Oppose US Government Takeover of the UAW

When it comes to corruption and Racketeering, organized labor can't hold a candle to the US Government.

Source: Detroit News

Richard Mellor
Afscme Local 444, retired
The Detroit Free Press reports today that the US government is considering taking over the United Auto Workers’ Union, the “embattled UAW” as the paper puts it. Numerous UAW officials have been indicted on corruption charges and US attorney, Matthew Schneider, told the Detroit Free Press that “….once the criminal case is over — and it's far from over — there's a possibility that the federal government will step in and oversee the UAW.”

"What we need to do is get the criminal cases further," Schneider tells the media and that the government will “be in a better position" to make the decision, "after that is done."

Facts For Working People opposes criminal activity within organized labor but unconditionally condemns the takeover of the UAW or any other trade union by the US government. There is no way that a takeover by the state can benefit working class people or trade union members. This is the union rank and file’s business.

The present president of the UAW, Rory Gamble, took over the position after the resignation of Gary Jones. Jones along with his predecessor Dennis Williams and other UAW officials, are under investigation for embezzling union funds and racketeering.

While he has been a person of interest with regards to financial dealing between the UAW leadership and some of its vendors, Gamble has not been a target in the investigation of corruption the feds say.  Since taking the position Gamble told the media last year that  "We intend to do everything we can to show that we can manage our business……The government is going to do what the government is going to do, but it’s my job to make sure whoever comes in and looks at this union, they’re going to be presented with a clean union." Gamble added, "My sole focus as president is to strengthen the union's financial controls, oversight and accounting system — and most importantly, to restore the trust of our union members."

This is all well and good but Gamble has been a prominent official within the UAW for decades. And while theft of union funds and corrupt practices are bad enough, there is a greater problem and that is the policies of this very same leadership that are based on class collaboration and concessions. These policies, that amount to betrayals of the members, are the natural result of the Team Concept philosophy that the UAW leadership has adopted, that workers and the bosses have the same economic interests; that we are on the same team. Resigned former UA president Gary Jones made this clear publicly during the recent GM strike when he stated, “We want new investment in technology and products to help keep us on the cutting edge, and training to make sure our workers are competitive,”. This worldview has been a catastrophe for the rank and file of the trade union movement and workers in general as who we are competing with is other workers. Was there any vocal opposition to this disastrous policy, perfectly legal as far as the bosses’ courts are concerned, from Rory Gamble or any other top UAW official?

We only have to look at the recent GM strike. The leadership refused to bring out workers at Ford and Chrysler/Fiat or to link the strike to community struggles around various, crucial issues. In Flint, an auto town, residents are still left drinking poison water yet no effort was made to link the potential power of the auto-workers with our communities and unify these struggles.

The heads of organized labor have no alternative to capitalism, so when it goes in to crisis; when they are faced with the employer’s claim that they need to be more competitive or that they are not making profit or significant profits, the trade union leaders immediately move to bail them out. The alternative is to mobilize the potential power of the UAW in this case, and the 14 million members of organized labor in general, in a counteroffensive of our own. The trade union hierarchy will not do this because from their point of view it can only lead to chaos.

As this blog pointed out previously, this class collaboration was cemented in policy over a century ago when then AFL president, Samuel Gompers, pushed through a decision that determined what the union movement’s general policy would be towards capitalism. At the end of the last century, the Wall Street Journal, perhaps the main journal of US capitalism, had in its centennial edition a segment on "Events that Helped Shape the Country". Here is how the it reported this decision. "The AFL led by Samuel Gompers votes against adopting socialist reform programs....Gompers believes that U.S. labor should work with capitalism, not against it, and that the AFL’s  proper concerns are wages and hours and better working conditions". See: "Work With Capitalism, Not Against It". Why the Labor Leadership Surrenders to the Bosses

Take note, this is the statement from the main public voice of US capitalism, of the employers, as it looked back over the previous century at what were the "events that helped shape the country”

US attorney, Matthew Schneider tries to reassure us that the government’s intentions are pure, “This isn’t a situation where the Justice Department would just impose its demands on the union. .... This has to be an amicable discussion if and when we're going to get there,", he said in December. "Again, this is down the road. These things have to be discussed, talked about and, you know, have good negotiations." Detroit Free Press.

