UAW members approve concession-filled contracts

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10 SOCIALIST ACTION DECEMBER 2011 In late October, members of the United Auto Workers at the Big Three voted to approve concession-filled con­ tracts under heavy pressure from the Administrative Caucus that rules the UAW. All three contracts maintain the devastating two-tier status of new and recent hires, and contain no wage increases for “traditional” tier au­ toworkers, no cost-of-living increases, and many workrule changes affecting skilled trades, subcontracting, and other provisions of the contract. The UAW leader­ ship negotiated this weak agreement despite the fact that all of the Big Three have reported profits—and in the case of Ford, $6 billion in 2010 profits.

The new contracts are the first negotiated after the auto industry bailouts at GM and Chrysler negotiated by the Obama administration, which arranged for the creation of two-tier wage scales and other substantial concessions. As part of that bailout the UAW gave up its right to strike at GM and Chrysler. Ford, which re­ mained out of bankruptcy, also sought concessions from the UAW to “remain competitive,” and the UAW bureau­ crats happily agreed, only to see them rejected by the members.

That agreement created the hated two-tier wage level, where new workers make half of traditional autowork­ ers toiling on the same assembly line. The second-tier workers also are not in any pension fund, instead receiv­ ing 401k plans. The UAW also allowed the Big Three to outsource non-assembly work. The concessions were sold to workers at the time as necessary since the Big Three were allegedly on the brink of going under. How­ ever, no such useful excuse exists now; all three auto­ makers were profitable last year.

The new agreements would raise wages for secondtier workers from around $14-$15 an hour to $19 an hour by the end of the contracts, but the second tier will continue to receive inferior health and retirement ben­ efits, and no means to ever become first tier. First-tier workers will receive no wage increase, despite being on a wage freeze since 2004. Instead, they will receive con­ tract-signing bonuses, ranging from $1400 at Chrysler to $6000 at Ford.

The concession train does not stop at economics, as the UAW gave up significant work-rule provisions of the contracts, especially affecting skilled trade work­ ers. The contracts allow for this higher paid work to be subject to reduced classifications, with more outsourc­ ing to outside workers and (lower paid) assembly-line workers. This is why skilled trade workers at Chrysler voted down the contract, even though the UAW imposed it anyway based on a small majority vote among assem­ bly-line workers.

These contracts are the first to not give retirees a pen­ sion increase. And buried in the GM contract is a side agreement that says if UAW members approve the con­ tract they will give GM and the UAW leaders the per­ mission to “amend” the pension plan in future nego­ tiations. The UAW could negotiate massive cuts to GM pensions, or even its elimination, without a further vote from members.

UAW President Bob King and his henchmen put on an arm-twisting campaign to get the membership to ap­ prove these concessionary contracts. First was the usual job security promise; all three automakers “agreed” to increase jobs at U.S. factories. However, many UAW rank and filers point out that the UAW has been exchanging concessions for job security in nearly every contract for at least 30 years, only to watch their ranks drop dra­ matically. Since 2001 alone, the UAW has lost 50% of its membership.

Bob King next used the fear of bankruptcy at Ford to make those workers swallow the bitter concessions. At GM and Chrysler he reminded workers they had no right to strike, and a “no” vote would result in arbitration through which workers might even get a worse deal.

The UAW could have gone another route. Instead of preparing members for concessions, it could have or­ ganized them for battle against the Big Three, no-strike pledges be damned. The UAW could have used the growing outrage at the 1% reflected in the Occupy Wall Street movement as a means to build public support for a strike.

They could have pointed to the billions of dollars in profits made by the Big Three while second-tier work­ ers survive on poverty level wages. Tens of thousands of auto workers striking against three multi-billion-dollar corporations could have become a symbol of the fight of the 99% against the 1%, and would have been sup­ ported enthusiastically by rank-and-file trade unionists, occupiers, and working people across the country. In­ stead, the UAW only organized a demoralizing defeat.

In order to build a stronger labor movement that can reach and organize the vast majority of workers who are unorganized, the labor movement must first mobilize the ranks of the already organized to fight back against the bosses’ offensive. Only through such actions can the labor movement grow and build unionization in the vast majority of workplaces.

Settling short on one of its most historically important contracts, the UAW leadership has taken a step back from fighting for the rights of not only its own member­ ship but also the entire working class. How can the UAW organize the transplant automakers when they are tak­ ing massive concessions in the already organized auto plants? As autoworker Dave Dogonski in Detroit put it in an article in Labor Notes, “How can the union in one breath support things like Occupy Wall Street but at the same time let the corporations take windfall profits and not get us a raise?” n ... Chicago protest (continued from page 7: “Wall St. criminals attack OWS; workers, students fight back!”)

jority public support for the right to assemble to pro­ test economic injustice and war.

Ultimately, though, the strings for the NATO/G8 summits are being pulled from Washington, D.C.

The White House and the State Department have already declared the Chicago summits a “National Special Security Event” and a joint committee head­ ed by the Chicago Police Department and the Secret Service has been established. Obama, who has de­ clared that he supports the right of political assembly and wants to leave the policing of the Occupy move­ ment to local governments, is, of course, lying.

The fight to reclaim public space for protest of the crimes of the 1% against the 99% has been catapult­ ed to the center of politics in the United States and elsewhere in the world. The antiwar and economic justice movement now has six months to mount the kind of nationally coordinated civil liberties cam­ paign around the NATO/G8 protests that can deal a decisive blow to government efforts to permanently roll back our hard-won rights.

To get involved in this important fight, visit www.

CANG8.org or e-mail [email protected]. n

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(continued from page 12: “Egyptian masses say military regime must go”) cal prisoners, and against military rule.

