‘The enemy is not a fellow worker’

Martha Grevatt conducted this interview with Rosendo Delgado, a permanently laid-off Chrysler designer and Detroit immigrant-rights activist.

Martha Grevatt: What was the mood of the rank and file after the announcement?

Rosendo Delgado: Oh my goodness, the mood of the workers was pretty devastating, I should say very depressed. Prior to Christmas this was going on, and the union had told them, “You are in violation of the labor contract that we just signed in October.” I imagine that management got tough and decided to do it after Christmas. Unfortunately it came at a time when it is difficult to move around and get a job.

Most people already kind of knew about this but there was anger through e-mails that the union was not really telling us anything as to what was coming. As soon as they know that there’s going to be some problem, they should let us know ahead of time, because an hour before you’re laid off, that is nothing.

MG: Did your local vote for contract?

RD: Yes. Primarily because the contract stated that there would be no layoffs. In spite of that management is violating a labor contract, so that’s something that needs to be addressed by the union

MG: Is there a feeling of betrayal?

RD: You bet. A lot of these people were pretty upset, especially before Christmas. A lot of these people were saying that our department head, that guy, better not be coming through here wishing us a Merry Christmas. I mean, if this guy came through there he would be risking verbal abuse.

MG: Why do you think the company would get rid of such highly skilled employees?

RD: Primarily, it’s so simple. They want to reduce the head count of people who are earning good money. They want to get rid of the higher paid employees and hire people at a lower wage. And also of course, if they could do it, they would just bust the union.

In our very own unit we have something like 400 body designers, and the company has been fighting with the union, more than five years from what I understand. [The union says] that these body designers must be part of the union membership. They are doing the work that we typically do, and yet they are contracted. Also there were a lot, 119 of us that were laid off, but yet they have a lot of design people from the suppliers in house, we have a list of over 250, doing the work that we are supposed to be doing. And they give us, “The market is bad, we don’t have enough work, we have to lay you off.”

MG: Your local president has stated, “It’s like war against the union, and we’re going to go back to war against them.” Any comments?

RD: Well, I think the union is going to fight back. How much or how much effort they’re going to put into it, this is what’s the key issue.

MG: Can we organize a fight?

RD: Oh, I think it can be organized, because this is only the beginning.

MG: You are also involved in the immigrant-rights movement. Do you see a connection between this struggle and the struggle of autoworkers to keep their jobs?

RD: Oh yes, absolutely. Primarily because what we are experiencing here, it’s the effects of the free trade agreements that make it so easy for corporations to be irresponsible and abusive and in a lot of cases downright criminal. What is happening here today I call the economic tsunami, and what we are feeling here today has already been felt in other parts of the world.

NAFTA hit Mexico some 12 or 15 years ago. A lot of the industries were economically devastated. In [the past] three years two to three million Mexicans have left Mexico and emigrated to the United States, and primarily from the rural areas because the agribusiness companies have controlled the food production in Mexico. They put a lot of the small farmers out of work. These farmers have nowhere else to go except wherever they can find a job.

It’s really up to us workers to make our peers understand that the corporations are going to do everything they can in order to make a buck, and a lot of the workers are going to be brainwashed to say it’s the Mexicans or it’s the Filipinos who are coming over here and taking our jobs. So I think it is going to be an uphill battle to make people understand that the enemy is not a fellow worker. The enemies are the greedy executives in the board room.

I think that is good aspect of this whole entire mess. I should say it’s a good opportunity.