Auto Worker Caravan

By Frank Hammer
Created Jan 8 2010 - 5:29pm

Auto workers, retirees, and supporters will gather in front of this year’s Detroit Auto Show on January 11 to make clear the notion of a “jobless recovery” is no recovery at all in a state with the highest unemployment in the nation (officially at 14.7 percent).

They will not be alone. Nearby at General Motors headquarters in downtown Detroit, right-wing “tea-baggers” will be staging a rally against “Government Motors,” to protest against “the government takeover of America.”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 7, 2010

Contact: Dianne Feeley, 313-843-2125; 734-272-7651 or feeleyd@earthlink.net
Contact: Frank Hammer, 313-863-3219 or fkhammer@ameritech.net
Websites: www.autoworkercaravan.org

WHAT: Public rally against a “jobless recovery”
WHO: Autoworker Caravan - a group of auto workers, retirees, & supporters
WHERE: North American International Auto Show, Cobo Center , Detroit , MI
WHEN: Monday, January 11, 2010 (Press Day), 10:30 AM to Noon

"NO TO A JOBLESS RECOVERY!"
Auto Worker Rally at the North American International Auto Show
Mon., January 11th, 10:30am - Noon

As auto workers, we believe it's necessary to address the economic and environmental crisis our entire nation faces. Policies can change if working families demand it:

Save Jobs and Communities • The auto industry still stands at the center of the American economy, directly employing and indirectly affecting the lives of millions. We need to retool the industry to meet the challenge of today's world.

More than 50 auto workers and supporters signed this letter that was delivered to President Obama's staff while he was visiting Macomb Community College in Warren, MI on July 14. The letter asks Obama's team to think big about the auto crisis--and listen to auto workers.

We are still collecting signatures from auto workers and supporters so if you would like to sign, as either an auto worker or as a supporter, send your name and identification to fkhammer@ameritech.net. Please feel free to circulate this letter.

Click here to read and print the letter to Obama.

More than 200 picketed at the Ren Cen on June 16, while AAM CEO Dick Dauch and ex-gov John Engler were giving their talks at the National Business Summit. The picket included auto workers from a number of different plants in Michigan and Ohio, and many labor and social justice activists in the Detroit area. There was a lot of energy among the participants and quite a few media interviewed various people.

Click here for photos

Check out this video of UAW retirees asking UAW president Ron Gettelfinger questions about the UAW's position on the auto crisis.

Click here to go to the May 13 The Nation article called, "Who's Afraid of Industrial Policy," with quotes from American Axle retiree and Detroiter Dianne Feeley.

GM retiree Al Benchich talks GM bankruptcy on Laura Flanders' Grit TV, along with Congressman Dennis Kucinich and New York Times' labor reporter Steven Greenhouse.

Frank Hammer talks to The Real News Network about the GM bankruptcy.

Click here to go to The Real News Network to watch the video.

Join auto workers Tuesday, June 16 at a demonstration to save jobs in front of GM Headquarters/Renaissance Center from 12:00 noon to 2:00 pm.
American Axle CEO Dick Dauch and former Governor of Michigan, John Engler will be addressing the National Business Summit at the same time.

A picket in front of the Renaissance Center will be followed by a Hart Plaza.
The picket and rally is being organized as part of the People's Summit, a 4-day tent city at Grand Circus Park organized by Detroiters in protest of the National Business Summit, a meeting of CEOs and heads of corporations from across the country being held in Detroit. Workshops at the tent city will be held after the rally.

On April 26, the UAW announced a tentative agreement with Chrysler that, as members were told details, revealed all the cuts contained in the Ford UAW agreement (such as loss of bonuses, loss of cost of living wage increases, and loss of break time) plus new language that allows the company to hire more temporary workers and to cap the wages of entry-level workers at, well, entry-level.

Download the highlights of the tentative agreement here.

Download the following leaflet by clicking here.

Doesn't One Concession Just Lead to Another?

