After Handing the Bosses and Their Labor Lieutenants a Stunning Defeat...
By 661630A
November 1 was a historic day for workers in the U.S. For the first time in over 25 years, workers at one of the Big Three automakers voted down a concessions deal.
By a three-to-one margin, workers at Ford voted against a deal that would have reduced wages and benefits, allowed Ford to bring in new workers at greatly reduced pay, and banned the right to strike for health and safety reasons.
For the entire week previous, the Ford workers, members of the United Auto Workers business union, debated and voted on the plan.
From the beginning, it was clear that there was mass opposition to the proposal, even though several locals had approved the package. Then, on Oct. 26, the Ford assembly plant in Kansas City reported a 92-percent No vote.
The floodgate was now open, and through it poured decades of rank-and-file anger.
Opposition to the concessions was being reported in the 70-percent, 80-percent and even 90-percent range in locals, large and small. By the time the Dearborn Truck Plant, part of the massive Rouge Complex voted, it was already becoming clear that the No vote could win.
They made sure with a 93-percent No vote.
And just to make sure the deal was sealed, Ford’s Sandusky plant slightly edged out the proportion of No votes cast by Dearborn.
UAW officials were stunned by the decisive defeat. Ron Gettelfinger, emerging from his office looking like just had a fight, admitted defeat on behalf of his fellow labor lieutenants.
“We just did not do a good job selling it to our membership,” Gettelfinger told the Fox Business Network. “We underestimated the fatigue, if you will, or the people constantly having to make a decision on a contract.”
Nevertheless, he and his Vice President for Ford, Bob King, were both clear that the fight is not over. Speaking together immediately following the announcement of their defeat, Gettelfinger, with King standing directly behind him, said, “We are not going to give up” on the concessions, waiting instead until 2011 to try them again.
The Ford bosses seem content and patient for now. They remained mostly silent on the day that their defeat was announced. And the next day, the only statement Ford made was about the $1 billion they made in the last three months.
It’s clear that, for the moment, Ford is willing to wait until the contract expires in two years to get what they want. For now, they will use the myriad of secret “shelf agreements” and the complacency of the UAW officials to push through in fact what they could not get in writing.
BUT WITH THE BOSSES, managers and UAW officials lining up to continue the fight against the workers at Ford, it seems like now would be as good a time as any to start talking about where things go from here.
The expiration of the contract is in about two years, and negotiations will begin in less than 18 months, so it seems that preparing for the next big round of attacks should begin now.
For those of us who are advocates of a new unionism that advocates independent workers’ self-organization and self-action both politically and economically, the defiance shown by our brothers and sisters at Ford is the foundation.
They showed workers across the country and around the world what can be done when working people stick together and fight. They gave us all a glimpse of what we can do if we follow their example. But more importantly, they have given themselves a taste of their own power.
Their No vote was not some symbolic act or token opposition. They effectively stopped a trend that had been virtually unstoppable since 1976. They drew a line in the sand and said they would go no further. And the bosses, managers and UAW officials ran into it like it was a brick wall.
While that in and of itself is momentous, it is, sadly, not enough to stop the enemies of working people. Ford workers need to look toward moving from defense to offense, and beginning to organize to get back what they had taken from them in successive contracts for 30 years.
Of course, this is going to mean shoring up their current victory and defending it on the shop floor. But that is not only going to mean an ongoing education of their brothers and sisters about the dangers of the “shelf agreements” and complacency by the UAW officials. It also means building an ongoing organization to see to it that secret backroom deals are not cut with the bosses.
That, from the practical perspective, would have to be the first steps to protecting what our brothers and sisters have successfully defended.
But a longer view, looking toward 2011 and beyond, would appear to be needed now. And that means taking practical steps to insure that the education and organization exists to keep Ford and the UAW officials from forcing these concessions down workers’ throats then.
