THE UNITED AUTO WORKERS ACCEPTS GOVERNMENT BAN ON STRIKES

[Omaha Steve]

1/2 way down the page: http://gangbox.wordpress.com/2009/01/17/the-united-auto-workers-accepts-government-ban-on-strikes/

Posted in Uncategorized by gangbox on the January 17, 2009

from the WORLD SOCIALIST WEB SITE:

UAW accepts government ban on strikes
15 January 2009

It has come to light that the federal bailout of General Motors and Chrysler approved last month by the Bush administration with the support of the incoming Obama administration includes a stipulation that effectively bans strikes or work stoppages by autoworkers.

The clause, which was revealed in a Security and Exchange Commission filing by GM last week, coincides with government demands that the 139,000 workers at Detroit’s auto companies agree by February 17 to accept mass layoffs, plant closures and sweeping wage and benefit concessions.

According to the SEC filing, the Treasury Department could declare GM and Chrysler in default and revoke $17.4 billion in loans, throwing the automakers into bankruptcy, if “any labor union or collective bargaining unit shall engage in a strike or other work stoppage.”

The effect of this provision is to revoke the legal right to strike, an achievement won by the American working class in bitter struggles against “criminal conspiracy” laws used against striking workers in the 19th century. It was only with the 1935 passage, in the depths of the Great Depression, of the National Labor Relations Act that federal law recognized the right of workers to strike. This concession to the working class was not some freely given gift of the Roosevelt administration. It followed general strikes that erupted in 1934 in Toledo, Minneapolis and San Francisco. Without the strike weapon, workers are reduced to the status of industrial slaves, legally compelled to accept the most brutal conditions of exploitation without any recourse to collective resistance.

Several commentators have questioned the legality of the anti-strike provision in the auto bailout bill. Nevertheless, under the terms of the bailout, the strike ban remains in effect as long as the auto companies have outstanding loans from the government, setting the stage for contract negotiations in 2011 in which workers would not have the slightest leverage to reject demands for even more draconian givebacks.

This confirms the warnings by the World Socialist Web Site that the crisis of the US auto industry is being exploited by the American ruling elite to throw the working class back to conditions not seen since before the UAW and the other mass industrial unions were built in the 1930s.

FULL story at link.

[cap]

1. this is true only if the obama administration chooses to enforce the ban

obama doesn't have to enforce this.

[eleny]

2. Just like many governent employees :(

But when I was a member of AFSCME back in NY, we had all sorts of work actions that got the attention of my employer, the City.

Sure, it stinks. But not being able to strike doesn't preclude other methods of action if this clause prevails.

[WCGreen]

3. A ban on strikes but carte blanche on grabbing as much public money

as they can...

[Brucie Kibbutz]

4. We're headed straight to the poor house.

Well, those of us that aren't already there, that is. Our government is actively engaged in union busting while they take tax dollars from even the poorest workers among us and give it irresponsible and unethical billionaires. It's becoming more and more apparent that this country peaked decades ago and is on the downhill side now. All because it wasn't enough to make an obscene amount of money. It wasn't a successful business venture to simply end up with profit. For it to be successful, those profits had to come at the expense of wages, benefits, and quality of life for everyone else. This country is a fucking disgrace.