Reply #60: Posts 16 & 25 will tell you that the corporations were bailed out, but the workers got the shaft [View All]

[IndianaGreen]

and then there is this:

Indianapolis GM workers pressured to vote on wage cut

By Andre Damon
3 September 2010

In an effort to circumvent the overwhelming vote by Indianapolis GM stamping plant workers against his demand for a 50 percent wage cut, JD Norman, the prospective buyer of the plant, is stepping up pressure on workers to sign a petition calling for a revote.

Norman called a meeting of auto workers Sunday to discuss the details of his proposal, which would cut the pay of production workers from $29 an hour to $15.50. About 50 workers, together with their families, came to the meeting, out of 660 workers currently employed at the plant.

Norman’s presentation followed a union meeting last month where workers drove UAW international representatives from their local union meeting, after the UAW violated an earlier vote, passed 384-22, barring any negotiations with the corporate raider. The UAW has presented Norman as the savior of workers who would keep open the plant, which GM has scheduled to close next year as part of its bankruptcy restructuring.

Workers have been under pressure from Norman, GM, and UAW officials to sign a petition to vote on the contract. UAW officials made clear that any future vote would be by secret ballot, repeating the lie that a “silent majority” of auto workers supports the wage-cutting plan but is intimidated by a “vocal minority.”

Workers said that several people were walking around the plant with the petition forms, including a former committeeman and the local’s sourcing representative, Glenn Sheeks, the “resident scab,” as one worker referred to him.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/sep2010/inds-s03.shtml

Struggle by Indianapolis GM workers raises crucial issues

By Jerry White

27 August 2010

A year after the United Auto Workers union collaborated with the Obama administration in the restructuring of the auto industry and the assault on auto workers’ wages and living standards, determined workers at the General Motors Indianapolis stamping plant have rebelled against the UAW and taken a stand to defend the right to a job and a decent wage.

On August 15, hundreds of workers shouted down UAW International officials and threw them out of their local union meeting for negotiating a cut in wages from $29 an hour to $15.50. The UAW International had secretly negotiated the deal with JD Norman, a 34-year-old ex-stockbroker, who said he would buy the plant and keep it open only if wages were cut in half. Last May, UAW Local 23 workers overwhelmingly voted to reject any negotiations with Norman, a decision that the UAW ignored.

Among workers there is a deep sense that the UAW International is running roughshod over their democratic rights and is motivated by the corrupt self-interest of the union bureaucracy. It has not escaped them that the UAW now owns a substantial piece of GM.

Even now, the UAW is conspiring with the media, state and local politicians, GM and JD Norman to organize another vote, claiming that only a “vocal minority” opposed the deal. A petition to this effect is circulating in the plant. Management is also reportedly hiring dozens of temporary workers—who already work for the lower wage—in hopes of browbeating them to vote for the deal.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/aug2010/auto-a27.shtml