The American Axle workers led the way by fighting back against a profitable company. AAM had the full backing of GM and other Wall Street vultures, and a media blitz that constantly hammered the lie that concessions were necessary to save the company.

Many workers rejected the pressure and fought to the end for a decent contract. The vote totals showed almost 25 percent of workers at UAW Local 235 rejected the contract, as did about 10-20 percent of workers at the other locals.

One critical lesson of the strike was the leadership displayed by the Black workers. The picket lines were strong during the winter-long, three-month strike. Unity with white workers and members from other locals and communities and progressive organizations from around the world was solid.

Food and money poured in to aid the workers and their families who were trying to make it on a paltry $200 a week strike pay. Meanwhile the Gettelfinger leadership was sitting on hundreds of millions of dollars in the strike fund.

Unprecedented Concessions

The tentative contract agreement is unprecedented. For the first time in this wave of concessionary contracts, there are huge wage cuts to high seniority UAW members in the auto industry. There are wage cuts for skilled trades. Finally, these concessions are at a company that has been profitable quarter after quarter. Among other things, the contract says:

• Wages will be slashed on average $10 outright for current workers and wages would be at different scales between plants. At Detroit Gear, production workers will range from $14.35 to $18.50 per hour, at Cheektowaga $14.35 to $16.50 and at Three Rivers $10 to $18;
• New hires in Detroit will start at $11.50 with no cost-of-living adjustments for the life of the contract and no dental coverage for the first three years of the contract;
• The closing of the Detroit Forge and Tonawanda, N.Y., plants will take place within the next year;
• Pensions will be frozen as of January 2009 and the implementation of a 401K plan will begin at that time;
• Skilled trades will be combined into only four classifications along with a reduction of their hourly wage;
• Overtime now kicks in only after a 40-hour week, not an 8-hour day;

Without worker resistance, AAM and other Wall Street predators will intensify their assault on the auto industry and beyond, to gut contracts and smash wages for union and nonunion workers, even as inflation and the cost of living skyrockets.

A Deadly Ideology

The leadership of UAW President Ron Gettelfinger pushed for a concessionary contract even before the strike began. Under pressure from the ranks, the leadership

called for a massive solidarity demonstration on April 18. It was suddenly cancelled two days before. The UAW wanted to ‘prove its reasonableness’ to AAM management.

With 30 General Motors Corp. plants idled because of the AAM strike, two local unions trying to resolve local agreements also struck against GM. The fighting spirit of tens of thousands of UAW and other union rank-and-file members internationally, as well as their community supporters, wasn’t sufficiently shared by the UAW International to fight American Axle.

For example, the union could have closed the plants to stop all parts from shipping with mass picketing; they could have urged workers to “work to rule” in the plants receiving scab parts.

They could have shut down all of GM, including plants selling small cars. They could have shutdown all the car companies in the U.S. and called on other unions to shut down production, too.

The tactics and strategy of the International leadership flow from its deadly ideology. Kevin Donovan, UAW Region 9 Assistant Director, reflects the orientation of the Gettelfinger strategy to help management become more “market-competitive.”

In approving this tentative agreement, “We put ourselves in a very good competitive position with this contract to bid on future work at Cheektowaga,” said Donovan in the May 20 edition of Business First.

American Axle CEO Richard Dauch and his Wall Street backers are laughing all the way to the bank. Initial reports claim American Axle will “save” (in other words, steal) a minimum $185 million from the workers, their loved ones and their communities during the life of the 2008-2012 contract.

The courageous workers at AAM were led to a concessionary contract by a UAW International leadership that sees only one way to respond to demands for concessions: adjusting and conciliating.

The AAM strike and history show clearly that union leadership with a “market-competitive” labor-management ideology will never be able to fight the barons of industry and their bankers effectively, much less lead workers to victory. Time and again, this kind of opportunistic business union, top-down “leadership” has sold out the workers and dampened or co-opted their struggle.

Strike Weapons Need Sharpening

The workers’ action at AAM showed the potential power of strikes. Over the duration of the strike, 30 GM plants were idled and the corporation lost at least $2 billion in idled plant production and lost sales. AAM lost millions and both companies suffered big-time stock market losses.

But, to be effective, the strike weapon today needs to incorporate a political strategy that raises class consciousness; the understanding that conditions under capitalism are not just the result of downsizing, restructuring and off-shoring, but driven relentlessly by competition.

There is no economic struggle that doesn’t become political. Competition is global. Under present-day capitalism, competition is deeply embedded in the drive for profits and investment to increase production and lower labor costs. Expand or die is the nature of capital. Workers in the richer countries are being pitted globally against workers in the poorer countries in a race to the bottom.

Lacking is the necessary class consciousness and the ability to restructure and democratize the international unions and use this qualitative advance for the kind of action that the times call for.

More than at any time in history, change in the policy of unions is a life and death question. To be victorious, the change has to come from below, from the multinational workers, organized and unorganized. True leadership must be thoroughly independent, politically anti-capitalist, militant, internationalist and ready to struggle.

In the AAM strike, the auto barons played workers of different plants against each other, leading to the concessionary contract. This tactic has occurred so often it has its own name -- “whipsawing.” Without the knowledge of how to deal with this tactic, the workers were forced between a rock and a hard place. The majority of workers, unable to see a clear road forward, voted for the contract, but many did want to keep fighting.

Despite the horrendous, precedent-setting UAW-AAM contract, hope can be found in the heroism of the workers and their valiant fight, which drew strong support from labor-community-student allies internationally [See Issue 27 of Critical Moment].

‘We’re still fighting!’

The conditions in the plants after the strike are brutal. Management is on the offensive in an effort to get senior workers out of the plant and replace them with new hires at the lower wage.

Workers are being written up and harassed. There are harsh new policies: no smoking, not even in your car; no talking to coworkers; no sitting on benches. Nevertheless, the workers fighting spirit goes on. This was evident at a June 14 tribute to the strikers at the UAW Local 235 union hall in Hamtramck, sponsored by the American Axle strike support committee.

Sylvia Moore, an African American skilled tradeswoman at American Axle and member of Local 235 in Detroit, thanked supporters for their unity and solidarity while chairing the tribute.

Other members of Local 235 who spoke were outgoing African American President Adrian R. King and Ada Walker, who was arrested during the strike. They all received standing ovations for their courageous and heroic strike actions and the inspiration they gave to workers internationally.

Supporters from dozens of unions, churches, and student organizations packed the union hall for the tribute.

The YMCA choir and others performed. A delicious meal was provided by the IWW’s Wobbly Kitchen and Food Not Bombs. Statements of support included one from the Brazilian Metal Workers Union.

Walker summed up the spirit of the day: “We’re still fighting. We’re not giving up.”

Bio:
Milt Neidenberg contributed to this article.