Here's a report from the UAW/Ford plant in St. Paul. The working class needs to consider supporting auto workers.... wherever and whenever they need us... todd/cwa 7200

"Often, when the younger generation in the union wants to learn about the 30's, they're always left with the impression that all the exciting and great battles are behind us. But it will be said of you that you performed an equally historic function, in helping the membership reclaim its great union."

"The peculiar thing is, labor has more resources today than it ever had in the thirties. The white-collar anti-union stereotype is over; schoolteacher, nurses, flight attendant - all organizing. All labor leadership needs now is strategy, imagination, and guts."

Victor Reuther,

"Divide and conquer. As long as some people have commanded the work of others, this has been management's basic principle."

Peter Rachliff, Labor historian

DID WE WIN?

Autoworker Report by Tom Laney, Shop Committeeman

"What the hell's going on out there?" - Vince Lombardi.

Must be common knoweldge amongst all our uncommonly astute Vi Queens "fans" that I beleive Brett Favre is the greatest quarterback to ever play the game. Ever. Thanks for all your kind, analytical, remedial remarks following the Rams game. Lemme tell YOU something: We would have won that game had we not run out of time. And, my spoted soul is doted with millions of teeney little No. 4s so remember: Sticks and stones may break my bones but the Packers and Favre will kick the Queens butt twice next year and go all the way. You read it here first. Thought I should get that out of the way up front.

Onward thru the fog:

It is sad that Ford has decided to shut down 35,000 work lives. Sadder still, that this is only the beginning. Thrashing and churning through the competitive chaos and crapola at the local level should shave another 10,000 to 15,000 jobs off the rolls in a year or so and give us that all-important elbow room that we need for more and more work acceleration. I can't wait to get back to a real job and take on that challenge of doing two jobs for the wages of one. Quite an opportunity.

How do you guys think of all this great stuff?

I would like to publicly thank all those who were so instrumental and sucessful in identifying our own union brothers and sisters as the enemy, the "competition" to be beaten. Helping the company turn auto assembly plants into parking lots had to be one of the unannounced, unseen goals of our union, reveleved only in recent years with the discard of union solidarity and the advent of dog eat dog company unionism. How could we have missed the sheer, productive brilliance of all this for so many years?

I look forward to the day when the favor will be returned. Nothing could be better for our children and grand-children than experiencing character-building astronomical unemployment and depression.

I'd also like to thank those who have taken the lead in ignoring what this competition has done to us and our agreements, who persevere down this greedy road to ever more with less, greater efficiencies and productivity, better profits and fewer and fewer people. This sort of courageous leadership and persistence in continuing - even intensifying - the didsaster of competing against each other is commendable. Thank you so much for refusing to be confused by facts!

I'm sure the orthopoedic surgeons and the assorted stress doctors will be making their own thank yous somewhere along the line too. I've waited a long time to work twice as hard and the prospect of helping out some poor industrial surgeon's kid thru Harvard Business School is real exciting!

No doubt this escalation of job shrinkage, life-wrecking, community destruction and oberall meataxing and the convivial way it was deleivered by Bill Ford, Steve Yokich and President Appointed Ronny Gettelfinger deserves wide acclaim. How lucky we are to have leaders who understand so well the profit business! We can only hope they will not wait long before rewarding themselveswith some well-deserved R&R in Vegas. Thank you so much for all you do for us fellas!

So, what can be done about these plant closings? What used to be done? Autoworkers used to seize plants and stay in them until they got what they needed from amagement. They would depnd on other workers to defend their plant occupations by throwing up picketline around the plants. This was fairly effective. It was so effective that big unions eigned these actions in and made them very hard to do. Then we tried to manage everything thru contracts. Then we got to where we are.

So what do you think would happen if the Edison workers occupied their plant in the interest of winning an agreement to keep the plant open? If Edison workers were willing to do something like this would other workers support them?

I think they would because we hve terrific people doing this already. I think they would because we have members of our own local traveling on their vacation time to support other folks right now.

Two weeks ago, Mike Melville, Jim Blackbird, Joel Gobats took a day of their own time and drove to Louisville to support strikers who asked for our help. Pat Doolan, Joe Callahan, Ed Bastyr, Al McKinnis and I went to Janesville to do the same. With no lost time, no 4-star hotel, no Palm Springs warmth, no no per diem, no Vegas sun, no lavish banquest with mangement, no free drinks, no thoughts of getting appointed jobs; e went to these places just to talk with other autoworkers.We had a great time!

We're happy to report that there are some wonderful people out there!! We met Ford workers at Louisville and GM workers in Janesville. We talked about solidarity and ending competition between us and working together.

We talked union and met alot of good people who are sacred silly about their jobs and futures because they are afraid we can't depend on each other anymore. But we can. We just have to keep working at it.

Before this trip, members of our local solidarity committee attended organizing meetings on two weekends in Bloomington, Illinois with Mitsubishi, CAT, The Charlston Five and Local 2036 members. We're meeting great, great union people. Everyone's invited to join us whenever you can.

There's no agenda, no obligation, no duties, just the hope of starting a movement that will bring people together.

Would plant occupations still work? The Candian Auto Workers (CAW) still do them and win. The Candians say they will strike to keep Ontario Truck open.

Why not us? Seizing a plant might make more sense than golfing in Vegas right?

I was asked to raise this as sort of a recon, feeler-type action. Now I'm assigned to absorb your thoughts on the plant seizure subject. Leave Brett Favre out of this oneok? The same guys who tell me how much No. 4 sucks also tell me I'm too radical to be beat up politically anymore, therefore Im the guy to float the plant sit-in idea.

The only difference between these conservative friends and me is that I don't think this is a radical idea at all. It's a practical one. Please share your opinions with me on this. I can hardly wait!

Feb. 11 is White Shirt Day. Wear a white shirt to work in memory of the UAW heroes whogave us this union. Don't get it any dirtier than the boss gets his.

Cleaning memo: Guys older than me by lots got us our cleaning agreement. We do not need production workers doing janitor work. Our contract says when the plantis dirty we call it to management's atention and they assenble our cleaners to clean it up. Why messwith this agreement? Check it out on Page 95 of the Local Contract. Respect the work of others who came before us.

What they did for us was not easy. It should never be given away.

Also, our Teamster friends continue to warn us about possible outsourcing of train work and the possibility that Ford may try to replace the Teamster carhaulers with scab outfit Fleet Car. Support the Teamsters. Support the TriLevel workers. This train unload work is ours. If any additional work comes in that's good but we do not intend to let any work go.

Be ready.

Happy White Shirt Day!

Tom Laney
Ship Committeeman

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