About 125-135 attended the “Growing Green Livelihoods: The Impacts of “Free Trade” and the Promise of a New Green Economy” forum in Detroit on March 30th, including a number of steelworkers, autoworkers and construction tradespeople. The program was sponsored by The Institute of Labor & Industrial Relations at the University of Michigan, the Blue-Green Alliance, Sierra Club and The Goldman Environmental Prize (like the Nobel Prize for the environmental movement).

Now that the domestic auto industry - management and union alike - is on its knees, it has been given a last, "last chance" agreement or else face bankruptcy. Though the UAW agreed to huge givebacks in 2007, and was negotiating even more givebacks as required by the bridge loan of December 2008, this last chance agreement says even those concessions are not enough. The Obama administration has lifted the bar even higher. It’s a bitter pill to swallow. Autoworkers are being forced to make draconian wage and benefit cuts while watching the AIG executives who wrecked the economy walk away with their contracts - and million dollar bonuses - intact.

When the UAW and Ford reached a tentative agreement in late February, rank-and-file auto workers poured over the new language, finding changes to break time, paid holidays, wage cuts, and skilled trades jobs that seemed more about weakening the union than fixing the limping industry. Read below for a draft statement from auto workers encouraging General Motors and Chrysler workers to vote no on their impending agreements. A link to the tentative agreement is available by clicking here.
Read the full draft of the leaflet at www.autoworkercaravan.org/whyvoteconcessions.

After kicking off a petition campaign at the Jan 11 rally in front of the North American International Auto Show, auto workers from across the Midwest talked to their coworkers about the strings attached to the auto industry bailout money. Hundreds of petition signatures poured in.

On February 5, auto workers handed off the first round of more than 400 signatures to staff of Michigan Representative John Conyers in Detroit. A second set was mailed to President Obama.

Since then, hundreds more petitions have been collected by auto workers desperate to make a point - we need policies that will shape the way our industries work for the years to come, not more cuts to worker wages, benefits, and working conditions.

By Martha Grevatt
Workers World, Jan 18, 2009 2:45 PM

“This is the show.” So brags the Web site of the North American International Auto Show. It’s the place to be if you want to be “the first to see the hottest new cars.”

Yet on Jan. 11, opening day, the media of the world were focusing on an event outside Detroit’s Cobo Center. More than 150 autoworkers held a militant picket line to protest the concessions being demanded from the United Auto Workers as part of a $17.4 billion government loan to General Motors and Chrysler LLC.

by Ron Fonger | The Flint Journal
Sunday January 11, 2009, 6:55 PM

DETROIT, Michigan -- This year's North American International Auto Show will give you the fun stuff --Â the polished concept cars, ceiling-high video screens, and newest technology.

But when it's over, the hard part -- survival --Â starts all over again.

There were signs of that dark reality Sunday even as General Motors turned its opening news conference into a kind of pep rally, complete with chants and cheers by retirees, dealers and employees.

LA Times Blogs, January 12, 2009

The contrast was striking: Featured at GM's news conference was a group of about 600 rowdy GM employees bused in to participate in a "rally," chanting "100 more years!" and waving signs -- "Game Changer," "Charged Up" and "Here to Stay." The message was clearly "save our jobs." At the same moment, across the street from Cobo Center in downtown Detroit, about 50 autoworkers, union members and sympathizers stood in the knife-cold wind to demand the same thing. Only less politely.

"What's disgusting?!" howled a man with a loudspeaker. "UNION BUSTING!!" "What's outrageous?!" "SWEATSHOP WAGES!!"

Dow Jones Newswires in the Denver Post, January 14

By Al Lewis

Chrysler LLC Vice Chairman Jim Press apologized for the cows.

"We left the cows behind," the co-president told thousands of reporters gathered for a preview of the North American International Auto Show at Detroit's Cobo Center on Sunday.

At last year's show, Chrysler ran cattle through downtown Motown to unveil its redesigned Dodge Ram pickup.

"We had them all signed up to come back," Press said. "They were called to Washington to talk to the cow czar."

The weakest of the Big Three automakers seeks another $3 billion in federal loans on top of the $4 billion it has already secured.

