GM runs rings UAW at new Saturn plant

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By DEAN COHEN and MARTIN TOKAY CLEVELAND—The United Auto Workers union announced on July 26 that its International Executive Board approved an agreement for the muchheralded Saturn Small Car Plant.

The UAW called its agreement with General Motors, Saturn's parent company, "revolutionary." The union said that it "helps save the American small car." A close examination of the pact, however, shows it to be potentially the most damaging thing to ever hit the UAW.

The pact has been lauded in the union and through the media for its "permanent job security" and high wages. At first glance the wages do seem very good. But these wages will exist only during a one-year "bridging period."

After the one-year period, wages will be "adjusted" to only 80 percent of the average straight-time hourly rate at other UAW-represented car plants. In addition, new hires will be paid 64 percent of the prevailing industry rate. It will take a new hire two years to work up to the 80 percent rate.

There are also provisions for a reward system, the first in the industry since pre-union days in the 1930s. Through a system of "incentive and merit, the Saturn worker will be able to reach the average GM wage rate. "Incentive" has always meant speed-up, and "merit" has meant favoritism.

The "permanent job security" is nothing less than a transparent sham. The agreement reads:

"Those Saturn members [workers] who are eligible for job security [80 percent of the workforce] SOCIALIST ACTION SATURN shall not be laid off except in situations which the S.A.C. [Strategic Advisory Committee] determines are due to unforseen or catastrophic events or severe economic conditions."

It takes no crystal ball to see that "unforeseen or catastrophic events" is completely open to any interpretation and that the 1980-82 recession would be classified as a "severe economic condition." Moreover, the union will be allowed only one member on the S.A.C.

The biggest change is in the area of union representation. Instead of a system of stewards, the Saturn structure provides for a system of "counselors" and "advisers" to serve as "administrators of the agreement on behalf of the Each "business unit adviser, for example, would administer the agreement for over 1000 workers. These advisers-who must work at their jobs rather than represent workers full time- will not have much time left for what the company calls "conflict resolution."

OCTOBER 1985 Although GM agreed from the beginning that the workers would be represented by the UAW, the agreement was later qualified to "within the extent of the law" when Tennessee—a "right-toSteelworkers (continued from page 20: “Wheeling-Pitt strikers oust company execs”) presidents, were arrested as they prevented the company from removing steel. Strikers, who have successfully stopped the company from moving any steel, describe this as one more provocation on the part of the company.

Largest Labor Day rally ever On Aug. 31, 5000 steelworkers and their supporters participated in the largest Labor Day rally ever held in Jefferson County.

Car caravans and chartered buses filled with steelworkers from Districts 20 (Western Pennsylvania), 27 (Canton, Ohio), 28 (Cleveland), and 29 (Detroit) traveled to Steubenville, Ohio, to participate in this rally. They brought almost $50,000, which had been collected at plant gates and through local union donations.

District 23 staff representative Jim Bowen summed up the mood of the crowd when he described the need to tell the steel bosses: "Enough is enough. We've given at the office already and we're not going to give anymore."

Tony Bumbico, representative to the United Mine Workers International Executive Board from District 6 (Eastern Ohio) offered his union's continued support, saying it's important to "demonstrate that organized labor will take no more backward steps."

International President Lynn Williams compared this fight to the initial

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Interview with Jim Guyette:

The following is an interview with Jim Guyette, president of Local P-g United Food and Commercial Workers difficult for them?

Guyette: It's difficult for them because this is the newest and most