A proposal: The UAW should OCCUPY the auto plants, then run them themselves

[Ken Burch]

It's disgusting that the autoworkers, who've made nothing BUT concession after concession after concession since the 1970's, and who bear no responsibility at all for the crisis in the auto industry, are being forced to make even MORE concessions, concessions that STILL won't prevent the layoff of at least 20,000 more workers. And yes, at Christmas time(capitalism's favorite jobkilling season).

I think the workers should stand their ground on this one. They have already made more than enough sacrifices to make up for the arrogance and the stubborn refusal to retool and build the kind of cars people actually want to buy.

The workers should take the auto plants and be given subsidies to run them themselves through democratic worker management. This would be a far better investment than any "bailout" for the incompetent management types whose unwillingness to change, even in reaction to the "market forces" they supposedly believe in, is the true cause of the auto crisis.

The UAW needs to be a union again. The workers need to stand for their dignity. And the Democratic Party needs to do all it can to defend the workers of the auto industry.

The auto bosses need to be shown history's door.

They've had their chance and failed.

And they still don't think they've done anything wrong.

[Selatius]

1. There is historical precedent with workplace occupations in American history.

...

The St. Louis strike was marked by a bloodless, efficient and quick take-over by dissatisfied workers of commerce and transportation in the area. By July 22, the St. Louis Commune began to take shape as representatives from almost all the railroad lines met in East St. Louis. They soon elected an executive committee to command the strike and issued General Order No. 1, halting all railroad traffic other than passenger and mail trains. John Bowman, the mayor of East St. Louis, was appointed arbitrator of the committee. He helped the committee select special police to guard the property of the railroads from damage.

The strike reached the business sector by closing packing industry houses surrounding the National Stockyards. At one plant workers allowed processing of 125 cattle in return for 500 cans of beef for the workers. The strike continued to gain momentum, with coopers, newsboys, gasworkers, boatmen, bakers, engineers, cabinetmakers, cigarmakers, brewery workers, millers, and workers of various factory jobs all joining the general strike.<1> Though the East St. Louis strike continued in an orderly fashion, across the river there were isolated incidents of violence with one speaker stating, "The workingmen intend now to assert their rights, even if the result is the shedding of blood.... They are ready to take up arms at any moment."<1>

...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1877_Saint_Louis_general_strike

[Ken Burch]

3. And Seattle had a famous general strike in 1919.

It would have prevailed except that the right-wing A.F.L. led by Samuel Gompers, ordered all of their members to quit the strike(a strike which had led to the workers of Seattle running the city democratically and efficiently for a week, or have their cards pulled. No A.F.L. contract ever got the workers a hundredth of what they would've had if Gompers had let them stand their ground.

And the Lucas Aerospace workers in the UK, although betrayed by the timid Labour government of the day, showed that worker management can produce innovation and creativity:

http://www.marxist.com/lucas-aerospace-plan.htm

(I know the link title sounds a bit sectarian, but the article itself isn't.)

[PM Martin]

2. Why not!

The corporate types have done so horribly, just maybe we should give the workers a chance to run things.

[Ken Burch]

4. This could be a historical moment if done correctly.

IT's a chance to keep those at the bottom, for once, from being punished for the mistakes of those at the top.

There was a Musical called "Seattle 1919", about that general strike. At one point, Anna Louise Strong(a radical journalist of the day and a real person)performs a number called the "Street Speech"

Here are the lyrics. In it, Anna Louise Strong is using familiar moments in history to make her point

1)They say the Pharoah built the pyramids.
Did you see one Pharoah drop one bead of sweat.
We built the pyramids for the Pharoahs,
And we're building for them yet.
Oh my sisters, Oh my brothers,
We've been building too long for these others
I think it's time we built it for ourselves.
We don't want them, we don't need them,
These parasites that live off someone else.

CHORUS:

Better turn it around!
Take another look!
Forget the things you read in your history books.
Brick by brick, nail by nail,
We built the mansions, and we built the jails.

2)Aristotle, noble Plato
These were Greece's glory, they all said.
Philosophic, conversations,
While the slaves tilled the land and baked their bread.
Oh my sisters, Oh my brothers,
We've been caring too long for these others,
I think it's time we took care of ourselves.
We don't want them, we don't need them,
These parasites who live off someone else.

CHORUS

3)They say that Roosevelt joined the oceans,
But he never held a shovel in his hands.
Through yellow fever, and the dysentary,
We built it through our brothers' stolen lands.
Oh my sisters, Oh my brothers,
We've been stealing too long from each other,
I think it's time we shared it 'mongst ourselves.
We don't want them, We don't need them,
These parasites that live off someone else

CHORUS

(Words and music by Rob Rosenthal. Copyright, Fuse Records.)

[On the Road]

5. At This Point,

the stock price is so low that the union should be able to simply buy the company. That's the most straightforward solution.

[Ken Burch]

6. Maybe that could be an option.

In any case, the existing managerial types and method need to be abandoned.

[otherlander]

7. I like that idea.

I wonder why workers' cooperatives never caught on in America? Everyone's doing it in Argentina...:shrug:

[Ken Burch]

8. They have caught on here, at different times.

It's just that the post-Red Scare educational system removed most references to such things from the lessons young people were taught.
We received, instead, the propaganda message that every moment of our country's economic history was exclusively about "rugged individual" effort.

