Solid support for Indianapolis workers at GM’s Flint Metal Center [View All]

[Hannah Bell]

Auto workers at General Motors’ Flint Metal Center, 60 miles north of Detroit, expressed firm support for the stand taken by workers at the Indianapolis GM stamping plant against demands for a 50 percent wage cut...

“We’re going to be next” was a common response from workers who took leaflets of a WSWS article on the fight of the Indianapolis workers. The Flint stamping plant, which employs 1,100 workers, is one of several metal fabrication plants in Indiana, Ohio and Michigan where GM and the UAW would demand “competitive” wages if the wage cuts go through. Workers in Indianapolis have insisted that they will not be used as a cheap labor to drive down the wages of their fellow workers. “If they get that wage cut through, you’re going to get demands for a 50 percent wage cut here too,” said Benny, a worker with 20 years at GM. “At Nexteer they have already cut wages to $12 an hour.”

Last June the UAW rammed through brutal wage cuts at GM’s Nexteer Automotive operations in nearby Saginaw after the 2,200 workers initially rejected concessions. As in Indianapolis, the UAW used the threat of a plant closing to cut wages, saying this was the only way to find a new buyer for the plant. The majority of the workforce at the plant— which started out as a GM facility, was spun off to Delphi and taken back by GM last year— is now being paid between $12 and $14 an hour.

Despite the pouring rain, Flint GM workers stopped to talk with the WSWS reporting team with several gathering around to find out news about the Indianapolis workers’ struggle. Many have been following their fight closely. Having faced years of betrayals by the UAW, Flint metal workers were particularly interested to hear that workers in Indianapolis were forming a rank-and-file committee to conduct an independent struggle...

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/sep2010/flin-s18.shtml


For anyone who might be following what's happening with UAW Local 23 in Indianapolis, the Local asked its members to register their vote at the local so that the "independent" vote talliers can't pull a Bush on them...