Socialist Action /February 2002
Striking Auto Workers ask Solidarity
House: 'When Does Solidarity Begin?'
By CHARLES WALKER
"While there is a lower class, I am in it."
-Eugene V. Debs
What's happening to some Henderson, Kentucky, autoworkers might not disturb
the final rest of the late autoworkers president, Walter Reuther. But it's
got to have the ground heaving and shaking around the coffin of Eugene V.
Debs, the legendary workers' leader who was born and buried just a few hours
drive from the Ohio River town that's home to UAW Local 2036.
The members of this local union are engaged in a life-and-death struggle
with Accuride Corp., a major supplier of steel wheels for trucks.
In fact, what's happening to the Local 2036 autoworkers should upset
any worker with a shred of solidarity for other workers. But it's obvious
that the top UAW leaders who mistakenly call their Michigan headquarters
"Solidarity House" don't share Debs's anguish. Just as obvious
is that the "Solidarity House" leaders have lost the trust of
their Local 2036 members, who have been striking the local Accuride plant
for nearly four years.
'Take 'em out!'
The authorized strike by over 400 autoworkers began on Feb. 20, 1998,
after the workers lopsidedly rejected (371-9) a harsh, concessionary contract
offer that would authorize the company to subcontract out any and all bargaining
unit work.
The regional director at the time, Ron Gettlefinger, according to the
local union's president, Billy Robinson, told the local union three times
that day to "take 'em out." Today, Gettlefinger is poised in June
to replace Steven Yokich, UAW international president, who is retiring.
The strikers thought they had a strong hand. The company has 80 percent
of the heavy-duty steel wheel business, and has only one other plant (in
Canada), and UAW plants get 95 per cent of Accuride's production. All the
top UAW leadership had to do, the strikers thought, was to let the other
UAW local unions know that the Accuride wheels now were scab wheels.
Billy Robinson says the strike wouldn't have lasted more than four weeks,
if the UAW had just spread the word among 13,000 union members at a Louisville,
Ky., Ford plant.
But only a month later, the workers decided the strike wasn't working
and voted unconditionally to return to their jobs. The plan was that "we'll
work to rule; we'll do what we have to do [on the shop floor]." However,
once again, the workers voted (354-9) to reject the proposed contract. But
even before the vote, the company counterpunched, locking the strikers out.
More concessions demanded
In September, the company made another offer, retaining the earlier
concessions and adding further outrageous provisions to allow Accuride to
unilaterally change the pension and medical plans. The new offer was rejected
overwhelmingly.
The bosses continued to make new offers that got "progressively
worse. For the next year, we refused to vote on anything," Robinson
says. But by then, the strikers discovered they were fighting a two-front
battle.
A month earlier, the strikers had been told by the international union
that "as of the last day of August, you won't have any strike insurance,
you won't have any sick pay." Robinson says, "I got the regional
director, Terry Thurman, on the phone. He said, 'Tell them to go back to
work.' How the hell can I tell them to go back to work when we've been locked
out for 18 months? He wanted us to tell the company, 'we've lost our benefits
now, so you've got to take us back.'"
In other words, the UAW rep was advising the locked-out workforce to
try collective begging.
At a membership meeting, Robinson told the ranks, "This is the saddest
day of my life. I feel like the guts have been pulled out of me. I can tell
you today that what Accuride couldn't accomplish, the UAW international
has done in one fell swoop. They've deserted you."
The ranks voted once again, and once again showed their determination
to "stick together. We're not going back until we get what we came
out for."
The locked-out autoworkers-virtually on their own-started working to
get their story out to other workers. Using the internet and handbills,
"we put out a tremendous amount of literature," Robinson says.
Of course, the Solidarity House officials knew what the strikers were
doing and didn't like it. Called to a Detroit meeting, the Local 2036 representatives
were accused by the top UAW officials of not bargaining with Accuride in
a "prudent and realistic way," and were falsely charged with not
holding secret ballot votes.
The real purpose of the meeting was revealed when UAW President Steven
Yokich said, "I don't give a damn how many e-mails you put out, how
many web sites you put up, we're the most powerful union around, and you
aren't going to bother me, and you're not the first ones we've cut off."
Shortly after, Yokich put an "administrator" in charge of Local
2036. Yet surprisingly, six months later, the UAW reinstated the strikers'
benefits and strike pay, for a while at double the old amount of $175 a
week.
New threats
But once again the UAW bureaucratic bullies are threatening the locked-out
workforce. Robinson says they've been told, "If you don't ratify that
contract, the IEB [International Executive Board] will pull your charter."
Further, the UAW told the workers it would stop paying their strike benefits
Jan. 15, despite a nearly $900 million strike fund surplus.
To date, the workers have voted six times to reject proposed contracts
that each time demanded more sacrifices from their workers. The last time
they voted, workers rejected the contract by a 97 percent majority.
Robinson says that if they give in to Accuride and the UAW tops, no more
than 110 workers will get back inside the plant. And those that do get back
in will be subjected to close scrutiny. And those who don't meet the company's
acceptable performance levels will be "laid off regardless of seniority."
It's not clear why the workers were encouraged by the international union
to strike Accuride, if the UAW in Detroit didn't intend to back them up.
Perhaps the UAW tops misjudged the situation, thinking that Accuride wasn't
serious about its concessionary demands. After all, bluffing, even to the
point of recommending strike action is not unheard of.
Sadly, there's another explanation more consistent with the UAW bureaucrats'
actions since the strike began. That is, the UAW tops figured the ranks
would accept the concessions once they had missed a few paychecks.
Emil Mazey, a onetime UAW big shot, once explained, "I think that
strikes make ratification easier. Even though the worker may not think so,
when he votes on a contract he is reacting to economic pressures. I really
believe that if the wife is raising hell and the bills are piling up, he
may be more apt to settle than otherwise" ("The Company and the
Union," by William Serrin, 1972).
If Accuride and the union bureaucrats thought they could use economic
leverage against the workers' families to force the Local 2036 members to
buckle, they've got to be wondering what kind of union workers they are
dealing with. Of course, Debs isn't wondering. He knows and he's in their
corner!
Socialist Action /February 2002 |