In our “Open Letter to Autoworkers” (June 2009), we said that new times demand new leadership and new organization. If there was anything that confirmed this position, it was the heroic actions of the Ford workers. The opposition to these concessions was, and is, the birth of a new leadership and new organization among autoworkers. When these workers organized to take on the enemy, they did not flock to their “traditional organization,” because it was that very organization that was aiding the bosses. They relied on their own abilities to build a movement that mobilized a massive majority against turning back the clock of workers’ rights.
But as the 2011 contract deadline moves closer, the enemy will again push for concessions and givebacks, and it is likely both Ford and the UAW officials will look to the White House for “assistance” in steamrolling the deal through — just as they did with GM and Chrysler workers.
The role of the armed capitalist state in workers’ disputes shows clearly what side they are on. One only needs to remember the 1947-48 autoworkers’ strikes, or the 1977 coal strikes, or the 1995 Detroit Newspaper Strike, or the 2004 longshoremen’s strike to know how the police and military are used against workers organizing and fighting for their common interests.
A “pure and simple” economic fight is never enough; if workers begin to win, the bosses just call in the cops or other armed thugs to break it up. A joint political and economic fight, as part of an all-sided struggle for the interests of working people, is the only way to secure a lasting victory.
The Workers’ International Industrial Union is the only union with this perspective, and we stand ready to help any workers looking to organize for lasting victory and real change.
‘We Will Not be Slaves’
Industrial Union News had an opportunity to talk to some Ford workers in the metro Detroit area following their historic vote against the bosses and their labor lieutenants.
“We did the right thing,” said John, a veteran Ford worker. “They knew these concessions were unnecessary. Ford’s making money. They don’t need to squeeze more from us.”
Larry, another longtime Ford worker, echoed similar sentiment. “We’ve all had enough of these concessions and givebacks. We’ve given up too much already. Enough!”
A lot of workers on the plant floor said they were nervous at first, but when Ford announced their third-quarter profits the next day, they felt entirely justified in their decision.
“I wasn’t sure we weren’t slitting our own throats standing up like that,” said Angela, a 10-year Ford worker, “but when Ford said the next day that they made a billion dollars in the last three months, I knew we did the right thing.”
“The union officials were telling us that they needed these concessions or else Ford would go like GM and Chrysler,” said Charles, “and they almost had us fooled into believing that, too. But we knew Ford was profitable, and their announcement the next day proved it.”
David, a 26-year Ford worker, who first went to work in auto on the eve of the wave of plant shutdowns in Detroit and across the country, spoke more generally about the meaning of the vote against Ford-UAW concessions.
“We haven’t done something like this here since 1976. Of course, we’re out of practice with standing up for ourselves, but I think we made our voices heard loud and clear.”
“We told the folks at Ford and our own leaders [at the UAW] that we will not be slaves any longer. They can’t just shove this down our throats and expect us to swallow it whole.”
“A lot of us voted for concessions last time around [in 2007] because we really thought they needed them. We thought it would protect our jobs and keep the plants open. And what did they do? Closed more plants and let go of more people. You can only lie to us so many times before we catch on to it.”
David then spoke about the UAW officials’ and Obama’s roles in attacking autoworkers.
“When Wall Street screwed up the economy, Obama was right there for them, giving them what they wanted. But when we needed to save our jobs, they wanted us to agree to never strike and to lower our standards to those of the non-union plants in the South. We thought he’d drop those parts of the deal that Bush put in there, but Obama turned out to be just as bad as Bush in attacking us.”
“And the UAW leaders have been carrying their water through the whole thing! We elected them to represent us in front of the bosses, not so they can represent the bosses in front of us.”
When asked about the idea of a new union replacing the UAW came up, David summed up the view of many workers: “I don’t know if we need a new union or just new leadership. It’s hard to replace one union with another, but it’s just as hard to replace one set of sellout union leaders with better people. Maybe we do need a new union, but a lot has to happen to make that possible. If you want to help with that, great!”
661630A |
