UAW president Owen Bieber promised a mass rally of 20,000 strikers and supporters in Peoria, Illinois, at the headquarters of Caterpillar, that the international union with all its resources would stand firmly in support of the strike until victory, for as long as it takes.
The deal was done behind closed doors at the insistence of a US government mediator, Bernard Delury, who expressed satisfaction with the outcome.
trated people of color in the camp of the
Faced with overcrowded schools and a declining quality of education, over 50% of Black and Latino youth drop out before the completion of high school. In an economy that is more and more dependent on a highly educated labor force, Julius Wilson's pronouncement that there is "no future" for these youth is unquestionable.
The events of the past week have suddenly made it impossible for the ruling class and the state to ignore this part of the population. And yet, in a period of severe recession, it is very unlikely that the revenues sufficient to rebuild these communities and to improve general conditions will be forthcoming. In fact, Bush has already blamed the riots on the social welfare program of the Great Society of the 1960s.
For this reason it is all the more necessary for the left to attempt to organize a broad movement which would unite those forces outside the communities of color
18 with forces from within who are struggling
International Viewpoint # 229
"It feels good when you can get 12,000 men and women back to work," he said. Delury is director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service and personally interceded in this situation. In his capacity as director he carried out his duty to the Bush administration. He said it was necessary to bring such an important union and major manufacturer together and avoid a showdown. It is, of course, especially necessary for Bush in this year of the general election. Negotiations are scheduled to continue under Delury's supervision. "We'll take it step by step," he said. There is as yet no announcement of the next step.
Chief negotiator for the UAW, Bill Casstevens, implied that the strikers had gained a breathing spell after long months on the picket line. He said the union retains the right to resume the to reinstate social welfare programs, education, health care and above all, jobs. Certainly in the aftermath of the revolt the militarization of the city has had a dampening effect on more organized political mobilization, but the process of coalition building is already underway.
Among the positive effects of this revolt is the heightened awareness of the need for unity in a community that has been torn apart by fratricidal gang warfare for the last ten years. In the middle of the revolt the largest African-American gangs called a truce which they announced on the walls of the city with slogans like "Crips and Bloods together forever". For the moment these groups came together for the stated purpose of defending their communities against police abuse. Both they and the state have felt the power of this most despised and wretched part of society and their threat remains emblazoned on the minds of all those who witnessed these events: No Justice, no Peace! * for industry-wide pattern bargaining, which was rejected by Caterpillar after a satisfactory UAW agreement was reached last November with Deere & Co., manufacturers of farm machinery.
This was the issue used by Caterpillar initially to break off negotiations and unilaterally impose job reclassification and revised shop rules at all its factory sites. Casstevens is UAW secretarytreasurer, one of the union's two top
UAW Local 974 in East Peoria represents 9,000 Caterpillar strikers who received the back-to-work order from their union officials. Jerry Brown is president of Local 974. Other members of the local first learned that the strike was called off when it was announced on public radio early in the morning. Unlike other members who earn their living in Caterpillar plants instead of working for the union, Brown quickly figured out that the strike at that point had been a success. At least he knew that Casstevens and other top officials would want him to say that the strike succeeded.
He was quoted as saying that the membership showed that it could stand together and stand up against the corporation. He said, "We're going to continue to negotiate. Anything that they do that were not happy with will be an issue on the bargaining table." He added that the union would never ask its members "to commit economic suicide,"
according to reports at the time.
### Rank-and-file anger
These rationalizations of what happened and the guarded references to further developments by union officials were in stark contrast to the anger, disbelief and frustration of the strikers who tried to return to work as directed.
As things turned out Caterpillar management had different ideas. Although company and union negotiators had agreed under pressure of the federal mediator that the company would not hire replacement workers (scabs) and that the strikers would return to their jobs the following day, plant managers stood at the gates on the morning of
April 15 to turn the strikers away.
Management said there had been some misunderstanding. A company representative announced: "The events of the last day were completely unexpected.
We have been operating differently during the strike, with 4,000 management workers. We can't just absorb
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USA No Contest AFTER more than six months of turmoil and
12,000 people in a matter of a few
In a matter of 24 hours this announcement was revised. The company began hiring back all its former employees the following day. A Caterpillar group president, Gerrard Flaherty, said "We have invited back every striking hourly employee in good standing." He added that some were not "in good standing"
- less than ten, he said - because of their conduct on the picket lines during the strike. Thus the corporation asserted its right to hire and fire as it chooses. At a news conference during the day senior executives announced that Caterpillar would reduce its workforce by 1,350.
