[PEN-L:6719] Outsourcing: Serious Problem Confronting The Working Class

[SHAWGI TELL <v600a8e6@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

What is outsourcing? It means a company finds an outside source to
make that which the company originally made in its home plant. The
outside source may or may not be owned by the original company.
Outsourcing is a feature of the domination of the world by the
monopolies. There is now almost unrestricted movement of capital
and goods around the world. This has increased competition for jobs
amongst the international working class and has allowed the
monopolies to pit workers against workers on a world scale.
     The monopolies constantly look for cheaper labor and raw
materials. In some cases the monopoly will lend money to a group of
capitalists somewhere in the world who will then build and supply
parts more cheaply and risk-free than in a given country. In other cases
a group of capitalists or even a country will approach the monopoly
with an offer to supply parts below the cost of production in
a given country.
     In the last ten years the auto industry in the United States
has moved its production worldwide to the extent that the number of
U.S. autoworkers has fallen by one-half. The union in the U.S., the
UAW, has put up very little resistance to this phenomenon. Last
summer was the first real battle, fought with some success by
workers at a U.S. auto parts supplier.
     General Motors in Canada has plans to sell or close three
plants in Oshawa, St. Catharines and Windsor. This would result in
a loss of 5,500 GM jobs. Stew Low, GM's director of public
relations recently outlined the monopoly's plan: "We want to remain
in vehicle assembly, power train manufacturing and major sheet
metal stamping- the parts that make up the exterior of the body,
that the customer sees." All the rest - small parts manufacture,
injection moulding, small sheet metal stamping, will be done "by
somebody for whom that is their mainstream business," Low said.
That is already the case at Chrysler and Ford, he added. "They
don't make trim like we do, they don't do any small metal stamping
or plastic injection moulding, and we do."
     In an ominous threat, the international President of GM, Jack
Smith, said last week that the Canadian union's demands on
contracting out are not acceptable. Smith said, "We've got certain
things that will cripple the company if we don't get fixed right.
There's a couple (of items) on the table that we need to work our
way through, otherwise we will not be competitive."
     The reality of the modern world is that the interests of the
monopolies and the interests of the workers are diametrically
opposed. The jobs and living standards of the GM workers are
incidental to the monopoly's quest for maximum profit. Only
determined resistance guarantees anything for the working class in
the short term; and, only the seizure of the assets of the
monopolies by society guarantees anything in the long term.


Shawgi Tell
University at Buffalo
Graduate School of Education
V600A8E6@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx