[Marxism] UAW MUST MOBILIZE ENTIRE MEMBERSHIPTO FIGHT DELPHI BANKRUPTCY

["Charles Brown" <cbrown@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

What follows and attached is a leaflet with ideas on fighting the Delphi
bankruptcy.  The leaflet is put out by the Job is a Right Campaign, which
helped fight the GM plant closings in the late 1980's popularizing the
demand for a moratorium on plant closings.




UAW MUST MOBILIZE ENTIRE MEMBERSHIP

TO FIGHT DELPHI BANKRUPTCY



The Delphi bankruptcy, which followed the United Autoworkers (UAW) rejecting
the outrageous demands which the corporation had demanded from the union
including a 63% wage cut, a 50% reduction in pensions, and an unlimited
right to close, sell or consolidate its U.S. plants over the next three
years, is meant to set the stage for the dramatic reduction of the wages and
benefits of all parts workers in the automobile industry and eventually for
all auto workers.

            The automobile companies claim that they cannot not make profits
paying decent wages to their workers.  But this is a boldfaced lie.  In
fact, last year Chrysler posted profits of $1.9 billion.  General Motors
reported profits of $3.2 billion in 2002, $3.8 billion in 2003 and $3.6
billion in 2004, and had a $25 billion cash investment fund entering this
year.  Delphi itself reported profits of $1.1 billion in the year 2000 and
continued to report net profits through at least 2003.

            The current losses for GM and Delphi mostly have to do with
changes in the current market and poor management decisions, blinded by
greed, that did not anticipate these changes.  What Delphi is trying to do
through its bankruptcy filing is to take advantage of this episodic crisis,
and use this crisis to implement a fundamental restructuring of the
automobile industry.



Demand the UAW be Named Trustee to Administer Delphi Through Bankruptcy
Proceedings



The UAW leadership must mobilize its entire workforce to challenge the dire
threat to the union posed by the Delphi bankruptcy.  The bankruptcy court
has already demonstrated its bias against the UAW membership.  Incredibly,
despite the fact the workers have contributed the most to Delphi and have
the most to lose, the UAW was left off the "unsecured creditors committee",
which is set up to advise the court on how to implement the company's
reorganization.  UAW workers should organize a demonstration outside the
bankruptcy court to demand that the UAW not only be included on the
"unsecured creditors committee", but that the union, as the representative
of the workers who have given the most and have the most to lose, be named
the trustee to administer Delphi through the bankruptcy proceedings



Prepare for Strike and Plant Takeovers to Protect Delphi Workers' Jobs and
Living Standards



History has taught us that the struggle will not be won in the courts, but
by the union asserting the power of the membership to fight for and assert
the property right of the autoworkers to their jobs, and to the wages,
benefits and pensions they fought to achieve and earned through their years
of sweat equity.

            For one thing, the Delphi workers, who supply GM's assembly
plants, have the power to stop production not just at Delphi but at General
Motors as well if they withhold their labor.  If the bankruptcy court
attempts to impose the kind of wage cuts and pension reductions which have
been the pattern at United Airlines and so many other industries, the UAW
should be ready to shut down the corporation and its parent GM as well.  If
Delphi begins to shut down its plants, the autoworkers should prepare to
occupy the factories, to protect the property that really belongs to the
workers who made these plants run for so long.



Referendum for a General Strike of the Entire UAW Pursuant to the Union
Constitution.



            As a first step, to send a message to Delphi, General Motors,
the rest of the auto industry and the entire ruling class that the union
will fight back against this attempt to bypass the collective bargaining
process and to use the courts to fundamentally slash the wages and living
standards of the auto workers, the union should invoke Article 50 of the UAW
constitution.  This provision authorizes a referendum vote to call for a
general strike of the entire union membership when the "existence of the
international union is involved together with the economic and social
standing of our membership" Just beginning this process of a vote on a
general strike in every UAW local would send a message that the fight
against this bankruptcy will not be limited to so-called "legal" channels
that inevitably result in disaster for the workers.  The organized power of
the rank and file can defeat the Delphi bankruptcy and turn around the
corporate drive to lower the wages and benefits for the entire working
class.



Job is a Right Campaign, 5920 Second, Detroit, MI 48202, 313-831-0750,
email, apcjerry@xxxxxxxxxxxxx





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