Strike cripples GM: 75,000 idled, cost GM $250 million per week

by Fred Gaboury

This article was reprinted from the March 16, 1996 issue of the People's Weekly World. For subscription information see below. All rights reserved - may be used with PWW credits.

Dan Brockman is one of the 3,000 members of United Auto Workers Local 696 who walked out of the General Motors plant in Dayton, Ohio on March 5. For him things are simple: GM has not lived up to the working agreement and the time has come to draw the line.

"You gotta do what you gotta do," he told the World. Local 696 members produce brake systems and parts for nearly all GM cars and light trucks.

Lattie Slusher is president of UAW Local 913 in Sandusky, Ohio. For him, things are also simple: do what it takes to help 696 win. "They are our brothers and sisters," he said. "GM's downsizing threatens the jobs of all GM workers. So yes, we showed our solidarity with a sister local but we were also fighting for ourselves."

By mid-week more than 75,000 workers have been idled by the closure of 21 GM assembly plants and parts plants in the United States, Canada and Mexico. Industry sources predict that GM will be forced to close all but two of its 29 North American assembly plants if the strike is prolonged. GM had profits nearly $7 billion in 1995 and stands to lose $250 million per week if forced to close all of its North American assembly plants.

Local 696 pulled the pin six months after taking a strike vote last September. Reg McGhee, a spokesperson at UAW headquarters in Detroit told the World the walkout was over subcontracting, man power and health and safety issues, some of which he described as "serious." He added that the union was particularly concerned over GM's turning inside-the- plant equipment repair and maintenance over to outside contractors. "This takes jobs away from our skilled trades workers," he said.

The UAW accuses GM of breaking a 1994 agreement to keep production of brakes and bearings at the Dayton plant and has, instead, contracted much of this work to outside parts suppliers.

GM has also insisted on compulsory overtime to maintain production. UAW leaders counter that, instead, GM should hire additional union workers. Union leaders told the World that workers in Dayton had been working 10 and 12-hour shifts, seven days a week for months.

GM has laid off more than 52,000 hourly workers since 1991 in a ruthless campaign of plant closures, speedup and sub- contracting works to parts suppliers, most of whom are non- union. Thus the Dayton strike - the eighth against GM since the last contract was negotiated in 1993 - is a test over whether or not GM will continue to make its own parts and components or buy them from other companies, which in a growing number of cases, are non-union.

During the late 1970s, most component manufacturers were wholly-owned subsidiaries of the Big Three. At that time two thirds of the hourly work force in the industry belonged to the UAW. But today only a quarter of the component work force are union members. The growth of the non-union work force has had a devastating effect on the earnings of workers throughout the auto industry. Between 1975 and the 1990s, the percentage of low-wage employees in its total work force grew from 17 to 40 percent.

UAW sources have indicated that the strike, which began two weeks before the Michigan and Ohio primary elections and in the early stages of the 1996 elections is a "wake up call" to both parties that a key issue in the election is the question of corporate responsibility to the country and its workers.

If local UAW officers interviewed by the World are any indication, the strike at Dayton may not be the last as the UAW and GM jockey for advantage in this year's round of contract talks.

As president of UAW Local 22, Ray Church represents some 3,100 workers who build Cadillacs. When asked how his members felt about being laid off because of a strike several hundred miles away, Church said, "They are protecting their jobs and the job security of future workers. It is not just their battle."

Church said the battle was against downsizing which is going on everywhere. "These companies are not in bankruptcy court," he continued, "they're just working according to their philosophy of wringing more profits out of less people."

As Church sees it, "the present political scene" is anti- worker and has a lot to do with the attitude companies have toward their workers. "Workers are stakeholders and are as important as stockholders. Stockholders have only invested their money while workers have invested their lives. They have as much right to a return on that investment as stockholders have on theirs."

He also thinks that issues of speedup, contracting out and compulsory overtime "will impact" on this year's contract negotiations. "These are problems that have to be dealt with at the collective bargaining convention next month," he said. "We don't necessarily have to wait until the contract expires on Sept. 15 to deal with them, either."

The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports that Al Alli, shop chairman of UAW Local 1112 in Lordstown, Ohio, has said the local "is willing" to strike over similar issues as soon as the Dayton strike is settled.

In a sense, GM has been hoisted on its own petard in its search for efficiency and cost cutting. Changes in manufacturing techniques - "just in time delivery" and "lean production" borrowed from Japanese auto makers - have concentrated parts production in a few key plants, creating a situation where strikes in even one of these plants can cripple the entire company in a few days. The result has been an increase in the UAW's power.

The current three-year contract between the UAW and the Big Three auto makers expires Sept. 15. The 1996 round of negotiations officially begins April 1 when the union's collective bargaining convention convenes in Detroit to outline contract demands and negotiations strategy. Actual negotiations will begin in mid-summer.