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| Are these days over for UAW members? |
The momentum was building yesterday at a rally organized outside Hyundai-Kia America Technical Center in Superior Township Michigan. The rally, a show of serious internationalism on the part of the UAW leadership, had the giant Hyundai corporation on edge. The UAW leadership made it clear that the global car maker should change its anti-worker attitude and “respond to the demands of striking temporary subcontract workers in South Korea.” Writes Chrissie Thompson, the Free Press business writer. *
The Hyundai workers have been organizing sit ins and occupations for a month demanding that their temporary status be changed to permanent. Like all employers, temporary workers are the rage, they are easier to let go, have no Unions and are generally harder to organized due to their vulnerable circumstances.
“UAW President Bob King told the Free Press the union’s support for the temporary Korean workers kicked off the emphasis on global justice he had promised since his election this summer.”, the Free Press adds. This internationalism is welcome. The next step would be to stand up for workers in the US also as it would strengthen these internationalist trends. It’s hard to get workers in one country to take serious measures to support workers struggles in other countries when their own Unions leaders refuse to fight for them as has been the trend up to now. UAW leaders refused to respond to criticism by some workers that they were supporting Korean workers as opposed to US workers because it doesn't bring them in to conflict with US bosses, whose "Team" they are on.
It appears Richard Bensinger has surfaced as one of the experts aiding the UAW leadership. Who needs an active membership with experts like this? It was probably the militant Bensinger who suggested King lead a delegation to Korea to meet with officials form the Metal Workers Union. "Richard's the best organizer and the best strategic mind for organizing that I know in the United States," King said. "We wanted the best for our union.", the Free Press reports. The UAW has lost members going from 1.5 million workers in the 1970s 355,191 in 2009, so revenue becomes a major issue at this point like any business.
There are rumors that delegations will be forthcoming to meet with victims of the UAW leadership’s collaborative policies of the past, a visit to Flint Michigan might even be on the cards, or to Cleveland North Carolina where the UAW leadership cooperated with employers in the firing of rank and file leaders. Perhaps an apology is forthcoming to the Accuride workers that were stripped of their strike benefits after a four year strike against concessions that their employer and the UAW leadership forced on them. Are these days over, one asks?
Can militancy go too far?
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| Legitimate tactic or violent anarchy |
Brothers and sisters, this is an incredible but risky move on the part of the UAW bureaucracy. But is it going too far? Is this militant gesture so far ahead of the mood of the rank and file that the leadership could lose them? We’ll have to see, but it has certainly put fear in to the bosses as these responses show:
“Flower bouquets haven’t been used in Labor disputes since the 1930’s and the government should step in right away before things gets out of hand. “ John Krafcik CEO Hyundai.
“Despite reassurances from Labor leaders that the bouquet consisted of mainly snowdrops, that’s not satisfactory. Next it’ll be Roses, then Daffodils. Before you know it they’ll be bringing Rhubarb stalks to rallies. We have to nip it in the bud.” Allan Mulally, President and CEO Ford Motor Corp
Dan Akerson GM CEO was more conciliatory: “We don’t want a repeat of the 1930’s here. We are grateful that the UAW leadership has cooperated with our war on US workers and we promise to hire permanents in China and Korea if we can keep pay below $10 a day. I am pleading with the UAW leadership to put the Snowdrops down and let’s talk. No petal to the metal, no to floral warfare.”
Many workers are jubilant at this new-found militancy while some are a little more skeptical. But what with online solidarity day and the introduction of flower warfare in industrial disputes, it appears the leadership of the US trade Union movement has finally turned a corner.
* UAW rallies for Hyundai strikers in Korea
Chrissie Thompson: 313-222-8784 or cthompson@freepress.com.
1 comment:
Here's a little bit of our history fighting the most powerful cooperation on earth at the time. We don't choose this but its what we've had to do to get where we are today. Contrast this to the bouquet offense.
"Squad cars carrying about 30 policemen had come across the bridge, spanning the Flint river south of Fisher No.2. The officers, perhaps fifteen who were equipped with gas mask and armed with tear gas guns, left their cars and moved toward the plant. Captain Edwin H Hughes in command approached the main gate and demanded that it be opened. There was no response from inside. The captain then broke the panels of glass above the double doors of the gate and fired his gas gun in to the plant. The pickets pressed closer to the gate but were forced to retreat and disperse when the police exploded tear-gas bombs in their midst. The police also fired their gas in to the plant as they advanced upon it, but the strikers, with Reuther giving the orders from the sound car, directed fire hoses, two pound steel automobile door hinges, bottles, stones and assorted missiles at the police and drove them back.
The tide of battle ebbed and flowed outside the plant. After their initial imulse the police regrouped on the bridge and drove once again on the plant, firing their gas guns and hurling gas grenades toward the factory and in to the pickets in front of the establishment. The sit-downers, many of whom had rushed to the roof of the plant, and the pickets who had received a supply of “popular ammunition” from the men in the plant during the brief lull in the battle, responded with a water and missile barrage; and as the wind blew the gas back into their faces the police had to fall back. Hurling cans, frozen snow, milk bottles, door hinges, pieces of pavement and assorted other weapons of this type, the pickets pressed at the heels of the retreating police."
Sidney Fine, Sit Down: The General Motors Strike of 1937-37, page 4
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