Guardian.co.uk, January 12 2009

Disgruntled car workers staged a noisy protest outside the Detroit motor show to ram home the message that they will not accept swingeing cuts in wages and benefits demanded by the US government.

Under the terms of a $17bn (£11.2bn) federal bail-out package, General Motors and Chrysler are required to reduce employees' earnings to the level of their Japanese rivals – closing a gap estimated at $10 an hour.

Ford, which has not taken bail-out funds, also wants reductions to keep itself on a level playing field with its rivals. Crucial talks, initially between GM and the United Auto Workers' union, begin this week.

Wall Street Journal, January 8, 2009
By JOHN D. STOLL and SHARON TERLEP

DETROIT -- The bailout agreement between General Motors Corp. and the federal government includes terms aimed at blocking the United Auto Workers from going on strike while the union negotiates wage and benefit cuts with the auto maker over the next few weeks.

The terms are part of the agreement GM and the U.S. Treasury Department hammered out in December. They surfaced late Wednesday in a regulatory filing by GM and surprised union leaders, including President Ron Gettelfinger, people familiar with the matter said.

Treasury spokeswoman Brookly McLaughlin said that the no-strike provision was "included as a taxpayer protection" and that it could be waived if the government determines that was appropriate.

Union Workers Protest Outside Auto Show
New York Times blog, January 12
By MARY M. CHAPMAN AND NICK KURCZEWSKI

Protesters outside the Detroit auto show. (Adam Bird for The New York Times)
DETROIT — Shortly after General Motors held a pep rally during its new-car rollout on Sunday, about 300 auto workers and labor activists rallied near the site of the auto show here, protesting against possible United Automobile Workers union concessions.

Reuters Blogs: Global Investing, January 11, 2009
By Ben Klayman

Several dozen angry United Auto Workers union members marched with pickets outside the Detroit auto show on Sunday, protesting the givebacks the Bush administration is trying to squeeze from them in return for bailout funds needed by General Motors and Chrysler.

The $17.4 billion federal bailout of GM and Chrysler announced in December includes concessions aimed at the UAW, including lowering union wages and benefits to the same level as foreign carmakers’ U.S. plants by December 2009, and eliminating the jobs bank, in which idled workers receive pay and benefits.

By Maria Panaritis
PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, January 11, 2009

DETROIT - Philadelphia Chevrolet dealer Joe Magarity liked what he saw yesterday on the floor of the annual Detroit auto show when General Motors executives unveiled their prized models to the international media:

Less is more.

Like a recession-whipped consumer learning to be frugal, the embattled automaker had eliminated costly floor risers, live music and other big-ticket items for its typically souped up 100,000-square foot display at the Cobo Hall in the heart of downtown.

Friday, January 9, 2009
By JOSEPH SZCZESNY
The Oakland Press

United Auto Workers leaders are prepared to discuss concessions with General Motors Corp., Chrysler LLC and the Ford Motor Co., but the union is concerned about the possible impact on the UAW’s retired members.

UAW President Ron Gettelfinger, during an Interview Thursday on NBC’s “Today” show, confirmed the union will open talks with GM next week as required under the terms of the $17.4 billion-dollar bridge loan package approved by the Bush administration.

The White House approved loans for GM and Chrysler on Dec. 19 after Congress failed to do so.

By Grace Macaluso, Canwest News Service January 11, 2009

DETROIT — American autoworkers urged their Canadian counterparts Sunday to join forces and fight “union busting” concessions that are part of multi-billion-dollar loan agreements designed to keep the Detroit Three afloat.

About 50 placard-waving protesters staged a demonstration outside the North American International Auto Show in a bid to draw attention to the push for wage and benefit concessions they fear will be forced on autoworkers in negotiations between the United Auto Workers and the companies.

BY GRETA GUEST • FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER • January 7, 2009

Autoworkers were working the phones today in preparation for a rally Sunday at the North American International Auto Show.

One of the rally’s organizers, Ford retiree Ron Lare, 61, of Detroit, said Bush administration demands for wage and benefit cuts tied to the $17.4-billion auto industry loan have galvanized workers.