[Occam Bandage]

9. I would welcome that.

Not for the reasons you do.

[Moochy]

11. But for mysterious enigmatic but wholly uninteresting reasons?

[Occam Bandage]

12. Especially the uninteresting part.

[Moochy]

15. Then I appreciate your discretion

:)

[Ken Burch]

13. I'd leave that alone, if you don't mind

Occam probably just wants to start something with me, and I'm not going there with him.

For now, I'll just be happy that he says he supports the idea.

[Occam Bandage]

17. Not at all.

If I wanted to start something, I'd have argued with you. Rather, I'll just leave the potentially-disagreeable parts aside, and note that I generally support the plan.

[Ken Burch]

10. Here is another example that could be built on:

The Mondragon Cooperatives in Spain.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mondrag%C3%B3n_Cooperative_Corporation

[TheKentuckian]

14. The programming of Capitalist ideology is one of the things our society

is most effective at. Not that all capitalist ideas and systems are bad or unworkable but at this point its like religion. You can substitute the word "god" for the word "market" and never alter the context one iota.

If its right and provable fact we should be able to discuss it in terms other than "the market will fix it". That's faith or at least religion not science.

[jwirr]

16. I am all for that but even then I want some say in what they build.

[Ken Burch]

19. I'm sure we could work that out.

It would be perfectly reasonable to insist on fuel-efficiency and reliable safety features in vehicles, as well as significant production of hybrid and alternative-fuel vehicles.

The workers would probably find the job much more engaging as they took party in the problem solving involved. People would gain skills rather than losing them, and people would learn ways of making decisions that were inclusive rather than exclusive. The dignity of all of the would soar.

[Kalyke]

27. You already do - but you've been out-voted.

If you, and other Americans, had bought the Ford Escape Hybrid en masse, then they'd be selling them.

But, since most Americans wanted big trucks and SUVs, that's what they built.

Your "say-so" is in your pocketbook or wallet.

[Ken Burch]

30. If MOST Americans wanted big trucks and SUV's, the Big 3 wouldn't be in trouble.

Something's obviously off in your logic there.

The auto industry is failing and it's wrong to demand more sacrifice from the workers there when the workers aren't to blame.

[gravity]

18. They can run themselves into bankruptcy

[razors edge]

20. Worker buy out.

My father's steel mill did thisback in the 80's, and it is still in operation at a lower level.

I am guaranteed a job there if I want it for being his direct lineage, the workers wanted to make sure their kids got something out of their hard work and sacrifice.

It ain't much, but it is a job with dignity and a pay check if all else fails.

[Odin2005]

21. I totally agree.

The management class has become a nepotistic "old-boys-club" that needs to be flushed down the toilet. We need to go back to upper management being promoted from inside the companies. I bet Lee Iaccoca is pissed as hell right now about what has happened to the Big 3.

[boppers]

22. Are they gonna keep making SUV's?

Are the car designers going to be given worker rights?

Are the IT folks going to get into the UAW?

Will the companies keep getting a pass to turn out crappy vehicles?

When did the union shut down the line because they were making the wrong cars?

When did the union shut down the line because they thought the quality standards had become globally laughable?

[Ken Burch]

23. Don't know about the SUV's

I'd personally like to see the IT folks in the UAW.

Hopefully, a "no crappy vehicles" clause can be implemented.

As to the last two, those particular types of strikes hadn't occurred yet because, as a traditional trade union, the UAW had up to this time voluntarily forfeited any right to have a say in managerial or production decisions. The scenarios I ans others are describing here are a way to try to change that.

Thanks for the challenging questions.

[Kalyke]

28. They don't put out crappy vehicles now.

This is 2008, not 1988.

And they will continue to make SUVs if people keep demanding them. It's called capitalism. Learn about it.

[onenote]

29. the problem is that at the moment, people are demanding any kind of cars

SUVs or otherwise. People aren't buying. The union can run the lines, but if no one is buying, where are the cars going to go?

[amborin]

24. the UAW occupied GM's Flint plants in 1936-37, great sit-down strike--forced GM to recognize the UAW

[Odin2005]

25. I have a great picture of that strike in a book on the Depression I have.

It shows a few strikers lounging around in the break-room reading the newspaper. Too bad the SCOTUS efferently outlawed sit-in strikes as a "violation of the companies' property rights" or some such BS a couple years after that. Those sit-down strikes were a work of genius.

[Veruca Salt]

26. I think it's high time for it to happen

can all the corporate execs who screwed up and are now asking for handouts and place people who are inside the ranks of auto workers into certain management positions.

Way back when, when I ran a store I always found that if the workers are happy they do their job efficiently and operations will run super smooth without any direction from me. They know what they have to do and I just let them do it (and having come from the front line I always joined in by their side). In fact, it's always been my opinion that management is technically not needed when a shop is running with the collective input of it's employees. The only thing management is really good for is for administrative duties and being a buffer between the vendors and employees so they don't have to deal with that. There are always workers who for a couple more bucks are willing to take on a few extra responsibilities (that was me).

Granted in a big company there are purchase contracts, accounting and things of the like that need to be accounted for; but I think cutting a lot of unnecessary management would go a long way in solving their problems. Instead of laying off 20,000 workers they should lay off 5,000 managers.

[SidneyCarton]

31. I know that this has been attempted in Argentina...

Has it been successful? If so, then I'm all for it.