UAW Members to Rally at UAW Region 3 Heaquarters to Protest International Leadership's Cooperation With GM Bosses

We Owe it to folks like these to resist

There will be a rally in Indianapolis next Saturday, September 25th. The rally is called by the Local 23 Solidarity Committee.  UAW, local 23 represents workers at a GM stamping plant in Indianapolis. The rally is being called to protest the UAW International leadership’s collaboration with GM in pressuring UAW locals to accept concessionary contracts and undercut one another. This is the result of the Team Concept and the entire leadership of the AFL-CIO supports it.

The UAW International leadership, and the top leaders of all of organized Labor have cooperated with the employers in destroying wages and conditions that took decades to win. When local leaders and members have fought back the Labor hierarchy have stepped in to ensure the employers have their way. With the UAW, the leadership of the local in Cleveland North Carolina comes to mind where the UAW International cooperated in the firing of local leaders; the Accuride struggle and others are all examples of this. Rondo Jabbar Turner of the Local 23 solidarity committee explains:

“The outcome of this dispute at the Indianapolis GM Stamping plant will set the standard for Big 3 negotiations in 2011. It is in the best interests of all UAW members to join us in our struggle to defeat the forces of government, union, and corporation that are pressuring us to break the master agreement and severe our solidarity with other working people.”

Those of us that read the news at all are aware that the auto bosses, the folks we bailed out not so long ago after they promised to eliminate thousands of jobs, cut wages in half and have eliminated the possibility of retirement for the workers of the future. This was all done with the help of the UAW and AFL-CIO leadership at the highest levels.

UAW local 23 refused to bargain a concessionary contract, and as other Union locals have discovered in many industries, this does not bode well with organized Labor’s hierarchy. Brother Turner explains why UAW Local 23 opposed the concessions:

“GM wants to set us up as a UAW shop that undercuts the wages and benefits for all other UAW members and sets the standard for 2011 contract negotiations. It’s surprising that UAW leaders would promote such anti union tactics. The sell out contract we were offered is union only in name. Every standard and compensation is nonunion.”

After Local 23 refused to bargain concessions, the UAW International negotiated with the employer behind their backs. This is nothing new. Brother Turner again:

“We, the working people, cannot single-handedly carry the burden of sacrifice for this nation. We cannot simultaneously support two wars and a ruthless class of financial predators who sabotaged the world economy with reckless speculation. Cutting our own wages and destroying the future for our children and grandchildren is not a fair and reasonable option. It’s double taxation without representation.

We are not simply workers, we are parents and caretakers and educators. The world is in our hands. Someone has to take a stand. Someone has to say the cuts stop here. Workers cannot carry the burden of sacrifice for the leisure class any longer. If we make less, we spend less, and the whole economy spirals deeper into despair. What happens at UAW Local 23 will make history. The decision we make here will be seen as a turning point. I for one do not want to dishonor my grandfather and turn my back on my children and grandchildren. I don’t want to be destroyed by history, I want to make history.”

The stand taken by these brothers and sisters is an honorable one. But brother Turner is right to point out that we face a combined force of government, Union leadership and corporation and that their goal is to sever our solidarity with other working people. Employers have used racism the same way historically to divide and weaken the working class and our organizations.

To fight these forces, we have to recognize that this fight is not just the fight of one local, that no one local can beat them without building links to the communities, the unorganized and the youth, as well as workers internationally. It is in the interests of all workers to stop this,, Union and non Union. The response of top Labor officials to SEIU and ATU Locals here in San Francisco that voted down concessionary contracts was to aide the employers in shoving the contracts down the rank and file’s throats. Only a united movement of organized and unorganized, youth and workers, workplace and community will be able to drive back this assault on our living standards.

Introduce a resolution in your Union local directed at the your International and AFL-CIO and UAW leadership urging them to help Local 23 defeat GM’s takeaways. If you are in the Indianapolis area and can make the protest outside the UAW regional headquarters please come and show your support.

Honor Solidarity

Honor Master Agreements

Honor Our Proud UAW Legacy

Saturday September 25th at 3.pm

UAW Region 3 Headquarters

5850 Fortune Circle West

Indianapolis, Indiana 46241

Local 23 Solidarity Committee

For more information, contact Rondo Jabbar Turner @765-278-9210