By John Gallo
Labor Today Ohio correspondent
F**K Mary Barra, Chairwoman and CEO of GM, for closing the plant. Like Youngstown Sheet
and Tube, which was closed down in 1977, Lordstown GM was still making a profit – just not
enough for the already rich. Poor Mary. When she finally broke through the male-only CEO
barrier, most of the larger factories had already been closed. But she showed her mettle by
closing four GM plants in the U.S., laying off 14,000 employees.
F**K Industry Week, the manufacturing trade publication, for praising Barra’s “willingness to
wield the ax.” Why the praise? She was only following the laws of capitalism: make the most
profits possible by any mean necessary – for the stock holders, corporate executives and
herself. She probably feels badly for the workers. That's why she offered them to transfer to
other GM plants across the country – before they closed down. She also showed solidarity
with “her” workers by taking a pay cut of 0.4%. She only “earns” $22 million a year.
F**K Wall Street investors who cheered the shutdown and getting rid of those “legacy” costs
like pensions and health insurance. When the closing was announced, GM stock rose by
5%.The Market works in mysterious and profitable ways.
F**K Trump, Obama and Congress who for 10 years did nothing to save those jobs. All of
them spoke out against the closings but failed to offer a solution, except to blame the Market,
China and high labor costs. Supposedly facing bankruptcy in 2008, GM got a $50 billion
bailout from the government. The Obama administration bought the company stock, and
literally owned the company. The Feds got them back to profitability and gave the plants back
to the private owners. Then it was back to the business of making even higher profits.
As a union man, I won't say f**k the union officials (although...). I would SHAME them for
capitulating to GM and corporations. Union leaders are not the enemy. They're not closing
plants and laying off workers. But, they have bought into the capitalist system of private
ownership and exploitation. This meant they had to keep “their” corporations profitable in the
hope their members would keep their jobs and get better benefits. Class struggle, workers vs.
corporations, had to be abandoned so companies wouldn't outsource production, move
overseas or cut benefits.
In 1937, the UAW became the first major industrial union, after their historic 44-day sit-down
strike against GM in Flint, Michigan. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flint_sit-down_strike Starting out with only
122 members out of the 45,000 auto workers in Flint, the two year old union took on one of
the largest and brutally powerful corporation in the U.S. And they won! The didn't win by
begging for better conditions ans wages, nor by pleading with corporate politicians for help.
They did it by having radicals and Communist organizers talk with and mobilize all the
workers, involving their families and the whole community in supporting and protecting the
strikers who took over the plants.
Little of this happened at Lordstown. The local leadership was ill-prepared. The class-struggle
unionism of 1936 had been crushed during the Cold War, when the Communists, socialist and
left-leaning leaders and activists who had built the Union were expelled. Involvement of the
members declined, as well as keeping ties with community groups. It's very likely that
pressure from regional and national leaders kept the locals in line.
There was no real fight back, no plan, no mobilizations of the membership or the community.
All they had was hopes and prayers – to god, Trump, GM and elected officials. None of them
heard or heeded their calls. Instead, in 2007, the union accepted a contract that created a
two-tiered system, with new hires earning roughly half of what workers already hired were
making, and were denied pensions. The average hourly wage for GM workers is $24.67
Assembly line workers average USD $16.77.
The local union also agreed to allow GM to bring in low-wage temporary and contract workers
to work in the plant. The goal was to save money. But, GM wanted more. The company
eliminated the third shift and 1,200 jobs, and later the second shift and 1,500 more jobs. They
eliminated half of the skilled jobs and gave their work to cheaper outside contractors. Finally,
in mid-2017, union workers agreed to give $118 million a year in annual concessions to save
the plant. A year and a half later, GM threatened to down the plant. “Everything they asked us
to do, we did,” said a local union official. On March 6, 2019, Lordstown was closed down.
After giving much of their lives to their class enemy, all the workers got was “Thanks for your
service. Now, f**k off.”
Was there anything the union and the workers could have done, or do in the future? Here's a
few suggestions.
• When union leaders seem at a loss or are more worried about their own jobs, or on the
take, the members themselves have to start talking and taking collective actions to
pressure or convince their leaders to take bolder actions. If the leaders won't move, get
them out of office.
• Sit-down inside the plant and strike.
• Organize the entire labor movement and community to demonstrate at the plant, with
posters, support signs in stores. Send union speakers to religious groups, senior
centers, schools, etc.
• Hold sit ins in Congress members' offices. (Where are you, Dennis?)
• Pressure the local and national AFL-CIO and UAW to launch an organized, mass
campaign to demand the plant be maintained, either by by a giving the plant over to
the workers or by a federal takeover.
Solving these kinds of problems won't come quickly or easily. But, as Frederick Douglass said
in 1857 “If There Is No Struggle, There Is No Progress”
John Gallo is a retired Vice President of AFSCME Local 3360,retired Coordinator of the
Cleveland Retiree Council and former staff and Board member for the North Shore
Federation of Labor.
http://gallosrow.blogspot.com/
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