“I think all the benefits and wages of all current, past and future employees are threatened,” he said. “I hope we can send a message on Sunday to the companies and to Congress that they are dealing with UAW officers and UAW members as well. And we still know how to organize.”

By GRETA GUEST • FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER • January 11, 2009

More than 75 auto workers paced on a curb across from the Detroit auto show at Cobo Hall for two hours in the cold this afternoon to make a point: Bashing auto workers is not cool.
Advertisement

The workers and retirees are fighting mandatory wage and benefit concessions that came attached to a $17.4-billion auto industry loan from the federal government.

The United Auto Workers union officials start talks with automakers about the concessions on Monday.

Rally organizer Wendy Thompson, the retired former president of UAW Local 235, said the workers felt obligated to stage the peaceful protest on the first press day of the Detroit auto show because the rank and file feel left out.

Louis Aguilar / The Detroit News
January 11, 2009

Dozens of United Auto Workers and their supporters are rallying outside the North American International Auto Show to defend their wages, which could be cut under current terms of the federal loans to General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC.

Carrying placards with such slogans as "I'm not a foreign auto worker," UAW workers like Tony Browning, a 34-year-Chrysler veteran, say many hourly workers will not accept deep wage cuts.

"This whole thing about we make so much more than foreign competitors is a lie," Browning said, who works on the line at Chrysler's Sterling Assembly plant. "We work damn hard for our money and I don't see a whole lot of people who are going to vote to cut our paychecks in half."

By Nick Carey

DETROIT, Jan 11 (Reuters) - Auto workers held a small but passionate rally on Sunday outside a big auto industry show to protest labor concessions the Bush administration has demanded in return for recent rescue loans for General Motors Corp (GM.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and Chrysler LLC.

"The concessions that Bush wants us to make are just a slap in our faces," said Tammy Jones, a furnace worker at Chrysler's Hamtramck axle plant in Detroit. "People fought and died for our rights and we must fight to keep them."

Auto workers have called for a rally on January 11 at 1 pm at Hart Plaza outside of press day of the North American International Auto Show. With news of the Bush administration's $17.4 billion loan to the auto industry being tied to game-changing concessions that could erode wages across the board, auto workers will rally for long-term solutions for the auto industry's problems that don't unfairly blame workers for failed corporate policies.

Download a flyer here.

http://lauraflanders.firedoglake.com/2008/12/11/auto-workers-assess-the-...

The auto industry has made its case and Congress has a plan. Loans of up to $15 billion to GM and Chrysler. A substantial Government ownership stake and a direct role in the industry’s restructuring. There’s talk of a car Czar. But what’s in it for workers?

By Dan Robinson
Voices of America
December 9, 2008

As Congress and the Bush administration continued negotiations on a $15 billion loan for U.S. auto companies, a group of autoworkers traveled to Washington to draw attention to their concerns about the future of the American auto industry.

Members of the United Auto Workers and other labor unions appeared at a news conference on Capitol Hill Monday as lawmakers and the White House were negotiating details of a loan package for General Motors, Ford and Chrysler.

They came not only from Michigan, where the companies are based, but also from Indiana, Ohio, New York and other states where tens of thousands of Americans work directly in or contribute to automobile production.

Virginia Channel 8 News
December 8, 2008

WASHINGTON - Desperate to keep their jobs, their pensions, and their health care, a group of auto workers arrived on Capitol Hill in a caravan Monday. They marched to plead their case and show the human side of the auto bailout fight.

The demonstrators came from Detroit, New York, Ohio and Indiana. Their entire lives have been dominated by the auto industry and they came to D.C. to help make sure the auto bailout happens.

Auto worker Dale Schotts said he is terrified about what might happen to the auto industry. "I can't think of anything worse, I've spent my whole life [working] to build a home and some security for my family and that could all be washed down the drain," he said.

By Aaron Wiener
The Washington Independent
December 8, 2008

When the chief executives of the Big Three automakers first came to Washington to ask Congress for a $25 billion-bailout, they arrived in town on private jets.

When 16 active and retired members of the United Auto Workers headed to Washington on Sunday night to press the need for government help, they drove the 500-plus miles from Detroit in four American-made cars.

