The outlook for auto industry workers in the United States is not good. In the last three years, the United Auto Workers union has taken blow after blow, including deep cuts in wages and benefits, buyouts, layoffs and plant closures.
The UAW has shrunk to its lowest level of membership ever. Currently, the union has only 500,000 members. This is
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Massive layoffs have occurred in the last year. In 2006, General Motors Corp. announced that it would lay off 65,000 employees. Ford, Chrysler and Delphi have each announced layoffs of over 10,000 employees.
Dozens of plant closures are planned all across the country. At the same time, GM is conducting a worldwide search for countries in which to open new plants. The search includes Eastern Europe and Latin America, regions with lower labor costs for capitalists.
Important contract talks with the Big Three automakers—GM, Chrysler and Ford—are set to begin later this month. There is a great deal at stake in these contracts. The attacks against autoworkers are part of a larger ruling-class offensive against all workers.
Health care under attack
Recent UAW contracts at auto parts suppliers Delphi and Dana have the billion-dollar transnational companies smelling blood. According to a July 9 Los Angeles Times article, Wall Street and the Big Three are expecting the UAW to accept sweeping concessions in the current contract negotiations.
Workers health care and pensions are in the bosses’ crosshairs. The Big Three have combined yearly sales of $557 billion. Yet, they are seeking $10 billion in take backs from workers.
On June 29, UAW workers at Delphi agreed to severe wage cuts. Jobs formerly paying $27 an hour now pay $14 to $18.50 an hour. Resistance by rank-and-file workers pushed back Delphi’s attempt to lower wages to $10.
Just weeks later, Delphi announced the layoff of 13,000 unionized workers. This will reduce the UAW workforce to 4,700. In 2005, there were 24,000 UAW workers at Delphi.
The UAW and Dana announced a deal that will release Dana from its responsibility for the workers’ $1.1 billion healthcare fund. Dana will make a one-time payment of $700 million into a union healthcare fund. After that, Dana workers will have to pay for their own health care.
The proposed Dana contract also introduces the union-busting two-tier wage system, under which new hires will have a lower wage scale.
Union struggles ahead
Are the companies right when they say that workers need to face reality? That they must lose their jobs, take huge pay cuts, lose pensions, and start paying for health care out of a reduced wage pool? Is there no other path for workers in the era of globalization and unilateral U.S. imperialist aggression?
These are very serious questions for all workers, progressives and revolutionaries.
The ability of corporations to move plants and capital all over the world in search of cheaper labor and higher profits affects every worker on the planet. It gives the corporations an upper hand in labor battles, especially in the industrial sector. It is an underlying cause of the aggressive attacks on workers and unions in the United States.
Auto assembly workers in Mexico make $3 to $3.50 an hour. Auto assembly workers in the U.S. South, most of whom are non-union, make $12 to $14.50 an hour. Unionized workers make over $25 an hour. It is often cheaper for big corporations to super-exploit workers abroad than to fight with unionized or even non-unionized workers at home.
Layoffs, plant closures and union-busting tactics are nothing more than an attempt by Wall Street and the auto companies to weaken the UAW and lower the wages of all workers. The confrontations with the bosses looming on the horizon will be difficult and will require an elevated level of struggle.
Not one worker should be laid off or have their wages reduced. In fact, wages and benefits can be secured and increased. Jobs can be saved. The militant history of the UAW itself has shown this to be true.
Without our ability to work, the bosses can do nothing. Withholding labor is a powerful weapon in the hands of workers. International solidarity with workers fighting the same corporate enemy in other countries can help turn the tide.
In order to turn back the assault, organizing and action are needed. Further defeats for autoworkers will affect the entire U.S. multinational working class. Continued setbacks embolden the ruling class and will only increase the aggressiveness of their assault.
