Facebook Instagram Twitter YouTube

The autoworkers say NO to Ford

Autoworkers organized in the UAW (United Auto Workers) rejected a proposal from the union to make new concessions to benefit the company. The union was preparing a new surrender, after having sealed an historic betrayal in March. With that agreement, which meant layoffs, wage cuts, the elimination of bonuses and gains, the “Big Three,” (General […]

Left Voice

November 7, 2009
Facebook Twitter Share

Autoworkers organized in the UAW (United Auto Workers) rejected a proposal from the union to make new concessions to benefit the company. The union was preparing a new surrender, after having sealed an historic betrayal in March. With that agreement, which meant layoffs, wage cuts, the elimination of bonuses and gains, the “Big Three,” (General Motors, Chrysler and Ford) agreed to the Obama administration’ s bailout. Ford, that was the only one not to have gone bankrupt, was now asking the workers for a new sacrifice (“social peace” until 2015 and freezing the wages of the newest employees), but the workers said NO.

It is the first time in decades that UAW rank and file workers have contradicted the “advice” of the bureaucracy, which, it goes without saying, always gives advice favoring the employers, who never tire of thanking them for their good services.

With this agreement, Ford was trying to make conditions the same as those at General Motors and Chrysler, where the bosses, with the bureaucracy’ s collaboration, managed to impose a similar agreement.

One more reason for the workers’ anger is the fact that at the same time the bosses were asking the workers to tighten their belts again, Ford announced one billion dollars in profits, way above last year’s $161,000,000 in losses. Once again, Ford is trying to make workers the ones who pay the consequences of the crisis, while the big companies are recovering and increasing their millions in profits. This new giveback by the UAW bureaucracy shows that only the workers, organized democratically, and with their own struggle, will be able to force the capitalists to pay for the crisis.

Facebook Twitter Share

Left Voice

Militant journalism, revolutionary politics.

Archive

The Unknown Paths of the Late Marx

An interview with Marcello Musto about the last decade of Marx's life.

Marcello Musto

February 27, 2022

The Critical Left in Cuba

Frank García Hernández discusses the political and economic situation in Cuba and the path out of the current crisis.

Frank García Hernández

February 27, 2022

Nancy Fraser and Counterhegemony

A presentation from the Fourth International Marxist Feminist Conference.

Josefina L. Martínez

February 27, 2022

Who is Anasse Kazib?

Meet the Trotskyist railway worker running for president of France.

Left Voice

February 27, 2022

MOST RECENT

Three tables full of food, with signs hung above them. One says "The People's Pantry: FREE FOOD." Banners hung from the tables say "Free CUNY" and "Cop Free School Zone"

CUNY Administration Cracks Down on Student and Worker-Run Food Pantry

Students and workers opened "The People's Pantry" seven weeks ago as part of a broader anti-austerity campaign at CUNY, leading to several direct confrontations with the administration.

Olivia Wood

March 19, 2023

Neither NATO Nor Putin: An Anti-war Program for an Anti-war Protest

The following is a flier that Left Voice distributed at the March 18 rally in DC with the anti-war program we believe we must all take up.

Left Voice

March 19, 2023

France: Macron Bets On His Presidency as Millions Rise Up

A historic two weeks of mobilizations against Macron’s pension reform, with several sectors going into open-ended strikes, and including a spectacular show of solidarity on International Women’s Day. Yet despite the massive turnout, the government pushed through the reform Thursday night, using an antidemocratic maneuver to bypass the National Assembly. Which direction will the movement take? Will it fizzle out in a failed top-down union strategy, or will it generalize the struggle to all sectors from the bottom up?

Antoine Ramboz

March 17, 2023

Temple’s Grad Worker Strike Ends with Important Victories 

The last report on the strike from a union teacher at Temple University in Philadelphia.

Jason Koslowski

March 17, 2023