Returning workers at the main Caterpillar manufacturing facilities in East Peoria knew what to expect. A precedent had been set. Caterpillar is joint owner (with its Japanese competitor, Komatsu) of the Komatsu Dresser company which operates two plants in Libertyville and Broadview, towns in northeast Illinois, not far from Peoria which is in central Illinois. These are small plants with less than 500
Last November, when agreement with Deere & Co. was ratified, the UAW members at Komatsu Dresser walked out because they were denied the same terms. Their strike lasted two days and was not authorized by UAW international officials. The strikers returned to work under a company-dictated contract, tentatively accepted by the Rights and benefits slashed
Workers presently employed at Komatsu Dresser plants are reclassified and paid $4.00 per hour less than before their walkout. Seniority rights of workers recalled from layoff are subject to company reinterpretation. Pension benefits have been slashed from $1,600 per month to $383 for retirees with 30 years seniority. Casstevens, who is in charge of UAW negotiations with both Caterpillar and Komatsu Dresser, says he intends to go after Komatsu Dresser "as soon as the Caterpillar situation is negotiated."
In truth, Caterpillar's anti-labor policy covers both companies and is designed to destroy union effectiveness in both. With all workers back on the job there is no rush on the part of Caterpillar or the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service to resume negotiations. Without negotiations and no strike there is nothing to mediate or conciliate.
Back in Detroit at Solidarity House,
UAW international headquarters, President Owen Bieber said a resumption of strike action is not excluded, but he gave no indication of preparations for such an eventuality. His second in command, Casstevens, outlined plans to pressure Caterpillar through a worldwide public relations campaign and through charges of unfair labor practices filed with the National Labor Relations
He explained that if the board upheld the charges Caterpillar will be restrained from hiring replacement workers (scabs). He hinted at a possible in-plant shutdown. "We're going to tell workers to only do what they need to do to protect their jobs," he said. Meanwhile, the AFL-CIO lobby in Washington continues to seek support for legislation, pending in the US Senate that will ban the permanent replacement of strikers.
No one slightly acquainted with US politics expects the present Congress to pass favorable labor legislation, and everyone knows that if it did President Bush would veto it. There is little prospect for a favorable settlement for Caterpillar workers as matters now stand. What appeared to be shaping up as a test of strength between company and union, with the union having a slight edge because of growing worker militancy and general political discontent in the country, suddenly turned to defeat when the top UAW leadership gave up without a struggle.
### Militant phrases
This leadership often speaks confidently in militant phrases but auto workers have learned over the years that
USA their actions belie their words. The
UAW is a thoroughly bureaucratized union. It has a "clean" reputation. Its officials are not connected to the mob like some Teamster officials before the recent housecleaning. But in the UAW officials are paid handsome expenses.
They live and think more like middlelevel plant executives than the workers they are supposed to represent.
They are not arbitrarily appointed to their comfortable positions but are required to work their way up from shop steward to local union president and from there on up through the rings of the bureaucratic ladder. Regional directors, vice presidents, and the two top executive officers are re-elected at union conventions by duly elected delegates, the majority being aspiring union officials augmented by staff members on the union payroll. This is a self-perpetuating system.
The family gathering
Since the time when Walter Reuther was UAW president in the 1950's and 1960's until very recently, UAW conventions have been more like family gatherings than decision-making bodies. Throughout the 1970's and most of the '80's UAW conventions ratified decisions previously made and acted upon. The top officialdom in Reuther's time began to refer to itself as "the family," and collected substantial slush funds, secretly known as "the flower fund," to insure protection of the family and the careful selection of members or potential members of the family. Those who became members were assured tenure. In the life of the UAW there was never a time without debate and opposi-
19
International Viewpoint # 229 • May 25, 1992
USA tion to the top officialdom, especially at the local level. This was encouraged as part of the necessary training of future bureaucrats. Beginning as shop stewards' union members learned to conduct negotiations with management and were trained to resolve grievances through compromise. Management representatives contributed to this training. Union-management collaboration was accepted on both sides throughout most of the post-world war Il years as essential to worker morale and efficient factory production.
This arrangement satisfied both sides as long as industry was expanding and the national economy prospered. Employers could afford small concessions, if they did not interfere with big profits, in exchange for a satisfied and end in the mid-1970s when the economy began to slump and multinational corporations were formed to seek sources of cheap labor and expanding markets. The labor policy of big business in the U.S. shifted from collaboration with unions to what the UAW president at the time, Douglas Fraser, characterized as class war. And the government's labor policy shifted accordingly.
