US auto workers union discusses challenge of union-busting, layoffs
The following article is from the June 3 issue of The Militant, a weekly paper reflecting the views of the Socialist Workers Party, an American organization in solidarity with the Fourth International. Elizabeth ZIERS
DALLAS — The 3,000 delegates to the United Auto Workers (UAW) 27th Constitutional Convention here May 15 - 20 took note of all the blows the union has suffered in recent years. In his keynote speech, outgoing President Douglas Fraser told the delegates membership had dropped by 400,000 to 1.1 million, and a quarter-million auto workers are still on indefinite layoff with little hope of recall. Although auto sales have picked up somewhat over last year, they are still 2.4 million off the pace of 1978, the year before the current crisis hit.
Fraser listed all the major auto plants that have no UAW contract in force: Nissan in Smyrna, Tennessee; Marysville, Ohio; and General MotorsToyota in Fremont, California.
Fraser continued, "People say, Well, you haven't got those workers organized. First of all, the top priority is to create jobs for Americans, and then we have the obligation to organize those plants."
No specific plans for organizing drives were proposed by Fraser, newly-elected
Owen Bieber, or any other UAW official.
### SPARK OF COMBATIVITY
The delegation from Local 1364 in Fremont brought a spark of combativity to the convention with their fight against its money with Toyota to retool the Fremont plant, and it refuses to recognize its contract with workers laid off from the plant a year ago.
"Union-busting must be stopped at Fremont, or it will spread like cancer George Nano, Local 1364's shop committee chairman, said in remarks from the
The Fremont delegation wanted the convention to go on record supporting the recall rights of all laid-off Fremont workers in accordance with the UAW contract's seniority clause. wanted the convention to go on record demanding tht "UAW Local 1364 be given full recognition by GM and Toyota immediately."
They put these demands in a resolution and petitions and brought them to the convention. Other UAW locals in Cleveland, Flint, and Kansas City, as well, have endorsed Local 1364's resolution, and Region 6 (Far West) adopted the resolution.
But the Local 1364 resolution never made it to the convention floor.
Freemont workers were dissatisfied with the UAW International's vague promises of support in their fight. They organized a floor demonstration against GM's union-busting. They received a spirited standing ovation from all the delegates and observers alike. The buttons the local had been selling to raise money for their fight read "1364 or War" and "1364 - Whatever it Takes." Hundreds of delegates and guests bought and wore
The Local 1364 delegates made it clear that their complaint was with GM and Toyota, not the Japanese workers. President Ichiro Shioji addressed the convention. He said, "Each auto worker laid off is a tragedy to us all. We want the Japanese automakers to recognize the UAW."
### EL SALVADOR
Dennis McDermott, of the Canadian Labor Congress, gave a speech in which he commended the delegates for passing a resolution against U.S. aid to and intertion opposed U.S. attempts to overthrow the government of Nicaragua.
cannot be separated from We saw what happened to the Black Panthers here in this country and then what happened in Chile and then in Nicaragua," said McDermott.
Alejandro Molina Lara, a leader of the trade union federation FENASTRAS in El Salvador, attended a portion of the meeting officers and delegates, thanking them for the stand they had taken against sending U.S. taxpayers' money to the army of El Salvador.
Another significant resolution, which the convention passed unanimously, was on Equal Rights and Opportunities.
passage of the Equal Rights Amendment as a top priority for the union, and it endorsed the August 27 march on Washington in commemoration of the 1963 march led by Dr. Martin Luther King.
NAACP leader Benjamin Hooks addressed the convention on the third day. He responded to a racist insult to the Black community of South Dallas made convention coordinators. Every delegate's packet included a card that warned them to avoid South Dallas. Hooks urged Fraser and all the delegates to not be afraid to come to South Dallas.
Many delegates had been angered at the open racism of the made it a point to visit South Dallas before the convention adjourned. UAW vice-president Marc Stepp and Secretary-treasurer Raymond Majerus apologized to the delegates and the businessmen of South Dallas for the "mistake."
In his speech, Hooks also noted how heavily unemployment has hit blacks in the United States, with 50 percent of Black youth out of a job.
Owen Bieber was elected president of the union by acclamation the next day. In his acceptance speech, he reiterated the UAW's support for the demands of the August 27 march: jobs, peace, and
"We'll be there 20 years from now, if that's what it takes to combat the forces of racism and against Blacks and Hispanics and others who have suffered too long."
Bieber received resounding applause concession-weary when he said, "We've made our sacrifices. We've given all we're going to give. hope [GM Chairman] Roger Smith,
Chairman] Phil Caldwell, [Chrysler Chairman] Lee Iacocca and the others are listening, because I'm deadly serious when I say it's their turn to do some giving."
### ISSUE OF DEMOCRACY
Opposition among the ranks to UAWleadership-endorsed grown over the last year, resulting in Chrysler workers overwhelmingly rejecting a contract proposed to them last
Many of the secondary union officials expressed the hope in recent months that a referendum, one-member, one-vote system of electing the union president would increase union democracy. They hoped it would make the president more accountable to the ranks and, therefore, less inclined to bargain concessions.
