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
2 comments:
You are in lala land about this Richard. A total and complete culture of corruption with no significant reform impetus coming from the locals or the members. Better to figure out how to use the impending take over to rebuild the union.
My problem with your position is that it argues that the entire membership is either corrupt and on board with being in a criminally corrupt organization, or they are just this passive mass that is incapable of any independent action at all. As if the objective conditions around them will not have any impact on their behavior whatsoever.
If this is true this paints a pretty dismal picture of the working class as a whole and sections of organized labor in particular.
Are you not arguing that the present leadership that has pretty much gone along with decades of class collaboration and seemingly ignored or been totally unaware of illegal activity will, with the assistance of one of the most corrupt capitalist governments on earth transform, not only the union's inernal financial practices, but strengthen rank and file power and control as well. I can't see that happening.
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