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Auto Workers Told to Take Concessions, Abandon Retirees
“Our community is expanding: MRZine viewers have increased in number, as have the readers of our editions published outside the United States and in languages other than English. We sense a sharp increase in interest in our perspective and its history. Many in our community have made use of the MR archive we put […]
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After Wildcat Strike against Concessions, Freightliner Workers Fight for Their Jobs
Cleveland, a small town with less than 1,000 residents in western North Carolina, is an unlikely home for an active autoworkers’ union. Freightliner LLC (now owned by Daimler) opened a truck-manufacturing plant in the town in 1989. The United Auto Workers won an important toehold victory in the growing, mostly non-union manufacturing sector in the […]
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Jobs, Wages, Health Care, Pensions — All in Jeopardy as Chrysler Is Sold to Private Firm
Auto workers are bracing for a bumpy road ahead at Chrysler, following the May 14 announcement that Daimler-Chrysler (DCX) would sell off 80 percent ownership of the company to Cerberus Capital Management, a private equity firm. The surprise sale may tip the balance of power further against the United Auto Workers (UAW) as the union […]
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Worker Centers Increasingly Are Forging Alliances with Unions
This August, the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON), a network of over 140 worker centers that organize mostly immigrant day laborers, entered into an agreement that would allow worker centers to apply for membership with local and state federations of the AFL-CIO. The agreement could signal a new chapter in the way organized labor […]
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Made in (Deunionized) America: Despite Closings at Ford, GM, and Delphi, New Auto Parts Industry Springing Up in Michigan
Industry experts from Wall Street to Washington are busy writing the obituary of the U.S. auto industry — but someone needs to tell the Motor City. In sharp contrast to the current wave of buyouts at Ford, General Motors, and Delphi, new auto parts plants continue to spring up across Southeast Michigan. Conditions in these […]
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Auto Workers Plan Public and In-Plant Resistance to Wage Cuts
“This is why we’re fighting,” this Delphi worker said, carrying her grandson on a picket line in Flint. Photo: Jim West. Rank-and-file United Auto Workers members stepped up their organizing efforts in December, forming a group called Soldiers of Solidarity (SOS) and planning actions to confront concessions. Meanwhile, auto parts maker Delphi pushed back the […]
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Delphi’s Demands Provoke Auto Worker Resistance: Rank and Filers Strategize over Concessions
After years of creeping concessions, United Auto Workers (UAW) rank and filers received an offer they had to refuse. When Delphi proposed to cut workers’ wages by two-thirds on October 8, the anger and anxiety wasn’t limited to those working in the struggling auto parts company’s plants — it spread to concerned workers across the […]