Chrysler workers: ‘We are not shark bait’

Following are excerpts from a talk given at New York City’s Workers World Party meeting on May 8 by Martha Grevatt, a 21-year Chrysler worker. Go to www.workers.org to hear the entire talk.

Our late founder and chairperson Sam Marcy was fond of a saying, “Socialism is as socialism does.” It could also be said that capitalism is as capitalism does.

Capitalism is a system of exploitation of workers for profit. An example of what it does is going on in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court. What capitalism is doing to 27,000 Chrysler workers, along with 82,000 retirees, has ramifications for our whole class. In fact, a spokesperson for Moody’s Investor Services stated, “The Chrysler bankruptcy is historic and may become either a template or a warning sign for future bankruptcies, such as that of General Motors.”

I’ll explain the week’s events and place them in historic context. On April 29 UAW [United Auto Workers] workers at Chrysler voted to make a number of concessionary changes to a four-year contract that runs to 2011. None of what we just gave up can be understood purely from a dollars-and-cents standpoint.

In 1937 after a 44-day sit-down General Motors recognized the UAW. Of eight demands, one, to this day, has not been realized: “Six-hour day and 30-hour week; time and one-half for work above these.” What the UAW did get in 1938 was time-and-a-half after an eight-hour day. Now, just in time for May Day, we lost the eight-hour day.

One issue that fueled militant actions, from the sit-downs in the 30s to the wildcats led by Black workers in the 70s, was the speedup. When the company wanted more production, the boss made the line go faster. With high tech, the number of workers needed on a line could be decreased as much as tenfold, but the line is much slower. Now we have a de facto speedup in the form of shorter break time and loss of one paid holiday. What will it save the company in wages? About $40 million, which Chrysler will easily burn through in court fees to lawyers and “restructuring specialists.” But the company potentially gets 1.2 million additional hours of labor—or over 40,000 vehicles. We barely have time to get a cup of coffee.

Up until the 50s, the 30-hour week was raised at UAW conventions, but by then the left-wing had been pushed out. The anti-communist UAW president, Walter Reuther, actually opposed 30 hours’ work at 40 hours’ pay as a danger to national security. The UAW pushed for a “Guaranteed Annual Wage”—the origin of the Supplemental Unemployment Benefits, which are added to state unemployment benefits. Around this time the UAW won the “improvement factor”—an annual wage increase that reflected continued improvements in productivity.

Now SUB benefits have been cut back to as little as 26 weeks. You lose that if you turn down an offer of work anywhere in the country. In 2007 the improvement factor was sacrificed and substituted with lump sum bonuses—a pay cut. Now the bonuses are “suspended” along with the Cost of Living Allowance, also won over five decades ago.

Reading the press, you would think we were getting a great deal because “we” now own 55 percent of the company! No, we don’t. A union-administered fund for retiree health care, set up to help the company, was forced to take half the company contribution in admittedly worthless stock. Retirees are getting robbed!

Only a few thousand votes kept the 2007 contract from being rejected. The most controversial aspect was the two-tier wage. Now wages for new hires are frozen at $14 an hour until the end of the next contract that will run from 2011 to 2015!

When the union and management negotiate that contract, any unresolved issues will go directly to binding arbitration, and the arbitrator will be obligated to reduce our wage and benefit package so that it’s equal to the non-union auto plants. We don’t even get a vote! And we are barred from striking until 2015!

The workers voted four-to-one for these measures because the alternative presented to them was that Chrysler would be forced into bankruptcy. One day later, what did Chrysler do? Declare bankruptcy. The workers were double-crossed!

The workers voted with no knowledge of any additional plant closings. It was only in court that Chrysler’s attorneys revealed that four plants, including my plant in Twinsburg, Ohio, were to be closed by the end of next year. The day before the mayor of Twinsburg and other elected officials were led to believe that the plant would not be closed. We were tricked into voting for this contract. Now the language which bars plants from closing is being trashed. Last year upper management was given huge bonuses because “it was in their contract.”

Why are these plants being sold? To generate enough capital to settle Chrysler’s obligation to JP Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup and Goldman Sachs, along with a few dozen hedge funds. Five thousand workers are losing their jobs so these finance capital sharks can get theirs.

Autoworkers are people, not shark bait! One thing speculators never speculate on, and that’s the class struggle. The protest rallies have already begun over these plant closings.

We need you in Detroit June 14 to 17 for the People’s Summit. All the bankers, the auto bosses, all the big capitalists are coming to the town they ruined. So are we, and so should you.