By Catherine Jun
Detroit News
December 7, 2008

DETROIT -- A four-car caravan of employees and retirees at both U.S. car companies and suppliers departed from a Detroit parking lot Sunday afternoon for Washington, D.C., to show support for a federal aid package to help the American automakers stay afloat.

The caravan of employees will arrive around breakfast time and go from legislative office to office, strengthening the case for federal assistance to Chrysler LLC, Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Corp.
Jim Theisen, 57, is among them.

The 18-wheeler driver for Chrysler saidhe heard about the CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey that showed 61 percent of Americans were against federal help for the auto companies.

By Nick Meyer
Detroit Free Press
December 7, 2008

With Detroit’s Big Three in trouble and a possible bridge loan looming, members from local unions are heading to Washington, D.C. in an effort to put a human face to the auto crisis.

The caravan of three cars and about 16 people departed around 4 p.m. today and plans to pick up fellow union members from places like Indiana, New York, and Ohio on the way. Once in Washington, the group plans to hold a morning press conference before delivering their message to Congress.

On Sunday afternoon, they held a press conference at the Metropolitan Center for High Technology in Detroit. Detroit City Council President Pro Tem JoAnn Watson, fresh off her own trip to Washington, addressed the gathered crowd and media.

Detroit Bailout Nears a Reprieve: Plan for Interim Aid Package for Big Three Auto Makers Is Close to an Agreement
By GREG HITT, JEFFREY MCCRACKEN and MATTHEW DOLAN
DECEMBER 6, 2008

WASHINGTON -- New signs of deterioration in the U.S. job market added impetus to appeals by Detroit's auto makers for a bailout, as Democratic leaders in Congress and the White House neared an agreement to providing a down payment to keep the industry afloat until early 2009.

White House press secretary Dana Perino termed the discussions "constructive" on Saturday but stopped short of declaring a final deal had been reached.

Congress, White House zero in on plan to aid automakers
David Shepardson Gordon Trowbridge and Christine Tierney
Saturday, December 6, 2008

WASHINGTON -- In a move that could save General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC from imminent collapse, the White House and Congressional Democrats neared an agreement on a $15 billion compromise short-term aid program for Detroit's Big Three automakers, two congressional aides said late Friday.

Jim Theisen
UAW Local 212
Chrysler Transport Division

I'm going to honor my parents Marion & Clement, who worked in auto plants or in supportive shops. Organized Labor has been a rising tide that has raised all boats in the labor market. Now 61% of Americans have either forgotten that or never knew this! Large companies and Corporations don't offer its employees decent wages, health benefits, sick time/vacation time out of the kindness of their heart! They do it because they have to in order to keep their workers from bringing in a union who will get it for them. This is the tide that has raised your boat---now the tide is being stemmed. When the tide (organized labor) goes out---it will take your benefits with it.

The chief executives of Detroit’s Big Three automakers returned to Capitol Hill yesterday to plead for $34 billion in federal aid to bail out the industry. The company CEOs all drove to Washington in hybrid vehicles after being criticized for flying in for hearings last month in separate private jets. Lawmakers said they were not convinced that the automakers could return to profitability even with a massive infusion of government cash. We speak with longtime consumer advocate Ralph Nader and Wendy Thompson, a retired worker at American Axle in Detroit and the former president of UAW Local 235.

Watch the video here.

Commentary: Cutting wages won't solve Detroit 3's crisis
Mark Brenner and Jane Slaughter
Thursday, December 4, 2008

In the 1980s, Chevrolet proclaimed itself the "Heartbeat of America," but today the American auto industry barely registers a pulse. As Washington considers Detroit's plea for life support, the only place where pundits, politicians and Big Three executives seem to agree is that auto workers must make do with less or watch their jobs disappear.

UAW to suspend maligned jobs bank: Ahead of hearings, union offers contract changes
Louis Aguilar, Alisa Priddle and Robert Snell / The Detroit News

DETROIT -- Local leaders of the United Auto Workers agreed to suspend the program where laid-off workers can get up to 95 percent of their wages and benefits, a concept that came to symbolize the stereotype of overpaid, underworked factory workers.

