Auto workers on strike in Kansas City (Picture: UAW)
âThe TV is saying this strike has become a fight between president Joe Biden and Donald Trump. I donât see it like that. Iâm much more interested in the contest between strikers and the Big Three.
âBut hey, Iâm glad theyâre noticing us, weâre making headlines everywhere, and our strike has done that.â Thatâs what United Auto Workers (UAW) union member Kim from Michigan told Socialist Worker last week.
She is one of the workers who have been battling the three giant car firmsâFord, General Motors (GM) and Stellantisâover pay and other issues since 14 September. Workers want real wage rises and to push back the concessions made during the financial crisis of 2008 and at the start of the pandemic.Â
Itâs a key battle for workers everywhere, and its importance is why Biden and Trump have had to act. Biden visited a picket line in Michigan last week, the first time a US president has ever done so. It was a calculated attempt to pull working class voters away from Trump at next yearâs presidential election.
Biden announced the visit after Trump declared he would hold a âpro-workerâ rally near Detroit. Biden stood on the picket line as union president Shawn Fain referred to UAW membersâ past work building bombers used in the Second World War. Fain said, âToday, the enemy is right here in our own area. Itâs corporate greed.
“Weâre the people who make this world run. Itâs not the billionaire class. Itâs not the elite few. Itâs not some executive who owns our future. Itâs us. These CEOs sit in their offices. They sit in meetings. They make decisions. But we make the product.â
Biden answered âYesâ when asked if he thought auto workers should get the 40 percent pay rise over three years they are demanding. The White House media team initially said he didnât hear the question, before conceding he did. Biden heads a thoroughly pro-capitalist party of the US ruling class. But he can tell when strikers are popular.
Polls last week showed rising support, with 58 percent of people backing the strikes with just 18 percent against. Those in favour included 72 percent of Democrats, 63 percent of independents and 48 percent of Republicans. Bidenâs actions underline how right wing the British Labour Party is. Itâs inconceivable that prime minister Keir Starmer would act like thisâshort of mass working class struggle that threatened to escape union leadersâ control.
But Biden is no friend of militant workersâhis speech to the pickets lasted just 87 seconds. Although he castigated the multi-tier wage rates imposed a decade ago, he didnât mention who had done the imposing. Thatâs because the culprit was the Barack Obama administrationâwhen Biden was the vice president. Biden also didnât talk about how he outlawed a rail strike last year.
And he didnât fool everyone. âMind your own business,â said Dan Hall, a 66-year-old whoâs worked at Ford for nearly 29 years, about both Biden and Trump. âItâs not about them. Itâs about us ⊠the only thing theyâre here for is votes. âSee, I supported you!â No, you didnâtâyou came out here. Same thing with Trump,â he told the Huffpost website.
After a brief photo-op with pickets, Biden quickly left for a fundraising event which a gilded elite paid up to $100,000 (ÂŁ82,000) to attend. It was held at the $33 million (ÂŁ26.9 million) home of billionaire couple Liz Simons and Mark Heising. Then he headed off to another fundraiser at the San Francisco home of Facebook co-founder Andrew McCollum.
As Biden stroked the rich, former president Trump was doing his own speech at a non-union car accessories plant. He peddled âeconomic nationalismâ and told UAW members the real issue was the move away from fossil fuels.
âI donât care what you get in the next two weeks or three weeks or five weeks,â he said. âTheyâre going to be closing up and theyâre going to be building those cars in China and other places.âÂ
He said he backed âAmerican labour, not foreign labourâ and wants âa future that puts American dreams over foreign profits.â Itâs easy to see through Trumpâs claim to be pro-worker. He has clashed at points with big business, but when president he delivered the tax cuts and handouts it wanted.
But he attracts some people on the basis of his racism, his sexism and because the Democrats suck up to the corporations. He won the mainly working class Macomb County, where he spoke last week, by about 11 percentage points in the 2016 election and 8 points in 2020.
Trump prospers when the working class is passive, demoralised and turns in on itself. In those situations people look for scapegoats and individual solutions. Compromising trade union leaders and politicians undermine the collective class momentum that can annihilate Trump and Trumpism. And workers need to be completely independent from Biden and the Democrats to not be tainted by their big business policies.
