National Auto Strike Leaves Lingering Questions
For the first time in 37 years the United Auto Workers (UAW) launched a two-day nationwide strike against General Motors in late September.
More than 73,000 production workers poured out of GM plants after an 11 a.m. strike deadline was passed on September 24. The GM contract had been extended on an hour-by-hour basis since September 14 in hopes the UAW and GM could come to a national agreement, with Ford and Chrysler contracts extended indefinitely.
The strike was called after UAW failure to resolve job security issues, according to UAW International President Ron Gettlefinger. He said it was not about VEBA (Voluntary Employee Beneficiary Association):
“I am convinced that [it] is in our best interest, as I was in ‘05, for our retirees to go into a VEBA. That was never an issue for us.”
Other issues on the table were a two-tier wage structure, plant closures, outsourcing, forced 10-hour work days, as well as various classification and work rule changes.
Production completely halted throughout GM plants in the United States on the first day of the strike. On the second day of the strike as parts became scarce down the production chain, reports began to filter in about GM plant closings across the border in Canada. Major parts producers like Delphi also stopped production as the second day dragged out.
QUESTIONS RAISED
While the sudden use of power left many observers in shock, activists in the ranks of the union raised questions about what was behind the strike strategy.
Even though local rank-and-file activists were quick to join in solidarity, pickets were sparsely attended by plant workers themselves at major facilities such as the Cadillac Poletown plant in Hamtramck, Michigan.
The atmosphere in local halls such as UAW Local 22 was also largely subdued. Member mobilization and communication was mostly non-existent through the course of the short strike, leaving many members asking what the strike was intended to do.
These questions only multiplied two days later when union officials announced a tentative agreement at a 4 a.m. press conference on September 26. Gettlefinger claimed that the strike broke the negotiations logjam and that “the strike probably helped our side more than theirs.”
Early details of the settlement leaked in the press however stated that the proposed four-year contract contained numerous major concessions.
Some of the contract details may include a VEBA funded at 70 percent of GM’s retiree health care obligations; two-tier wages and benefits for new hires; a wage freeze for all hourly workers; and more. Job security provisions remained vague as Labor Notes went to press.
STAGE SET FOR VEBA
Prior to the strike, suggestions that VEBA would shift costs to UAW retirees and leave the union as sole investor and manager of a $35 billion trust was not sitting well with a growing number of UAW members. Such members have been actively organizing against VEBA, and say the strike may have distracted member resistance around this question.
“This is just Stage One, Scene One in a stage drama designed to give the misleading impression that Gettelfinger and company are really fighting and the contract they will bring us really is ‘the best they can do’,” said retired Chrysler worker and Soldiers of Solidarity (SOS) activist, Larry Christensen.
Christensen said that the resolve to remain steadfast in voting no to VEBA and other expected concessions is key. “There can be Stage Two if the membership decides to be tougher than GM and Gettelfinger put together,” he said. “Either we get to Stage Two or the contract will be full of red flags [for members].”
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Red flags went up for members when only days before the strike past executive board members, Jerry Tucker, Warren Davis, and Paul Schrade wrote an open letter to UAW Ron Gettelfinger and auto negotiators.
The letter warned that a healthcare plan shifting costs to workers not only was a huge infringement on workers’ rights, but was also damaging to the unions’ historic gains, and social justice orientation. The letter was followed by intense media scrutiny of an auto VEBA trust funded by stock.
Davis criticized the UAW for failure to take a stand for workers, and said the UAW ignored workable strategies, such as rolling strikes. Within days the UAW had announced an impasse.
SINGLE-PAYER SOLUTION
Past UAW officers say the implementation of VEBA in place of a greatly needed national healthcare policy will not properly address a national healthcare crisis or save the auto makers.
“Why aren’t we hearing more of a drumbeat from the unions for this whole argument to be countered very quickly by saying no, here’s the way we’re going down,” said Jerry Tucker, former UAW Executive Board member and co-founder of the Center of Labor Renewal. “We’re going down to Washington together and we’re going to push the enactment of a universal, comprehensive, single payer healthcare plan.”
Tucker also said auto makers should rally support for national health care, as they did in Canada, effectively solving the auto makers so-called “legacy costs.”
Auto workers aren’t the only ones organizing around a single payer solution. The Single Payer Action Network (SPAN) in Ohio began in 2000 with only six members to discuss a healthcare plan for the state of Ohio. In 2002, when 600,000 steel workers retiree benefits were eliminated, the coalition rapidly grew.
Other organizations, such as Healthcare Now, and Physicians for National Healthcare, say now is the time for national health care, and support a single-payer bill introduced by Michigan congressman John Conyers, H.R. 676.
CONTINUING OPPOSITION
SOS, an activist group comprised of active and retired auto workers, began warning UAW members of possible concessions in their “Vote No, Watch for the Red Flags” campaign. The campaign had gained steam on shop room floors in the past month.
In the wake of the strike, SOS activists have continued to hand out fliers and talk to co-workers about “red flags” such as the possible tradeoff of big bonuses for two-tier wages. “Delphi’s [two tier] lasted only one contract, and we’re all second tier workers now,” said SOS co-founder Todd Jordan.
Members at Allison Transmission in Indianapolis, Indiana, a GM plant until recently sold, have been actively canvassing the plant, instructing members to vote no to any national contract which includes a VEBA trust or worker concessions.
“I know where we’ve been and I can see where they are trying to take us, and it isn’t good,” said Theresa Barber, a worker at Allison. “If somebody doesn’t start standing up, we all lose.”
Other organized efforts include 1,000 UAW Chrysler workers who rallied on the west lawn of Chrysler headquarters in Auburn Hills, prior to the strike, to show discontent with their local negotiations, which are running concurrent with national talks.
Though UAW officials have said they “are fully focused on reaching a tentative agreement that meets the needs of our active and retired members,” questions remain if the union will have enough persuasive power to coax members into ratifying a contract.
One thing is certain, auto workers will be looking for glaring red flags.
Tonyia Young is a former auto worker. She is also an administrator of FactoryRat.com and a freelance writer.