From Mumia Abu-Jamal on death row
The war against the elders
Published Jul 18, 2006 9:19 PM
From a
July 5 audio column.
Something amazing has been happening lately,
amazing, not only in what’s happening, but the ease and quiet with which
it is happening.
It’s the recent announcement of GM (General
Motors) that it intends to buy out (or should we say, “sell out”?)
the contracts of its workers and retirees.
Even more amazing, it seems,
is the recently broadcast announcement of UAW (United Auto Workers) head, Ron
Gettel finger that seemed to quietly acquiesce to the company’s
plans.
At the recent UAW Constitutional Con ven tion in Las Vegas,
Gettelfinger told atten dees, “In the not so distant past, when the U.S.
economy grew and productivity increased, we could expect wages to rise as well.
That’s no longer true.” The UAW chief added, “The challenges
we face aren’t the kind that can be ridden out. They’re structural
challenges, and they require new and farsighted solutions.”
It was
stunning to hear a labor leader sound like a corporate honcho.
There was
resignation, a quiet acceptance of the inevitable.
Those proposed
“solutions” are little more than stop-gap measures, and hoping that
the elections of more Democrats will result in changes for the lives of working
people.
The essence of Anglo-American law is the right of contract.
In business law, there is no higher principle. And yet, when corporate
CEOs are making 300 to 400 times what an average worker makes, how can there be
serious rap about pending bankruptcies, failing markets, or threats from
overseas competitors? The formerly “sacred” principle of contract
that “a deal is a deal,” passes into the mists of history.
From the top floors of the company suites, things are looking OK.
It’s not like the UAW is a weak or small union. It has around
750,000 active members, with almost two-thirds as many retirees.
Now,
with buyouts booming, the economic war shifts to pensions.
That’s
because GM’s PR firms (otherwise known as the corporate press) have argued
that “legacy costs” (newspeak for “pensions”) have made
the mega-billion dollar company falter. But according to none other than the
Wall Street Journal (no friend of labor!), it’s “executive
benefits” that are “playing a large and hidden role in the health of
America’s pensions.” Indeed, unlike many corporations, which have
ignored or badly underfunded pension funds, GM’s pension fund is
“over”-funded, to the tune of $9 billion more than necessary to
service the needs of retirees for years to come. Moreover, assets in the fund
have returned some $10 billion in investments for GM in 2005 alone.
The
“hole in the bucket” it seems, isn’t the retirees, but the
corporate tops, CEOs pulling in 300 to 400 times the average Joe or Josephine.
Givebacks, which have littered the labor movement since at least the
nineties, have clearly not worked.
What we are seeing is the dark side of
globalism, with the implicit threat of corporations to flee their home
countries, to seek cheaper labor elsewhere—contracts be damned.
When it comes to capital, there is only one law they respect—the
law of profits.
Globalism, as praised and passed by [former U.S.
President] Bill Clinton and pushed by those who came after, has shattered a
century of deals between labor and capital. For while labor’s interests
were national, capital’s interests were global.
When workers join
across the false borders of nations, workers everywhere will begin to fight back
against the greed and gluttony of capital.
Source:
“UAW leaders promise more of the same,” The Spark (June
26-July 10, 2006), p. 8.
Mumia Abu Jamal is a member of the National
Writers Union, which is affiliated with the UAW. To hear Mumia’s audio
columns, go to www.prisonradio.org.
Articles copyright 1995-2012 Workers World.
Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.
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