Living in the past
The present UAW officials crawled to the bureaucratic top in the time of labormanagement collaboration. They don't know anything else. Their only experience has been at the bargaining table with management or in strikes that were called only to allow negotiations to proceed to a pre-arranged conclusion.
There were many such strikes in the
1950's and 1960's, some of several months and others for only a few weeks.
There were various compelling reasons, depending on the particular circumstances. In some years the auto companies had large inventories or needed time for retooling to prepare for model changes. A strike would accomo-
The workers were called out but the union saw to it that they did not suffer unduly. They collected strike benefits plus unemployment compensation. And if they chose to do so they could find a job on the side, usually available to
When it became time to sign the new contract and get everyone back to work a final week of negotiations would be announced with much fanfare. The daily press reported how skillful negotiators worked far into the night, right down to the last hour when the final differences 20 representatives them appeared before were resolved. Company and union news cameras, shook hands smiling, each announcing victory while commending his (no women ever present) counterpart. In these strikes everybody won, nobody suffered. It was all part of the system.
Some strikes, usually of shorter duration, were agreed to by the negotiators "so the workers could blow off steam". This put the workers in a better frame of mind to accept the "final wording" of a poor wage settlement.
This is the story of the past, where the present UAW hierarchy lives.
The present generation of factory workers has learned first hand what Fraser was talking about 14 years ago. Most are looking for ways to protect their present wages and working conditions through the union structure against class war waged by the employers. They blame union officials for failure to turn back employer attacks. For this reason the craven capitulation to Caterpillar may become a decisive issue at the
UAW constitutional convention in San
Diego this June.
Many UAW militants are alert to the ramifications of what is happening to
Caterpillar workers. At the moment of retreat Owen Bieber assured all who would listen that every strike is unique, that union defeat at Caterpillar was unrelated to union defense strategy against layoffs and plant closings by the
Big Three (General Motors, Ford and
Chrysler) in the auto industry.
But it is clear that all major corporations have a common anti-union strategy, closely attuned to government labor policy to circumvent national agreements and pit local unions against each other in bidding wars to cut wages and working conditions in the false hope of saving jobs. This is what happened earlier this year when General Motors announced the closing of 21 of its 150 plants, and decided later which ones to close depending on where they could get the most givebacks from local
Opposition challenge
A serious opposition in the UAW began within the bureaucracy in 1986 and has grown steadily since, encouraged by the success of the reform movement in the Teamsters union and spurred by the remorseless onslaught of the employers. This movement calls itself
New Directions and is headed by a former UAW regional director, Jerry Tucker. He is campaigning against Bieber and hopes to win enough delegates at the coming convention to become UAW
Tucker's ambition races ahead of his vision. He has set his sights on a more militant union strategy, limited to struggles for economic needs and better working conditions for auto workers and other UAW members. He talks among union militants about struggles for social gains - for universal health care, low-cost housing, free public education, a public works program to reduce unemployment — but at public rallies skirts the question of how the union movement can organize a labor party to win these things.
The first and most important task, he tells his supporters, is to organize the New Directions caucus in the UAW to transform the union and elect a new leadership.
### Membership not alerted
In the union's test of strength with
Caterpillar, Tucker argues that the present UAW leaders failed to alert the membership early on to the dangers. A campaign should have been organized in all Caterpillar shops against overtime work as soon as the company refused last November to sign up on the industry-wide terms that had been negotiated with Deere & Co. This would have limited the stockpiling of machines and parts in anticipation of the strike which the company at the time was preparing to provoke.
The membership should have been kept fully informed of every anti-union move by Caterpillar and encouraged to challenge the company at the plant level. He is also critical of Bieber for refusing to publicize the evil design of the company as revealed in months of negotiations, and for not calling on the entire labor movement for support. He charges that the UAW leadership is out of touch with the membership and the times we are living in. His appeal is for a return to the innovative negotiating strategy of Walter Reuther in the formative years of the union prior to World
War Il and shortly after. He claims the present UAW leadership believes and longs for a cozy labor-management relationship that no longer exists.
Whether this appeal will prove strong enough to carry Tucker to the presidency of the UAW this year will soon be known. What is already known is that the Caterpillar fiasco will not be resolved and forgotten with the election of union officials at this convention. It will be remembered as a sorry page in union history for years to come. *
The return of the
PERU under this pretext in Bolivia or Peru, they never even arrested one important drug dealer! The involvement of Peruvian military officials in drugs running evidently bothers the United States but it is surely not its primary preoccupation.
All of these contradictions, between the Fujimori government and the armed forces on one hand, and imperialism on the other, are minor compared to the shared interest in applying the neo-liberal economic project.