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UAW: Justice denied at Lake Orion: Work for less is not an organizing slogan!

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Hannah Bell Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Nov-30-10 05:07 PM
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UAW: Justice denied at Lake Orion: Work for less is not an organizing slogan!
On November 7 UAW Local 5960 member Nick Waun attempted to exercise his Constitutional right to make motions at a membership meeting.

The Local Union president in the presence of two UAW International enforcement officers refused to allow the motions to be voted on and ignored the majority's call to over-rule the chair and let the motions be considered.

While Bob King wraps himself in the flag of righteousness, tyranny rules the union he leads.

Brother Nick and fellow UAW members are appealing the UAW’s Concession Caucus decision to implement a two tier contract that cut 40% of the workforce's wages in half — without proper authorization and without a membership vote!

Heed the warning. This isn’t a local issue, it has national implications.

In the November-December issue of Solidarity magazine, Bob King wrote: “If we raise the total fixed costs of our union employers above the nonunion competition, then indirectly we will be helping the most anti-union employers win in the marketplace. It would be against our members’ interests for the UAW to adopt a strategy that penalizes unionized companies while letting nonunion companies off the hook.”

King knows full well that labor constitutes less than 10% of the average vehicle selling price, yet he is determined to drive down UAW wages to nonunion standards in order to help the companies make higher profits. He frames his argument as an organizing strategy.

Work for less is not an organizing slogan!

Maintaining union scale means that GM, Ford, and Chrysler-Fiat will have to accept slightly smaller profits or trim the fat off the waste bulging over their desks. American auto executives make twice as much as their German and Japanese competitors.

In 2011, GM and Chrysler workers will be told that their contract is in the hands of an arbitrator so they can't vote it down – a contract virtually guaranteed to reduce their wages, pensions, and benefits. So how will King dupe Ford workers into accepting his stupefying organizing strategy — that is, smaller paychecks for all?

Whipsawing. And contracts without any ratification.

The national contract at Ford will likely have provisions stating that if a local wants new work, it will have to negotiate an “innovative Competitive Operating Agreement”. Ford may now have a superior contract, but the Concession Caucus is determined to dismantle it, local by local, until we are all Delphied and Axled down.

If the travesty at Lake Orion UAW Local 5960 is allowed to stand, it will become the standard. How many other contracts will be implemented without the members' consent?

Our union has become something we don’t recognize.

Democracy, equality, and solidarity means members vote on all contracts, means equal pay for equal work, and an end to double tiers, double talk, and other divisive tactics that pit worker against worker and local against local in a competitive race to the bottom.

This bulletin is put out in the interests of informing workers and renewing the fighting power of organized labor. Please send your comments and your on-the-job, on-scene reports to: soldiersofsolidarity@yahoo.com.

http://www.soldiersofsolidarity.com/



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