Egyptians abroad and their supporters began holding actions in solidarity with these demands, and are now holding frequent actions in solidarity with the uprising. In New York several have already occurred, including a picket line on Last Chance Friday at Point Lookout Capi­ tal Partners in Manhattan (Point Lookout is the majority stock owner of Combined Systems Inc., maker of the tear gas being used to murderous effect in Egypt). The picket demanded an end to tear gas sales, an end to all U.S. mili­ tary aid, an end to military tribunals and the freeing of political prisoners, and an end to military rule. Nearly 12,000 Egyptian civilians have been tried by kangaroo military courts since the fall of Mubarak, the overwhelming majority convicted. Eighteen civilians have been executed after such trials, and minors sen­ tenced to adult prisons in which torture is common. Wom­ en demonstrators have been subjected to sexual assault in the form of “virginity tests” by the army, and demonstra­ tors of both genders subjected to electric shocks and other forms of cruel, inhumane, and degrading treatment. The regime sponsoring such crimes has been rewarded by the U.S. government with promises of billions in loans, and continued military aid to the tune of $1.3 billion a year. The uprising marks the end of months in which revolu­ tionaries’ propaganda about the intransigence of the mili­ tary regime often fell on deaf ears. This is inevitable in a revolution, which has phases in which the masses give new powers a chance—but eventually realize that only institutions created by their own power can form the basis of a legitimate revolutionary government, one which they control and which meets their needs in practice and not just in words.

That consciousness reached the tipping point this fall as Egypt’s suffering masses saw that the new regime was doing nothing to mitigate the impact of the global eco­ nomic crisis that had played a key role in sparking the January revolt (as it had in Tunisia and throughout the re­ gion). What’s more, as the military made more and more statements indicating elections would have no bearing on their continued control of the main levers of power, the notion that “the army and the people are one hand” began to lose its power.

As a result, as reported by Sameh Naguib, a member of one of the leading radical groups, the Revolutionary Socialists, “in Tahrir Square we have people coming up to us and saying, ‘We know you. You have opposed the military council from the start. We want to be with you.’” Meanwhile, Obama still wants to be with Tantawi. Even the Washington Post had to chide Obama for be­ ing so transparently pro-SCAF. In an editorial titled, “As Egyptians protest anew, the Obama administration again enables the generals,” the Post said that “faced with the escalating violence in Cairo, the administration is repeat­ ing the mistake it made in January, when it hesitated to push for the removal of President Hosni Mubarak. Rather than using its considerable leverage, the admin­ istration is deferring to the military council. White House spokesman Jay Carney weakly called Monday for “re­ straint” from “all sides”; when asked whether the gener­ als should specify the date for a presidential election, he replied, “I don’t want to dictate specifics to Egypt.” On Last Chance Friday, the U.S. gave de facto backing to the SCAF, calling for elections to proceed on the fol­ lowing Monday—elections rigged by the military, in the middle of a mass uprising attacked with murderous force! Similarly, the Christian Science Monitor wrote that “a White House statement appeared to place the blame equally on both sides for violence that has killed at least 29 protesters since Saturday. White House spokesman Jay Carney said the U.S. was “deeply concerned” about the violence and “tragic loss of life” and called for “restraint on all sides, so that Egyptians can move forward together to forge a strong and united Egypt.”

That call for restraint on “all sides,” in the face of days of excessive use of force by police and soldiers, was met with incredulity in Cairo: “‘Should we stop dying? Is that how we should show restraint?’ scoffed protester Salma Ahmed as heavy gunfire echoed through Tahrir Square.” Meanwhile, the State Department, which has been channeling money to “pro-democracy” fronts to tempt and coopt the more naïve or corruptible middle-class ele­ ments in the opposition, opened a new front in the U.S. An NGO leader working with State concocted an effort to get Occupy Wall Street to send a delegation, costing tens of thousands of dollars, to “monitor” Egyptian elec­ tions. Egyptians here and abroad and their supporters ar­ gued that the time and money should be devoted instead to organizing solidarity and material aid for the struggle against military rule.

But ultimately, Washington’s schemes and funding of SCAF will come to naught. We can see this, as in Janu­ ary, in the humor that runs through the uprising. The New the coming president.’”

Mamud Hams / AFP / Getty (Above) Nov. 24 rally in Tahrir Square.

York Times reported that “some activists joked that the anger was so widespread and deep among the protesters that their chants should be, ‘The people want the fall of Behind this seemingly paradoxical joke lies the clear long-range vision of those committed to completing revo­ lutions. The fighters in Tahrir know the ruling class will try to foist on them one fraud after another in the hopes that they’ll be fooled or just get tired. But just as the May 1968 barricade fighters in Paris scrawled on the walls, “Be realistic: Demand the impossible,” so the shabab of Tahrir know that today it is possible, indeed essential, to hold out for a solution in the interests of the country’s masses, and there is no need to settle for what is “practi­ cal,” i.e. what the rulers are willing to grant. Reports are beginning to arrive of junior officers de­ fecting to the revolution. This is crucial, as one require­ ment for the success of the uprising will be the splitting of rank-and-file soldiers and junior officers away from their superiors’ dictates. The other key components will be the continued mobilization of millions, and growing workers’ strikes, hopefully coalescing in a general strike, which can be the coup de grace for Tantawi, as it was for Mubarak. And to ensure lasting gains, it is essential to construct a mass revolutionary socialist party, rooted in the working class, to lead the fight against capitalist rule. One final key factor will be global solidarity. In the U.S., the labor and Occupy movements have repeatedly stressed the debt they owe to the Egyptian uprising. It is now time for those movements, as well as the antiwar movement, to pay that debt and organize massive solidar­ ity and support for the Egyptian masses. n

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... Upsurge of the Egyptian masses