“Everyone high up in the UAW must
have known what was going on”
US autoworkers react to
new UAW corruption indictments
By a WSWS reporting team
25 August 2017
US autoworkers contacted by the World
Socialist Web Site Autoworker Newsletter expressed disgust and
anger over the results of a federal investigation into allegations of bribery
of top United Auto Workers (UAW) officials by Fiat Chrysler (FCA) executives.
“I don’t support those people [the UAW]. They don’t support me,” a
worker with many years’ seniority at Ford Michigan Assembly in Wayne, Michigan,
west of Detroit said. “The UAW hides behind a logo. I don’t trust them, and I
don’t talk to them.”
According to the indictments, FCA funneled
some $4.5 million to
top UAW executives to
encourage them to “take company-friendly
positions.”
Those indicted include UAW Associate Director Virdell King, a top official in
the UAW Chrysler department, and Monica Morgan, the widow of General
Holiefield, the former vice president in charge of UAW negotiations with FCA.
Also named was FCA Vice President for Employee Development Alphons Iacobelli,
who allegedly made the illegal payments to the UAW officials via funds from the
UAW-Chrysler National Training Center (NTC).
The revelations follow a revolt by FCA workers, who in 2015 voted
down a sellout agreement accepted by the UAW that maintained the two-tier wage
system and alternative work schedule (AWS), and expanded the number of
temporary and part-time workers. While UAW President Dennis Williams claims he
had no knowledge of the scandal, court documents show that former UAW President
Bob King confronted Holiefield and Iacobelli in 2011 over payments to Morgan’s
fake charity.
A young FCA Warren Truck worker told
the World Socialist Web Site Autoworker Newsletter that she
was outraged to hear of the indictments. “Nobody likes the AWS,” she said. “It
keeps us away from our families. There were a lot of other things they took
away from us, like COLA [cost-of-living allowance]. That was part of the
bribery.”
Following the 2015 contract, Fiat Chrysler had placed thousands of
workers on temporary layoff at the Sterling Heights Assembly Plant (SHAP)
outside of Detroit and at the Toledo Jeep complex. She said that the layoffs
had created a great deal of concern and uncertainty among workers and that the
UAW had facilitated the extended closures, offering no opposition.
“Now Warren Truck is about to go through it too,” she said, noting
that the UAW was giving workers no information.
The revelations related to the direct bribery of UAW further
demonstrate the role of the UAW as a tool of management. The NTC was just one
of many arrangements between the UAW and the auto companies set up in previous
decades to transfer money from the auto companies into the coffers of the UAW.
In return, the UAW collaborates in imposing the dictates of management on the
backs of autoworkers. The arrangements amount to the establishment of a company
union, something supposedly banned under US labor law.
A veteran worker at the General Motors Delta Township plant near
Lansing, Michigan, also spoke to the WSWS. “Everyone high up in the UAW must
have known what was going on. There were more palms being greased.
“If Holiefield, who was a UAW VP, was in on it, I am sure [former
UAW President Ron] Gettelfinger was in on it. I am sure he was aware what was
going on.
“Now that the UAW owns stock through the VEBA [retiree health care
trust fund], everything needs to be put to rest.
“They raised our union dues saying we had to prepare to strike, but
there was no strike. But our union dues did not go down. Every time we get a
bonus, they take a chunk out of that. What do we gain?”
He expressed especial disgust with the two-tier wage imposed with
the assistance of the UAW. “Two people are doing the same job, but one is
receiving half the pay and half the benefits. That is unheard of!”
The WSWS explained that workers need to form rank-and-file
committees independent of the UAW to provide genuine shop floor representation
for workers. “Union officials should not be making any more than a worker,” he
said. “This shows how badly they need to be monitored.”
WSWS reporters also recently spoke to workers at Ford about the
UAW corruption case. In 2015, there were many allegations that the UAW resorted
to ballot-stuffing at the Ford River Rouge plant to ensure the narrow passage
of the sellout national agreement.
A tier-two Ford worker who recently hired into the Rouge Plant in
Dearborn, Michigan, west of Detroit, at a fraction of standard pay, said, “I
always thought it was corrupt. It just goes to show you that there was
something illegal going on, something corrupt.”
A veteran worker at Ford Rouge added, “I’m sure they are all
taking the money, taking luxury vacations and having fun on us. They’re going
to court, but they’ll get a lawyer and get off. It’s always the poor folks who
go to jail, the innocent who serve time because they have no money.”
The Ford Michigan Assembly worker added,
“They gave themselves a
7.2% raise and froze
our wages. They are lining their own pockets.
And they are
supposed to be fighting for my
rights? That’s ridiculous.
“We have known about corruption in the union for a long time. The
UAW is part of the company. There is no negotiating the contract. Ford dictated
the terms of it. We all know the contract was fixed.”
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