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- From: nyt%nyxfer%igc.apc.org@MIZZOU1.missouri.edu (NY Transfer News)
- Subject: Unemployment Up or Down? GM Layoffs Tell Real Story
- Message-ID: <1992Dec14.191617.8606@mont.cs.missouri.edu>
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- Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1992 19:16:17 GMT
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-
- Via The NY Transfer News Service * All the News that Doesn't Fit
-
-
- Up or Down? GM layoffs tell real story
-
- By Lyn Neeley
-
- Because of a small decline in November's unemployment figures,
- the government claims the economy is really perking up. For
- working people, however, a truer economic picture can be seen in
- the massive loss of full-time, higher-paying, union jobs with
- full benefits that were won through years of struggle by workers
- here.
-
- On Dec. 3, General Motors announced plans to close nine plants,
- eliminating 18,000 jobs. GM management's ultimate goal of 23
- plant closures in the U.S. means the permanent loss of 80,000
- union jobs.
-
- Last month, official unemployment eased two-tenths of a point to
- 7.2 percent. It's reported 105,000 jobs were created. Nearly half
- of these jobs--45,000--were temporary Election Day appointments
- at polling places. The other new jobs are predominantly
- non-union, part-time or seasonal work with little or no security
- or benefits. They are primarily low paying jobs in the service
- sector.
-
- GENERAL MOTORS
-
- Of the nine GM plants soon to close, seven produce auto parts. At
- its height GM profited by producing the majority of parts used
- the manufacture their own cars. Now, however, GM management is
- searching the world for the cheapest auto-parts suppliers. These
- are non-union plants in the U.S., Japan and other countries like
- Mexico where many of the GM plants have moved.
-
- Companies like these are able to produce low-cost parts because
- of the extremely low wages they pay workers.
-
- GM plans on "becoming a leaner company" by reducing production
- capacity in the U.S. by 25 percent. They hope to make up the $5.4
- billion loss they claim in the last seven quarters out of the
- hides of the GM workers. Most of the planned reductions are in
- the auto-parts division.
-
- United Auto Workers member Diane Mathiowetz, who works in a
- Buffalo GM auto-parts plant, told Workers World "the lay-offs
- have caused tremendous anxiety among all the workers."
-
- Mathiowetz works in a plant that is "supposedly" staying open.
- "But," she said, "extensive plant closures has caused a ripple
- effect because of the increased pressure on those of us left who
- are forced to work harder--to produce more with fewer people.
- I've been working a great deal of overtime since February and
- we're looking over our shoulder the whole time."
-
- UNITED AUTO WORKERS
-
- The gains of unionized labor, now under attack, were won in major
- struggles beginning in the 1930s.
-
- The UAW was born out of a fierce class struggle against GM that
- culminated in a series of sit-down strikes in November 1936.
- Thousands of auto workers at GM plants in cities across the U.S.
- refused to be victimized by low-wages, speed-ups and oppressive
- working conditions. Supported by huge picket lines of thousands
- of women, children and union men from all over the mid-west,
- workers at four plants in Flint, Mich., initiated a crucial
- sit-down strike that lasted 44 days.
-
- GM officials, the cops, Flint's Mayor and national troops
- viciously attacked the strikers and picketers. They threatened
- mass murder of the sit-downers, used tear-gas and shot into the
- crowds, wounding women and children. Because of the strikers
- relentless strength, stamina and unity they were victorious and
- the UAW was established. It was the first big industrial union
- to represent all the workers in the industry.
-
- The Labor Department boasts that as of November only 9.2 million
- people are out of work--800,000 fewer than in June. But job
- security and conditions for workers won through unions like the
- UAW are eroding.
-
- Mathiowetz commented, "After Clinton was elected, the message he
- gave poor and working people was to be patient, wait, give him a
- chance to solve the economic problems that can't be solved
- overnight. But," she said, "Clinton is not telling GM, American
- Airlines or IBM to be patient and postpone laying off workers
- until he solves the economy."
-
- Mathiowetz said what workers need is to "tell Clinton we can't
- wait. Poor and working people need full-time union jobs which
- include benefits so we can afford the increases in food and
- housing." She said, "We need to build a working class movement
- capable of defeating the corporations that are gnawing at the
- gains we once made."
-
- (Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted
- if source is cited. For more info contact Workers World, 46 W. 21
- St., New York, NY 10010; "workers" on PeaceNet; on Internet:
- "workers@mcimail.com".)
-
-
- NY Transfer News Service * All the News that Doesn't Fit
- Modem: 718-448-2358 * Internet: nytransfer@igc.apc.org
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