Richard Mellor GED*
Afscme Local 444, retried
United Auto Workers Vice President Gerald Kariem has sent a
letter to Ford workers in the Avon Lake, Ohio, plant accusing Ford management
of violating a contract agreement with the union in which the auto manufacturer
made a commitment to invest $900 million on the plant. This is a bold and
militant move indeed and will be sure to have Ford Executives shaking in their
boots.
OK, enough humor. Apparently, Ford, made a “pledge” during the 2019 negotiations to
spend the money and that, the company would ensure “employment well in to the foreseeable future”.
Despite history teaching us otherwise, the UAW leadership
took the pledge seriously. Ford confirms historical accuracy in its own letter
to employees saying that,“things have
changed since the last UAW contract was negotiated” WSJ
3-18-21. Anyone who hasn’t been asleep for a century or so is not surprised.
Resorting to the same old failed approach, a public theater
not unlike the old Punch and Judy shows, the UAW VP Kariem plays the game for a
while adding in his letter, “Ford
management expects us to just hang our heads and accept the decision…….But let
me be clear, we are making a different choice.”
Not sure what that choice might be, perhaps a statement from
President “Worker Joe “ Biden saying
on TV that unions are a good thing, it’s hard to say. Kariem seems to take it
up a notch adding that, “We expect the
company to honor its contractual commitments to this membership and when it
fails to do so we will take action.”
The UAW leadership’s rhetoric sounds very familiar, but one
thing we know is that the Ford bosses like all of them are not afraid of the
likes of Kariem or any other top union official; they’ve heard it all before
and like the boy that cried “wolf” are
not listening.
It’s embarrassing to be honest, and reveals the complete
ideological bankruptcy of the trade union hierarchy today. The capitulation to
capitalism and the market is complete. This deathly partnership was cemented over
a century ago and we can see that as when the last century drew to a close, the
Wall Street Journal produced a centennial edition. This included a segment
titled - "Events that Helped Shape the Country". It
explained that in 1893 there was an economic slump that left half the
membership of what was then the main union federation, the American Federation
of Labor (AFL), unemployed. The AFL was composed overwhelmingly of craft unions
(skilled trades) and Samuel Gompers was the leader of that federation.
Under his leadership, and against the background of that economic slump, the
AFL made a decision as to what its general policy should be towards U.S.
capitalism.
Here is how the wall street journal 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". **
So a century after it was made, the main voice of US
capitalism championed this decision by the then leaders of the national body of
trade unions in the US as one of the events that shaped the country over the
previous 100 years.
We have witnessed, especially since the crushing of PATCO
and the militant strikes that arose during the 1980’s ,betrayal after betrayal
on the part of the trade union leadership at the highest levels. Major strikes
at Greyhound, Eastern Airlines, Hormel and the famous UFCW P9 battle not to
mention the Detroit Teamsters, Pittston and the huge battles in Decatur among
others.
In my opinion, while there is corruption and the type of
graft we have witnessed in the UAW leadership of late and among the upper
echelons of organized labor, this, nor the
obscene salaries and perks these officials make are the primary cause of the
betrayals. It is the world view of the union hierarchy that is at the root of
the problem. It is that they have the same world view as the boss; they have
class solidarity with the boss not the worker, their own members. They worship
the market and see no alternative to capitalism.
For the heads of organized labor, to organize and mobilize the potential power
of the working class organized and unorganized can only lead to chaos and
certainly an end to their lucrative positions at the helm.
Meanwhile, at the lower end of the chain and among smaller
or individual locals, there are workers and rank and file leaders who genuinely
want to change course, want to drive back the bosses’ offensive and also
recognize that in today’s global economy we have to build international
solidarity to do this. We have to reject the Team Concept, the partnership with
our own bosses which amounts to collaboration with a class enemy, and join
brothers and sisters internationally in the struggle for a better world for all
of us. We live in an integrated world economy like it or not and there is no
national solution to the problem workers face.
It’s not a matter of personal courage or individual
toughness or “machismo”. It’s an
ideological question. History is full of honest people who betrayed their
ideals or simply opted out of the struggle in frustration. The road to hell is
paved with good intentions as the saying goes.
I am also not of the view that we must abandon our unions to
a rotten leadership with a false strategy of class collaboration which amounts
to class betrayal. Anyway, regardless of my own personal views, I do not
believe the vast majority of workers or union members support this view either.
Instead we are obligated to fight to change our organizations, there are 14
million of us organized and any internal battle within organized labor that
moves us forward will inspire millions of the unorganized and they will be
drawn to them as perhaps new organizations emerge as well. Power attracts.
I know one thing I have learned is that in times like these, we
cannot predict what is going to happen with certainty; we live in volatile
times and the only thing I can say with confidence is that the working class in
general will be forced to wage a struggle to counter the capitalist assault on
our material well-being. It seems inevitable
to me that the organized labor movement will be engulfed in internal struggle as
the movement in wider society develops. At some point there can be a split as
new forces are thrown up, new leadership arises and at some point, an independent
working class political party built.
As for the UAW leadership’s response in this individual
instance, the Ford bosses sees them for what they are, just empty threats. Unfortunately
most union members have come to that conclusion too, learning the hard way,
through experience.
At some point the obstacle of our own leadership will be
breached.
*I don’t like to boast, but I decided to use my qualifications this time to give me some credibility.
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