Chrysler attacks union dissident: UAW leadership does nothing

March 2, 2013 at 1:00 am

Chrysler moves to silence workers

• By Bryce G. Hoffman
• The Detroit News
• 30 Comments

Alex Wassell of Plymouth, a skilled tradesman who works at Chrysler's Warren Stamping Plant, stands with retired American Axle worker Dianne Feeley during a protest against "alternative work schedules" in Warren, Mich., Thursday, Feb. 28, 2013. (John T. Greilick / Associated Press)

Chrysler Group LLC has suspended without pay one of the organizers of last week's demonstration at its Warren manufacturing complex.

Alex Wassell, a member of a dissident labor group called the Committee for the Eight Hour Day and Overtime Pay, helped organize a protest on Thursday against a controversial new work schedule that would require many employees to work Saturdays and require others to alternate between day and night shifts.

"He violated one of our codes of conduct. He engaged in an activity constituting, or appearing to constitute, a conflict with the interest of the company," said Chrysler spokeswoman Jodi Tinson. "He released information that was not authorized relating to quality."
That appeared to be reference to internal company documents obtained by The Detroit News that show serious quality issues at the automaker's Warren Truck Assembly Plant. The News made it clear to the company that Wassell was not the source of those documents. He is not employed at the Warren Truck factory, but at Chrysler's stamping plant next door.

Later, Chrysler said in an email to The News that "he was suspended because the comments he made in the paper regarding the status of production at Warren Truck."

Wassell was quoted in a story about the protest Friday, saying that there had been some problems with quality at the plant and that the poor morale created by the new work schedule was not helping the situation.

Tinson said Wassell, who has worked for Chrysler for 20 years, is being suspended without pay indefinitely. Wassell, for his part, declined to comment, saying he was afraid of further retaliation by the company.

"It's raw deal," said Martha Grevatt, another protest organizer and member of the Committee for the Eight Hour Day and Overtime Pay. "We'll back him."

The United Auto Workers did not sanction Thursday's protest, and UAW leaders have said they support the new work schedule because it means more jobs.
bhoffman@detroitnews.com
(313) 222-2443

From The Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20130302/AUTO0101/303020376#ixzz2MUAY0Lgy

Note: We do not know all the details about this issue but it is yet another example of the class collaboration of the trade Union leadership. This is the Team Concept in all its glory.  The Union
leadership's statement that the employers schedule creates more jobs is a bit misleading, what it creates is more revenue for the Union and a continued existence for the present leadership and their lifestyle.  This bold and blatant assault on a workers' right to protest and free speech has been made possible through years of cooperation with the bosses on the part of the entire leadership. 

The union leadership sees the Unions as an employment agency with them as the CEO's. It is a business and it is the job of a business to increase revenue and profits.  The environment, social issues, prison industrial complex, war, for the Union hierarchy these are all OK if jobs are created.  Everything is sacrificed at the altar of capital.  Building a mass direct action movement, an independent political party, fighting for a shorter workweek, more jobs, job training in industries and work that is less socially destructive to communities, public/indigenous land is the alternative to tailing the market monster.  The alternative to overtime must be wage increases, a shorter workweek with no loss in pay and increased hiring. We must appeal to the unemployed and the unorganized. The allocation of capital under the control of bankers and other coupon clipper must be taken in to public ownership through the nationalization of the finance and banking industry.  The bosses are very confident and are returning to tactics that existed prior to the rise of the CIO in the 30's.  We are in a war on two fronts, against the bosses and their system and the trade Union hierarchy that supports them.