other 40 percent would be making two-tier wages, regardless of seniority. A 50 percent pay cut for many seniority workers who didn't "make the cut-off." Maybe they should just be happy because their benefits aren't being cut--yet???

Stunned members couldn't believe it. They were laid off a year ago at full wages, and now they couldn't come back to work unless they agreed to half wages??? Can the [UAW] International magically "poof" members down the tier chain?

The International now has the gall to say there won't be a vote on this unheard-of raw deal, claiming Lake Orion Local 5960 already voted approval. Hell no, they didn't! The 2009 Modifications highlights (the only part members were allowed to see) state on page 6 that "innovative labor agreements will have to be put in place so that such production can be done profitably." INNOVATIVE MEANS NEW AND DIFFERENT, IT DOES NOT MEAN GOING BACKWARDS 30 YEARS!

The International is claiming that this contract language is a blank check for them to fill in. NO, IT'S NOT. International is once again violating Art. 19, Sec. 3 of their own constitution. We, the workers, have the right to ratify all contracts and "supplements thereof." The UAW cannot make a deal with an employer that abrogates the constitution without opening themselves up to a National Labor Relations Board charge of being a company-dominated union. They need a reminder that their first obligation is to their membership and their own constitution.

They didn't have the guts to ask for a blank check so they used slick and sly con-artist words. But nobody has to honor a fraudulent contract, once the fraud is exposed!

Everyone but the workers knew!

A news article in the October 8 Detroit Free Press reports that the [Lake Orion] plant outbid the Janesville and Spring Hill [GM plants] for the work--last year! In other words, they knew this deal was cut in advance. Everybody knew except the workers whose lives would be drastically affected! The union fat cats hid it from their membership until now, telling many lies to frightened people, for many months. We got "Dunned" in this deal, but it isn't done.

One worker told a Labor Notes reporter that low-seniority workers like him had been lied to for an entire year. "They repeatedly told us 'there's no way you can be booted down to two-tier wages.' We sat waiting for an entire year to go back to work, and they spring this on us at the last minute!"

No contract is valid in any court if it is fraudulent, that is, if important terms and conditions are hidden from one party. This deal is fraudulent, a swindle, and a crime.

The 60/40 union scheme!

The 60/40 set-up was carefully chosen to divide workers against each other, as usual. The company and the union calculated that the 60 percent who kept their pay will outweigh the 40 percent who lost theirs. They figure that will keep a voting majority somewhat happy, scared they're next, but grateful to still have full pay. And in other words, firmly in the control of the people who ran this scam. And as usual, this isn't the end of it. This new shafting puts everybody's future in doubt.

Now that we've seen that "innovative" means magically popping workers right down the tiered class system they created, what other magic is up the evil, string-pulling, fat-cat wizard's sleeves? Who's next? Who will have their next little "innovation" blow up in their faces?

How about no one? How 'bout we stop the "innovation station" from getting any trains to poverty even rolling. Now that we know this is a scam that will keep on giving, and it is far from done, let's stand so no one else gets "Dunned" over ever again.

The UAW's Vice President Joe Ashton is trying to shift the blame. He says there would be no problem if all the people eligible to retire would retire. Another division tactic from the preachers of solidarity. And just exactly how are workers supposed to retire when by now, most are supporting adult children and grandchildren who have been strung along as temp workers, abused as two-tier workers, or laid off in a dismal, greed-created recession?

Most older workers have family depending on them. Only a very few families can afford to have their main breadwinner retire--weary, carpal-tunnel-scarred, and deserving as they may be! Is Genius Joe Ashton going to adopt all those families so their only current means of support can actually retire? Too bad they didn't actually practice organizing for social and economic justice as they preach so well. We wouldn't be in this jam now.

These are some comments from Lake Orion workers, in the press and on the Internet:

Temps lied to: "When they hired everyone into Orion, they told everyone that their seniority would start over in exchange for getting the full wage. Okay, but now there is a situation where people who have worked at Orion for years could get passed over for the 60 percent status by people who started the very year they were hired. This affects the '07 the most because their necks are on the chopping block. It is an issue of fairness."

"Temps were promised to be made permanent. Tier two was only supposed to be after people retired. It wasn't supposed to affect tier one or be a larger number than in other shops. People were enormously misled. They didn't allow a vote because it would've never passed."

We have a right to a vote: "The 2009 amendments do say a separate contract needs to be negotiated, but it says nothing about the members not having any say into it! I think that in itself has to be illegal. They didn't want us to vote because they knew we would never sell out our friends like this."

Company figures are suspicious: "There are many ways to lower labor costs besides cutting wages in half. And what figures are they using to come to the wage? What transplant wages are they using? What companies? Why are they allowed to include temp wages of other companies to be averaged in?"

It wasn't a real vote: "No one we know voted yes at all, much less for anything that sounded like this. When we voted at Orion, I specifically asked to read about what I was going to be voting on and was told they didn't have anything available. Being forced to vote on something you can't read is un-American."

A cut to $15 is a cut into poverty: "We planned our lives on this wage. Our kids, the next generation, will suffer and not have the same chances and opportunity we had."

"I buy most all of my grandkids' clothes as I'm sure many grandparents do who worked at GM and have struggling children. How in the hell do they think more people are not going homeless in this economy?!?!"

Join Lake Orion workers, active and retired workers from many plants as we protest at Solidarity House in Detroit on Saturday, October 16, at noon! Bring your own sign! Say what you want to say!

Soldiers of Solidarity Bulletin, Issue No. 14, October 4, 2010
Solidarity Prevails At Indianapolis UAW Local 23

THE 650 members of UAW Local 23, a GM stamping plant in Indianapolis, have endured months of attacks by General Motors, a prospective anti-union buyer, the state and local governments, the UAW International's enforcement squad and corporate-controlled media. All these forces with all their tricks ganged up on Local 23 in an effort to extort deep concessions--in fact, trying to break their local. But the power conglomerate collided with an overwhelming force: rank-and-file solidarity.

