https://themilitant.com/2019/10/26/strikers-all-mack-truck-cares-about-is-profits/
Strikers: ???All Mack Truck cares about is profits???
By John Staggs
Vol. 83/No. 40
November 4, 2019
Mack Truck strikers rally in Macungie, Pennsylvania, Oct. 20, part of
3,600 out on strike. ???The company just thinks about profits,??? said
striker Steve Gerhard. ???The union is our fraternity.???
Militant/Roy Landersen
Mack Truck strikers rally in Macungie, Pennsylvania, Oct. 20, part of
3,600 out on strike. ???The company just thinks about profits,??? said
striker Steve Gerhard. ???The union is our fraternity.???
MACUNGIE, Penn. ??? More than 3,600 United Auto Workers members on strike
at Mack Truck plants in five cities are standing up to the bosses??? steep
concession contract demands. Sweden-based Volvo Group owns Mack.
They went on strike Oct. 13 in the face of Volvo???s demands to expand the
hiring of temporary workers at lower pay and benefits than permanent
workers get, jack up the cost of health insurance, maintain divisive
wage tiers with six years to reach full pay, and other anti-worker demands.
Volvo wants to eliminate a clause in previous contracts that requires
the UAW to have a say before the company builds any new factories.
Workers here worry the company is talking about building a new plant in
California and shifting work there.
Several hundred strikers and family members rallied outside the plant
here Oct. 20, the day before UAW Local 677 was set to restart
negotiations with the bosses. They were joined by other supporters,
including members of the Teamsters union, Communications Workers of
America and officials of the AFL-CIO Central Labor Council.
Volvo had profits of $1.12 billion in the third-quarter of last year,
nearly $100 million more than the same period the year before. But sales
this year are running way behind 2018, as trucking slows down along with
the capitalist economy.
Steve Gerhard, a 22-year veteran at the plant, told the Militant during
the rally, ???The company just thinks about profits. The union is our
fraternity and we need to keep people informed about the real issues.???
Jake Schantzenbach has worked on the assembly line for five years. ???I
didn???t have to go through the six-year progression to get full pay, but
the new hires now get a 1% raise each year for the first five years and
then the big jump to full pay the sixth year. That needs to change,??? he
said. ???Getting ready for this contract fight has gotten everyone working
together the most I have seen.???
After the rally some workers made the nearly 2-mile walk to bring their
kids to visit every picket station, telling me they wanted to raise them
in the spirit of standing up for the rights of the working class.
Nine picket tents are stationed at entrances around the massive assembly
plant here, the largest of the Mack Truck factories, with some 2,000
workers. Local residents, other area union members and small businesses
keep up steady deliveries of coffee, donuts, pizzas and hand warmers for
picketers.
Bosses push to keep pay down
Two days before the rally, Volvo Group President and CEO Martin
Lundstedt insisted the company is ???not ready to compromise.??? He said
they had to keep costs down, because their major competitors ??? Daimler,
Paccar and Navistar ??? ???have the majority of their production in Mexico,???
while ???we have 100% of our production for North America in the U.S.???
Trying to increase the pressure on strikers, the company cut off
workers??? medical coverage.
???After the first year, you get a raise of just 18 cents,??? picket captain
Allen Starr told Militant worker-correspondents on a solidarity visit
four days earlier. ???Besides job security, the pay tiers is the biggest
issue for me.???
Besides the Macungie plant, Mack Truck workers are on strike at a
Middletown plant that rebuilds older trucks, the big powertrain factory
in Hagerstown, Maryland, and facilities in Baltimore and in
Jacksonville, Florida.
Candace Wagner in Union City, New Jersey, contributed to this article.
???
GM workers debate, vote on new contract
BY MAGGIE TROWE
BOWLING GREEN, Ky. ??? Some 49,000 United Auto Workers union members have
begun voting on the proposed contract union officials negotiated with
General Motors after the longest strike since 1970 at the company???s 33
factories and 22 parts warehouses across the country. The picket lines
remain up pending the result of the vote, set to be completed by Oct. 25.
The 850 UAW members at Aramark, under contract to perform maintenance
and cleaning at five GM plants in Michigan and Ohio, are also voting on
a new contract.
The striking workers have won widespread solidarity, because working
people see the stakes in their fight for the entire working class.
Workers at nonunion auto plants, where the percentage of lower paid
temporary workers is even higher than at GM, are watching the strike and
vote closely.
And the strikers gained self-confidence. ???They didn???t think that we
would stay out this long,??? Derek Cordell told the Militant on the picket
line outside the Corvette plant here. ???It shows when we stand together
and fight for what we believe in we can win.???