This is the same Justice department that issues injunctions against picketing and forces workers back to work when strikes become too effective. He wants “good negotiations” but there’s no such thing when a union negotiates with the US government. There are far too many examples to go in to here but we should know by now how reliable government regulators are in protecting workers’ rights. Regulators were not too aggressive in preventing the recent Boeing crashes. In what could have been a major catastrophe with the Oroville Dam here in California regulators were made aware of the weakness and failed to address it. The West Texas fertilizer explosion, the BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico, in all these cases state regulators are made powerless by the power and lobbying of the corporations and have relinquished their authority to their agents.

I have stated many times that as union rank and file the hardest struggle of all is against the present leadership and their policies of class collaboration. It is also the most complex; after all, they are supposed to be “our guys”. But I am not in agreement with those that call for us to abandon these organizations that were built by ordinary men and women through years of heroic sacrifice, and believe it is the duty of the rank and file membership to fight to change the present concessionary course. It is inconceivable that in the coming social struggles that the organized labor movement will not also be convulsed with struggles and will play a significant role in them.

The rank and file of the UAW and the entire labor movement has to accept responsibility and take up the tasks that history lays before us. The days of being able to pay the dues and leave the leadership to produce results of any significance are long gone. Labor history, how we came this far has been suppressed, has been driven in to the recesses of our consciousness. But organized labor is more diversified racially and gender wise than ever before.

The US government must be kept out of the UAW, The UAW rank and file must build workplace committees and opposition caucuses within the locals and reach out to the rank and file of the wider labor movement and the communities in which we live and work. We must take up these community issues and integrate them in to our struggles using the power of organized workers in the workplace to win. The leadership must be challenged openly with a program that is based on winning not going backwards and that speaks to more than just workplace issues.

There have been too many examples of opportunities missed especially as of late as the teachers/educators have shown us how to win. In Kentucky, last year, teachers, parents and allies shut down the school system through sickouts and were threatened with punishment by the state. In this instance, the leaders of organized labor either attacked these brothers and sisters (in a press conference) or were silent. The UAW has members there. Where were they? Also, miners occupied a railroad tracks for weeks on end demanding backpay. These forces should have been brought together and the real power of labor and working class people brought to the table. In the face of rank and file pressure, splits may occur at the top and some officials will take steps forward, but if they don’t, the Rank and File must lead and a new leadership built on a fight to win program.

If there is any doubt that an internal struggle to change the present leadership of the UAW and its policies is necessary rather than swapping one individual for another, look what Marick Masters, a business professor (a labor expert apparently) at Wayne State University has to say about the replacement of the UAW’s Jones by Rory Gamble: 

"He has the mindset that can get the union through this difficult period and make the internal reforms that they need to make and get the union focused on" growing its membership and improving its bargaining position within the auto industry”.

The professor goes on: "He is an outstanding person, and I think the fact that he is African-American is testimony to the importance that diversity plays in the UAW, and they have on their roster of presidents an African-American as president at long last,", It is important that the leadership of organized labor reflect the diversity of the membership, but what an individual stands for is no small matter. As Moses Mayekiso, the South African trade union leader once said during the Apartheid era, he wasn’t fighting to simply change the face of the government, but to change the system of government. The same applies to the trade union movement.

Auto workers, like the rest of organized labor, have been forced to accept concession after concession in order to appease the employers. We saw this recently in the UPS strike where the contract settlement with the Teamsters was voted down but pushed through due to contractual tricks. There is a lot more we have to change within organized labor beyond a few corrupt individuals.

If you are in a trade union raise a resolution in your local against any government interference in the internal affairs of the UAW