The UAW International Concession Caucus had cut a backroom deal with GM and a non-union employer, J.D. Norman, that not only amounted to a 50 percent wage cut, but an essentially non-union contract. The local refused to hold a vote on such an outrage. The International, violating all legal union procedures, demanded a mail-in ballot that the local could not oversee.

On Thursday, September 23, 2010, the membership carried those mail-in ballots to the union hall. As each member voted, they were given a button printed with consecutive numbers: material evidence of total votes cast. They pinned the button on their shirts, held the ballot just below their faces like a mug shot, then spoke into the video camera: "My name is _____ and I voted NO." Four hundred and ten times! J.D. Norman withdrew to his spider hole.

The struggles of UAW Local 23

The Indianapolis Metal Fabrication plant was slated to be closed by December 2011 unless a buyer could be found. In May 2010, the local union leadership saw the writing on the wall. They organized a formal vote at a regular membership meeting per Article 19 Section 3 of the UAW Constitution which forbids any UAW official from negotiating with an employer without first obtaining the membership's approval.

The membership voted 384 to 22 to uphold the master agreement, which required any new buyer to abide by the existing agreement. They overwhelmingly rejected any efforts to renegotiate their existing contract. It is notable that over half the total membership attended the meeting and voted to honor solidarity and reject any attempt to undermine contracts at UAW plants doing similar work.

The UAW International Concession Caucus would not accept the will of the members. In violation of the Constitution, UAW-GM Vice President Joe Ashton and UAW Region 3 Director Mo Davison negotiated a giveaway contract behind the local bargaining committee's back. The proposed contract cut wages in half and basically eliminated workers' rights on the job. The International felt confident they could bulldoze the membership with a scare campaign and a fast-track vote. They called for an information meeting on Sunday, August 15, 2010 and prepared their usual snow job.

The union hall was packed. The members listened respectfully to their chaplain's invocation. Then a UAW International rep, Mike Grimes, stood to speak and was immediately drowned out by a chorus of voices from the floor.

The crowd was not chaotic, nor were there any threats of violence. They simply refused to let him exert authority over their local. They asserted with the full force of their vocal chords that the membership is the highest authority in the union, and that solidarity trumps bureaucracy. Grimes asked if anyone wanted to hear his presentation. The members answered with a resounding "NO." The UAW International officials left. Shop chairman Greg Clark received a standing ovation.

The prospective buyer, J.D. Norman, a 34-year-old stockbroker who fancies himself an industrial turnaround specialist, couldn't take no for an answer. His jaw was slavering with the aroma of GM contracts which would allow him to allocate as much GM work as he pleased to other plants, including his holdings in Mexico. As long as Norman had a UAW label contract in his back pocket, GM was free to outsource to him all the stamping work he could handle. He arranged for his own private information meeting with UAW members on Sunday, August 29, 2010 at the Indianapolis Colts football stadium. Free refreshments and big smiles. Less than 80 people--many of them salaried--showed up.

GM, Norman, and the UAW brass pulled out all stops. Despite pressure from the Chamber of Commerce, corporate-controlled politicians and a vigilante media, the members of Local 23 held their ground. The enforcement arm of [UAW President] Bob King's Concession Caucus then tossed out the UAW constitution and the local union bylaws. They called for an information meeting on company property and a ratification by mail-in ballot that would circumvent the local election committee. The enforcers must have taken a page from a union-buster's manual.

The Local 23 Election Committee, which must organize and certify all local votes in accord with local union bylaws, issued a written statement to the membership that they had not authorized this vote and they would not in any way certify its result. They declared the ratification illegal and they devised their own solidarity strategy.

The local organized to certify its own vote in its own way. The membership was asked to bring their mail-in ballots to the union hall to be videotaped and numbered, one by one, before mailing. Four hundred and ten members certified their no vote at the union hall. The International Con Caucus had no choice but to report a proper count: 457 no, 96 yes. Solidarity beat the company, the corruption in our union, the government and the corporate media--three times in a row. They can hear Local 23 now!

A rising tide of anger points toward 2011

What does Bob King's backflip into the swamp of concession bargaining at Indy Metal Fab bode for next year's negotiations with the Big Three? What can we all learn from Local 23?

UAW Region 3 Director Mo Davison told the Indianapolis Business Journal he believed the Indy Metal Fab plant "could go from about 640 hourly workers to more than 2,000 under Norman."

Where did Mo expect 1,360 jobs were going to come from? From other UAW plants. Unlike [former UAW President] Walter Reuther who said, "We must take labor out of the competition," Bob King strives to force workers into competition with each other. If Local 23 had folded under the pressure, it would have set a new lower standard for UAW wages across the board.

The UAW brass have conflicts of interest. For instance, they manage too much corporate stock, which funds the retiree health care trusts. They must make workers sacrifice, so the stock goes up!

When UAW members at the GM parts plant in Saginaw, Mich., rejected a concession contract in June 2010, the enforcement arm of King's Concession Caucus worked hand in hand with management to threaten and intimidate members into a ratification that cut their wages and gutted their futures. Then the Cons helped broker a deal that sold Saginaw Steering Gear to a finance company controlled by the Chinese government. The lesson was not lost on the four remaining GM parts plants who still retain the right to strike in 2011.

Last year, Ford workers refused to buckle under and ratify a contract that would have erased the power to strike and hence the power to negotiate. Ford workers and GM parts workers are holding on to their trump card with all their might.

UAW Local 23 demonstrated time after time, challenge after challenge, that solidarity, not law, is the hammer of justice. Let it ring!