UAW Local 1853 members at GM???s large Spring Hill, Tennessee, plant, with
3,300 workers, voted the contract down 51% to 49% Oct. 21. The day
before workers at Saginaw and Warren, Michigan, facilities, with some
1,800 UAW members, voted overwhelmingly in favor.
There is a real debate among workers over the contract. They went on
strike Sept. 16 after GM bosses demanded expanding the number of
temporary workers ??? over 7% of the GM workforce who make half the wages
of permanent workers ??? keeping a divisive eight-year-long two-tier wage
???progression??? for regular workers, closing four plants, and other attacks.
The auto barons claimed they need to save money on labor costs to
compete with GM???s nonunion rivals. Some 56% of auto assembly plants in
the U.S. ??? primarily Toyota, Honda, Hyundai and Volkswagen ??? are nonunion.
Workers fought to make temporary workers permanent, an end to two-tier
wages, and guarantees of ???job security.???
GM withdrew its demand to jack up the cost of health insurance before
the strike began. In the tentative deal, GM also dropped some of its
steepest concession demands. Full-time temporary workers would be made
permanent after three years of continuous work, and regular workers, who
start out at half the wages of those hired prior to 2009, would make top
rate in four years instead of eight. But union officials agreed to let
the bosses shutter three of the four plants slated to be closed.
For this reason, leaders of the UAW in Lordstown, Ohio, which is closed,
are calling for a no vote.
Mike Yakim, a UAW member at GM???s Landing Delta Township, Michigan,
plant, told the Detroit Free Press that he is skeptical of the proposed
deal for temporary workers. ???What???s to say they run you two years and
six months and lay you off for 31 days???? he said. ???Then the seniority is
broken and you???re back to square one. I don???t trust General Motors.???
John Ryan Bishop, a worker at the Flint assembly plant, told the Free
Press, ???Overall, I do think it???s a pretty good deal especially on the
in-progression workers [permanent workers on a lower pay tier]. We???re
staying above inflation in terms of our wage gains.???
Militant worker-correspondents met Kenneth Matczak, who works on the
Corvette assembly line, while going door to door in Bowling Green Oct.
18. ???I???m going to vote against the contract proposal,??? he said. ???Three
years for temps to become full employees isn???t right.?? The whole point
of the strike is to eliminate that separation between us.???
Related Articles
Support strikers at GM, Mack Truck, Asarco mines
KEARNY, Ariz. ??? A battle is unfolding here in the face of the attempt by
the Asarco copper bosses to break the strike that began Oct. 13 by
almost 2,000 members of the United Steelworkers, Teamsters and seven
other unions???
Anti-labor outfit attacks autoworker, miner strikes
At a time when tens of thousands of union workers at General Motors,
Mack Truck, Asarco copper mines and smelters, and in Chicago schools are
fighting the bosses and need solidarity, the anti-labor World Socialist
Web Site is working overtime???
32,500 Chicago teachers, school workers strike for new contract
CHICAGO ??? Some 25,000 Chicago Teachers Union members and 7,500 school
support staff ??? custodians, bus aides, special education assistants,
teaching assistants and more, members of Service Employees International
Union Local 73 ??? walked out here Oct. 17. They set???
In This Issue
Front Page Articles ???Support strikers at GM, Mack Truck, Asarco mines
???Strikers: ???All Mack Truck cares about is profits???
???Liberals drive to oust Trump built on fear of working class
???Militant, books drive advances solidarity with union battles
???Mass protests in Lebanon unite toilers in fight to bring down gov???t
???Oberlin appeals court victory by bakery in college???s smear campaign
???32,500 Chicago teachers, school workers strike for new contract
Feature Articles ???Support labor struggles, vote SWP!
Also In This Issue ???US rulers step up economic war against Cuban Revolution
???Catalonia protests hit jailing of independence leaders
???Socialist Workers Party says workers need our own party
???Protest anti-Semitic attack on German synagogue
???UK rulers seek to get around 2016 vote to get out of EU
???Anti-labor outfit attacks autoworker, miner strikes
???Youth, unions protest government attacks in Chile
???Fall Campaign to sell Militant subscriptions and books Oct. 5 - Dec. 10
(Week 2)
???Socialist Workers Party Fund Drive Oct. 5 - Dec. 10 (Week 2)
Books of the Month ???Fidel: UN support for US attack on Iraq is ???shameful
day???
25, 50 and 75 years ago
Corrections
?? Copyright 2019 The Militant?? -?? 306 W. 37th Street, 13th floor -?? New
York, NY 10018?? -?? themilitant@xxxxxxx
Cookies
This site uses cookies to improve your experience. Learn more.
Okay, thank
--
---
Albert Einstein
???Blind belief in authority is the greatest enemy of truth.???
??? Albert Einstein