Not nearly enough acceleration from the UAW
The UAW union announced last Friday that it would call out more workers, bringing the total to around 25,000. But thatâs just a small percentage of the 150,000 it could mobilise. As the CNN organisation pointed out, âThe union is still not going for the jugular. It is not affecting the supply of GM and Fordâs best-selling vehicles.â
And there was no escalation at all at Stellantis. While the union holds back from using all its strength, bosses and their allies are fighting without restraint. GM last week began hiring scabs to work for as little as ÂŁ11.95 an hour at strike-hit centres.
What the UAW called a non-union contractor drove through pickets, sped up and injured five people outside a GM depot in Flint, Michigan. A scab driver also hit pickets in Massachusetts, and in California strike-breakers menaced pickets with guns. On Thursday last week UAW leader Shawn Fain denounced GM and Stellantis for âhiring violent scabsâ.
He said it was an attack on âall of the working classâ. Fain invited everyone to come to the picket lines to show solidarity. But he didnât call out a single extra striker. There was also a warning from Canada where the Unifor union persuaded workers to call off a dispute with Ford. This could have seen a strike across the whole of North America.
Instead union leaders persuaded workers to swallow a deal that means no real pay rise and little progress on other key issues. Just 54 percent of workers accepted the offerâand some have contested whether the bureaucracy followed union rules over how deals are accepted. All 150,000 UAW auto workers need to be out now to win a victory to inspire people across the US and wider.
Transport workers of the world unite
British car, van and lorry workers, particularly those working for the Big Three, should:
- Send a message of support to the UAW at twitter.com/UAWfrom individuals, stewardsâ committees, plant committees and regional and national bodies
- Refuse any work connected with the US plants
- Hold solidarity rallies and meetings in the workplace and outside. Send pictures to the UAW
- Do a collection for the strikers
Itâs scandalous that up until last week the British unions had made no comment on the strike. And they havenât used their scores of full-time officials in the plants to rally and send solidarity. Thatâs the poisonous legacy of plants seeing themselves in competition for work and jobs rather than as united against the bosses.
Hollywood writers look at a deal âbut it will not win any awards
After 148 days of solid strikes by writers, Hollywood executives have been forced to offer them a deal. On Monday last week, The Writers Guild of America (WGA) reached what it described as a âtentativeâ agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP).
In a statement, the guild wrote, âWe can say with great pride that this deal is exceptional âwith meaningful gains and protections for writers in every section of our membership.â But workers could have won more. The three-year deal will see the minimum weekly pay rate for story and executive story editors rise by 5 percent this year, 4 percent next year and 3.5 percent the year after.
These new rates fall significantly below inflation and wonât make up for the 23 percent pay cut in real terms since 2013. The issue of artificial intelligence (AI) was central to the writersâ fight, but the deal only included very minimal platitudes about restricting its use. Another aspect of the deal being celebrated as a victory is how streaming services now have to pay writers more if the series they worked on is popular.
But the AMPTP has only committed to revealing the viewing figures of series being streamed to the guild under a âconfidentiality agreement.â The only way the WGA can pass this information on to members is in an âaggregated form.â
The confidentiality agreement means workers have to trust union bureaucrats and streaming services to give them accurate information about viewing figuresâand how much they should be paid. Workers online have stated the deal is a step forward.
WGA member Justin Halpern wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that the deal was âgoodâ. But workers must stay vigilant and be ready to head back to the picket lines. âThe deal will be tested over the next three years because thatâs what always happens,â Justin added. âIt will be poked and prodded by the AMPTP and business affairs and whoever else is trying to make a little more money by spending less.
âSo we have to stay aware of changes in the business, which will come. And as they come, we have to adapt the contract to protect ourselves.â The strike was the first organised by the WGA in 15 years. And, for many, thereâs been a difference between the last round of strikes and this one.
In 2007 to 2008, workers struck for 100 days to demand higher residual rates for DVD sales. The WGA settled with AMPTP. While the majority of members accepted the deal, some argued workers could have won more. The difference between the strikes then and now is that writers didnât strike alone.
The actorsâ union Sag-Aftra has been out alongside the writers since 14 July and were still on strike as of Friday of last week. They will now be pressured to settle if the WGA deal is accepted. Workers from the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSA), the Teamsters union and the striking UAW union have also shown support on the picket lines.
The solidarity shown by other sections of workers forced Hollywood bosses to get around the table and put forward a new offer. But itâs disappointing that a bad deal could be done just as thousands of other workers begin action.
Sophie Squire
Source: Socialistworker.co.uk