Big Three Seek $34 Billion Aid: GM, Chrysler Warn of Collapse This Month as Lawmakers Explore Bankruptcy
DECEMBER 3, 2008

By JOHN D. STOLL, MATTHEW DOLAN, JEFFREY MCCRACKEN and JOSH MITCHELL

Detroit's Big Three auto makers presented turnaround plans to Congress on Tuesday that indicate both General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC could collapse by the end of the month unless they get billions of dollars in emergency government loans.

The following piece by UAW Activist Gregg Shotwell explores in depth what's really going on with the Auto Bailout and bankruptcy threat in the Big 3 today.  Gregg is one of the great voices of the working class today.  His analysis is keen, as is his wit.  For years his Live Bait & Ammo essays have informed and motivated untold numbers of workers both inside and outside of the auto industry.  I strongly recommend Gregg's 113th LB& A for those who want a real look inside the auto industry and what's in store for workers. -- Jerry Tucker

Bailout -- An End Run around Bankruptcy

Union summons leaders to Detroit as firms give survival plans to Congress today.
David Shepardson / Detroit News Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON -- The United Auto Workers has called an emergency meeting in Detroit on Wednesday during which the union could consider reopening its 2007 contracts with the automakers.

Union leaders representing workers at General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC plants across the country have been called to Detroit for the session, according to sources familiar with the plan.

Read Michael's Message on His Website

Friends,

I drive an American car. It's a Chrysler. That's not an endorsement. It's more like a cry for pity. And now for a decades-old story, retold ad infinitum by tens of millions of Americans, a third of whom have had to desert their country to simply find a damn way to get to work in something that won't break down:

My Chrysler is four years old. I bought it because of its smooth and comfortable ride. Daimler-Benz owned the company then and had the good grace to place the Chrysler chassis on a Mercedes axle and, man, was that a sweet ride!

When it would start.

Pursuing U.S. Aid, G.M. Accepts Need for Drastic Cuts
By BILL VLASIC and DAVID M. HERSZENHORN
December 3, 2008

WASHINGTON — General Motors, increasingly desperate for a federal bailout to stave off financial collapse, told Congress on Tuesday that it was willing to drastically shrink every aspect of its operations to ensure its long-term survival.

On the same day that the industry reported its worst sales month in 26 years, the three Detroit automakers delivered new business plans to lawmakers in the hope of winning support for $34 billion in federal loans.

Abandoning Autoworkers and Their Communities is Not the Answer
By Mark Brenner and Jane Slaughter
November 21, 2008

Congress shouldn’t respond to the Big Three’s mistakes with one of its own, and the biggest mistake of all would be to let Detroit drop dead.

Congress shouldn’t respond to the Big Three’s mistakes with one of its own, and the biggest mistake of all would be to let Detroit drop dead. Lawmakers need to take action to save some of the last good working-class jobs in America and to put a tourniquet on the nation’s economic pain.

Beyond auto sector, save ailing communities

Sam Gindin
Special to The Windsor Star

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

The global crisis quickly engulfing us threatens to become the worst since the Great Depression, and this means that past ways of doing things need to be fundamentally rethought.

Nationalize GM, Or At Least Think About It
Robert Weissman
With the U.S. government offering trillions of dollars in supports for the financial sector, it is startling to witness the casual way in which many policy makers and opinion leaders suggest the U.S. auto companies should be allowed to go bankrupt.

In considerable part, this attitude reflects an anti-union and anti-blue collar animus. It also reflects the diminished economic power of what was formerly known as the Big Three (General Motors, Ford, Chrysler).

Nationalize GM
The federal government should buy GM. We can run it, then sell it at a profit once it recovers.
By Dan Neil

December 2, 2008

At the moment, D.C. and Detroit are brooding on a Morton's Fork: Watch the American automakers auger in and take hundreds of thousands of jobs with them, or bail out these failed and incorrigible companies whose management so richly deserves whatever hell (flying coach?) awaits them.