BY JOHN SARGE
FLINT, Michigan - "I'm here to show support and get the union together," was how Steve Montefusco explained his and Chris Elliott's decision to drive from New Jersey to join the United Auto Workers union (UAW) picket lines in this industrial city, 65 miles north of Detroit. They were among the hundreds of unionists and others who gathered outside of the General Motors (GM) Delphi East plant on a rainy evening, June 11, to greet some of the 5,800 union members expected to join the strike against the auto giant.

Just after 7:00 p.m. hundreds of members of UAW Local 651 came marching out of the plant to cheers, chanting, "U-A- W, U-A-W," and "No Jobs, No Peace." Their gathered supporters included union members from across the area, small groups of unionists from farther afield, and family members.

Also present were scores of UAW Local 659 members carrying signs declaring "United We Stand." They were among the 3,400 workers who walked out at GM's Metal Fabrication Plant on the west side of town six days earlier.

Now 9,200 out of the 27,000 GM workers employed in this city of 134,000 are on strike. Montefusco, a painter with four years seniority at the auto giant's Linden Assembly Plant, said, "I'm hoping to set an example for other people in my local and show how we can stick together," when asked what he expected to gain out of his long drive. He and Elliott, a chaises assembler with three years on the line, were laid off earlier in the week due to a lack of parts caused by the first walkout.

The official reasons for the strike are health and safety, outsourcing, and sub-contracting issues. But like the nine strikes at GM plants last two years, workers at Delphi East see the central question as jobs. The work force at Delphi East has shrunk from more than 13,000 to the present 5,800 as GM has downsized. The auto giant has reduced its Flint-area workforce by two-thirds over the last 20 years. Local 651 struck Delphi for four days in 1996.

Strikers were in high spirits because between the two plants GM's whole North American operations are threatened. "Everything GM makes, we'll shut it down. This will show them," declared Linda Washington, a multi-function worker at Delphi East. Members of Local 651 produce fuel pumps, speedometers, and other small parts, while members of Local 659 produce large metal parts like fenders and engine cradles. Due to shortages of parts made at the two struck plants almost all GM assembly plants in North America are expected to be closed by the third week of the strike. On June 17 GM stocks closed at $69.75 - a nearly $7 drop from the start of the strike June 5.

GM, at the urging of Wall Street, seems to be digging in its heels for a drawn-out fight, even though UAW officials have made it clear that they want to quickly settle. As they did during the strike in Dayton in March 1996, the UAW leadership has agreed to send in some workers to work on non- GM products. Press reports indicate that between 100 and 200 members of Local 651 went back into the Delphi complex to produce parts destined for Wal-Mart, Chrysler, Harley- Davidson, and others. Some strikers have expressed opposition to this move. Those companies "won't be here if GM goes," Brenda Kelly, a parts inspector, told the Flint Journal. "I really feel [the strikers] should all be out here."

At the Metal Fabrication Center, union officials have been on a campaign to prove that they want to help GM increase productivity.

GM is prepared for a fight. The company was sitting on $13.6 billion in cash at the end of the first quarter. During the first week of the strike two internal memos designed to anger most workers and possibly scare some were leaked to the press. The first, a "corporate briefing paper," laid out the auto maker's plans to double the number of vehicles assembled in Mexico over four years. The implication is that the industrial giant will be shifting production from the United States and Canada to Mexico because it continues to lose market share. The second "leak" was that the auto bosses are considering closing GM's largest assembly plant, which employs 6,400 workers in Lordstown, Ohio, by 2003.

Even though the auto maker is losing an estimated $50-60 million a day, GM is pushing hard against the UAW, as international competition increases in a world of shrinking markets. The Wall Street Journal summed up this course with a headline in the June 12 issue, "For GM, a Hard Line On Strike Has Become a Matter of Necessity." The article claims that GM "has no choice but to fight for the right to run a streamlined, lower-cost company."

The big-business press points to GM's lost market shares versus its major competitors to claim that the auto giant needs to shed at least 40,000 more hourly workers to become as productive as the other auto companies. GM has already slashed the number of hourly workers in its factories by more than 80,000 in seven years.

This strike goes beyond just the workers in Flint or the bosses in the GM Building in Detroit. An estimate by Standard & Poor's research firm places the cost to the U.S. economy at $2 billion by the end of June. Thousands of auto parts workers are being laid off. Major railroads that supply GM factories and move cars are affected. Steelmakers will see their earnings shrink.

The workers in Flint are digging in for a protracted fight. Unionists reported that the locals were discussing setting regular solidarity days for the picket lines. A support action was called for the morning of June 17. Strikers invited their supporters to assemble at the Metal Fabrication Center and then travel to Delphi East.

Johnnie Earnest, with 23 years at Delphi East, captured the sentiment of most people this reporter talked to: "I'm staying out as long as it takes."

John Sarge is a member of the UAW in Wayne, Michigan, and is the Socialist Workers Party candidate for Congress in Michigan's 14th District.  
 
 
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