Twenty-three locals brought resolu-
tions to the convention calling for a constitutional change to eliminate election of the president by the convention delegates alone.
The resolution brought to the floor was defeated by a 9-1 ratio although it generated much discussion by delegates.
Out of 28 delegates who spoke under this point, 12 supported the change.
John Field, of Local 595, said he would not "go back to the [shop] floor where people are breaking their behinds, and tell them I voted to keep them from having the right to vote."
George McGregor, of Local 15, said, "To have a total and complete democratic union, we must have one member, one-vote."
In preparation for the discussion and vote on the referendum, the resolutions committee handed out a two-page report describing their opinion of how one-member, one-vote would be bad for the UAW. The committee argued that the increased
20,000 unemployed queue for 200 auto jobs (DR)
democracy the referendum would bring troubles, as with Chrysler Loan Guaran- Fremont plant and other major auto was not worth the possibility of "constant factionalism and infighting" and "manipulation by outside sources" that might result.
The committee report went on to say the U.S. Supreme Court had approved the convention system of electing union officers in 1959. It concluded that the United Mine Workers (UMW) union, which uses the membership referendum, was no more militant nor effective than the UAW.
Some delegates speaking against the referendum implied that the referendum had led to anarchy, not democracy, in the UMW. One even attributed the murder of a candidate for UMW president, Jock Yablonski, to the one-member, onetees.
Neither Fraser nor Bieber voiced any consideration for a proposal that workers enjoy the advances of technology by winning a shorter workweek "as a matter of right, not of luxury."
This proposal was raised in a speech by Bob Rae, a leader of the New Democratic Party, the independent labor party in Canada, which the UAW supports.
Rae's proposal is not a new one to the UAW. The concept of spreading the available work around through a shorter workweek, with no cut in pay, is especially timely now with a quarter of a million auto workers laid-off.
### CHALLENGES AHEAD plants listed earlier, countless auto parts plants in the right-to-work South remain unorganized.
Major aerospace contracts with the UAW, such as Hayes Aircraft and McDonnell Douglas, expire this year. Nine others, including Rockwell and Martin Marietta, expire in 1984.
All the Big Three auto contracts expire in 1984, as well. Many delegates at the convention expect a fight; GM is rumored to be preparing for a strike.
The Caterpillar delegates, who had just ended a 200-day strike, weren't comfortable with the constitution committee's proposal to increase dues money to the internationl and the locals at the expense of the strike fund. Before the change was approved, it stirred up a lot vote system.
Richard Trumka, president of the miners' union, appeared unexpectedly the fifth day of the convention and gave a vention adjourned. In addition to the will last about 10 minutes." hard-hitting vow of support to the UAW in the organizing drives on its agenda. SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT
Although much speculation has been raised in big-business papers about a New subscribers offer change coming to Solidarity House (international headquarters of UAW) with the election of Bieber, there was no discernible difference at the convention in his policy from that of outgoing President Fraser. Bieber said at the convention, "The fact that we have a change in the presidency does not mean the union will make dramatic shifts.
Bieber looks to increased ties between the companies, the government, and labor as the solution for jobless workers and for harmonious labor relations, as did Fraser.
Like Fraser, Bieber advocates passage of reactionary protectionist legislation, a domestic content bill, to solve the problems of laid-off auto workers.
Both put much emphasis on a "new industrial policy" in which the government would help companies to keep producing through grants and tax and trade policies. Conceivably, it would also bail them out when companies have profit 20
Many challenges, and possibly big changes, face the entire union as the con-
A special supplement to International Viewpoint No 32 contains the English-language version Ernest Mandel's 'In defence of the Permanent Revolution'.
This is a reply to an article by Doug Jenness from the American Socialist Workers Party that already appeared in English in the June 1982 issue of The Militant/International Socialist Review and was republished in French in Quatriéme Internationale, No 10.
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of discussion. As one delegate from Lorain, Ohio, put it, "If GM has to go out, that 500 million dollar strike fund
The Mandel-Jenness debate deals with key strategic questions facing the international workers movement:
- the theory of permanent revolution
- the road to power for the working class
- what we can learn from the Russian Revolution and subsequent revolutionary struggles in this respect the contributions by Lenin and
Trotsky on this question as well as the balance sheet of the big debates of the
Russian socialist movement at the beginning of this century
- the conclusions to be drawn from this in terms of united front policies, political alliances, etc. today.
Readers who want to order the earlier contibutions to this debate should write to: The Militant, 14 Charles Lane, New York, New York 10014, USA. Members of the Fourth International will find the earlier contributions republished in the Discussion Bulletin
formed the backdrop for a renewal of working class militancy. When the increasing inflation of those years is taken into account, it can be seen why the years between 1967 and 1972 had the highest incidence of strikes since the 1940s. The chart demonstrates the rise