The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.61/No.6           February 10, 1997 
 
 
Workers Strike GM, Johnson Controls  

BY VAL LIBBY
MORAINE, Ohio - The 4,300 members of International Union of Electrical Workers (IUE) Local 801 reached a tentative agreement January 28, ending a three-day walkout at a General Motors truck assembly plant here. Meanwhile, 500 United Auto Workers (UAW) members went on strike at Johnson Controls auto parts plants in Michigan and Ohio.

The Moraine strike was the fourth work stoppage against the world's largest car maker in the past year. The GM plant was shut down tight by the Saturday night walkout, after the IUE workers rejected the local three-year contract by a vote of 1,990 to 1,534. The union was prepared for the strike. Several weeks ago some 3,800 IUE members had signed up for strike duty and gate captains had been assigned.

The Moraine plant is a final assembly plant for GM's popular Chevrolet Blazer, Oldsmobile, Bravada, and GMC Jimmy.

Although Local 801 members ratified the national GM contract in December, the local contract had been extended several times since it expired in September. System-wide, there are dozens of plants without local contracts.

John, a worker with 28 years' seniority, said the major issue of the strike was GM's "no fault" absentee policy. (John asked that his last name not be used out of fear of company retaliation.)

"Even if you have a doctor's excuse, the supervisor can still mark you with absenteeism," said the IUE worker. "That isn't right - anyone can get sick. If you get up in the morning and your child is sick and you come into work late, they will try to fire you. A lot of the women in the plant are worried about that," he said. In the past few years GM has hired more than 1,000 workers, many of them female, said the striker.

Random drug testing and alcohol screening was another issue that workers were concerned about. Some 800 grievances have been filed with the company, including 50 discharges, according to the union.

In reaching a tentative agreement GM "agreed to settle all grievances and to scrap a more restrictive absentee policy it had proposed," according to a AP news report.

The walkout caught the GM bosses off guard. This was captured by the Dayton Daily News headline, "IUE walkout puzzles GM."

In recent days, GM has trumpeted its plans to boost dividends to its shareholders and launch a big stock buyback. According to the January 24 Wall Street Journal, "Having largely resolved major items of business such as reaching new labor contracts and, more recently, agreeing to sell its Hughes defense unit, GM's top officials have made enhancing the value of the company's still-stagnant stock one of their top priorities."

But much remains unresolved. GM's "labor problems" are not behind them but ahead of them. After a 18-day strike last year at two GM brake plants in Dayton, Ohio, which shut down the company's car assembly production in North America, GM is again on the prod against UAW parts workers in Dayton. According to a January 16 USA Today report, "GM told 6,500 employees at two brake and two suspension plants that their futures are uncertain unless their factories can become more profitable."

"These plants are not earning the return that they need to," said a GM spokesman.

In a related development, some 500 UAW members at two Johnson Controls plants in Plymouth, Michigan, and Oberlin, Ohio, walked off the job January 28, as part of a fight for their first union contract. Johnson Controls is a major supplier of car seats in the auto industry. The company is asking for much lower wages than the $12 to $15 demanded by the union.

Close to 1,000 workers hit the picket lines in front of the Plymouth plant in solidarity with the strike. Many were UAW workers from Ford assembly plants in UAW Region 1A. There were also GM and Chrysler workers, as well as Detroit News strikers.

Johnson Controls organized scabs to replace the striking workers. But by noon, union officials reported to pickets, Ford had informed Johnson Controls that it would not accept seats from the struck plant. In an about face, four busloads of scabs were driven out of the plant by mid- afternoon.

Johnson Controls has been on a "union free" campaign for several years. Out of 30 of its auto parts plants, 24 are non-union. Both the Plymouth and Oberlin plants were unionized through a deal between Ford and UAW officials.

Reports in the big-business press have suggested that both the Plymouth and Oberlin plants were unionized as part of a deal between Ford and the UAW officials. "Johnson Controls recognized UAW representation for 300 workers in Plymouth and 200 workers in Oberlin last summer. That let Ford conclude national UAW talks and launch the Expedition without union complaints about work going to a nonunion shop," explained a January 28 AP news report.

John Sarge, member of UAW Local 900 in the Detroit area, and Frank Forrestal, member of UAW Local 551 in Chicago, contributed to the article.  
 
 
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