Profit drive to blame for Firestone tire deaths
(Union Talk column)
BY ERICA BRANDT
DETROIT--In the auto parts plant where I work, co-workers often relate stories of being told to inspect their parts for defects on the one hand, and then being told by their supervisor every time they find one to "let it go." To anyone who has ever worked in a factory, mine, or mill, this is probably a familiar scenario. One co-worker commented to me that "this is just like Firestone" when the bosses refused to address some problems she raised concerning a rework process she was asked to do. In an informal survey in the break room, I asked three co-workers who they thought was to blame for the Ford/Firestone tire recall. One said Firestone and the other two said both Ford and Firestone.
The Ford Explorer has been involved in 16,000 rollover accidents that caused 600 deaths. Sport utility vehicles (SUVs) are more prone to roll over than other vehicles because of their high center of gravity. Therefore, a tire failure that causes an accident can have more serious consequences in an SUV. These vehicles are involved in the bulk of rollover fatalities, which account for nearly 25 percent of the nation's annual traffic deaths.
These are appalling statistics. But the officials of my union, the United Auto Workers, which represents the workers who build these vehicles, have been silent during these revelations. This is an opportunity to explain and fight against what auto workers, steelworkers, tire workers, and others face in industry after industry: the brutal intensification of labor by the bosses. This speedup, cutting out quality control checks, the increase in unsafe conditions on the job, is the cause of this disaster. It is a chance for the unions to stand up and say, "We refuse to build any more unsafe vehicles or tires!"
At the latest count, approximately 103 deaths and 400 serious injuries in the United States--and more abroad--have been attributed to faulty tires produced by the Bridgestone/Firestone Tire giant and supplied mostly to the Ford Motor Company's Explorer. The tread has a tendency to separate from the body of the tire, causing rollovers and other tragic crashes at highway speed. In August, Bridgestone/Firestone issued a recall of 6.5 million Firestone tires.
Although representatives of these companies pontificate about their concerns for our safety, their primary concern is profits. Each corporation has been pointing the finger of blame at the other for the problem. Firestone officials have said the problem is that Ford recommended under-inflating the tires. Ford places the blame squarely on the tires, not the vehicle.
Even though the manufacturer's specifications for the Wilderness ATX tires was 30 psi, Ford recommended inflating the tires to 26 psi on the Explorer in order to create a smoother ride. Running under-inflated tires at high speeds generates higher temperatures that can contribute to the breakdown of the tires.
Ford first tried to put the blame on replacement workers at Bridgestone's plant in Decatur, Illinois, who worked there during a 1994-95 strike by the United Rubber Workers, which later merged into the United Steelworkers of America (USWA).
The USWA leadership echoed this view. But this is dead wrong. The blame for the faulty tires, and any other dangerous products that leave the factory floor, must be placed squarely on the corporation and its greedy profit drive. These deadly tires are not an aberration caused by the breakdown of an otherwise safe system. They are the inevitable result of the conditions created by the bosses under the lash of capitalist competition in the factories, mills, and mines--conditions that sacrifice the health and safety of workers and consumers alike, all for the sake of profits.
It is not true, as workers on strike often say, that strikebreakers can't do their jobs because they aren't qualified. Capitalism has been set up to make workers totally replaceable. The whole idea of a factory under capitalism is to continually simplify the work so that any pair of hands can be hired to perform the necessary functions. What we have going for us as workers is not our so-called skills, but our solidarity. This is the only thing we can count on to fight against the bosses.
Once a strike is over union workers sometimes work side by side with those who crossed their picket line. Then the challenge is to win these workers over to the union. That way the next time there's a struggle they'll be on the side of the union, on the side of solidarity. Ignoring them, isolating them, or harassing them only leads them further into the bosses' arms. Many of these workers will learn from their own experience on the job why they need to support the union.
One example is Tony Miller, a Bridgestone/Firestone worker who was hired by the company as a replacement worker about five years ago. He told the local Decatur newspaper that when he first started with Bridgestone/Firestone, he didn't think a union was needed. Now, however, he thinks differently.
"One thing I learned is you definitely need a union in here," he said. "This is the type of place where you need protection to prevent them from walking over you for profits. We've been educated through experience and the actions of the company." Miller and other replacement workers joined in a rally of about 250 workers to show support for the union when a recent strike authorization vote was taken.
One of the biggest problems we have as workers today is that our union leadership encourages us to identify with the company. After an agreement was reached recently that averted a possible strike at the tire company, John Sellers, a lead union negotiator for the USWA, said, "We're going to do everything we can to restore the public's faith in the company" so "everybody will be focused on the business of making tires."
But this is exactly the opposite of the attitude that's needed by the workers. We can't be drawn in by the false premise that "what's good for the company is good for the union." We have no common interests with the bosses. They are always trying to figure out how to augment capital by squeezing the most production from the fewest workers at the lowest wages possible. The working class needs to fight for decent working conditions at living wages, and eventually to end the wages system as a whole. These two class interests are always contradictory, which is why there can be no common ground.
By sticking with the need to advance the interests of all working people, and not what is needed by the company "family," we can take the moral high ground on every social question, including health and safety on the job. We can mobilize union power to stop production when the bosses are pushing us to produce unsafe products that can bring harm to people. Speedup, pushing to cut corners, or use of faulty materials are not the fault of union members or other workers. The bosses create these conditions. They are responsible for the problems with health and safety, both for the workers on the job, and in the products they make.
Workers at Firestone's Decatur plant said they were told by supervisors to puncture bubbles on tires to cover up flaws on products that should have been scrapped. They point out conditions such as high humidity in the plant make it more likely for corrosion to occur. Inspectors had a quota of 100 tires an hour, which made it almost impossible to scrutinize tires before they left the plant.
Workers who were paid on a piecework basis protested to the company that quality was being sacrificed for quantity. According to Clarence Wood, who worked in the plant until 1996, "When inspectors complained about the tires not being right, the response from management would be, 'You don't understand the tire business.' We knew the tires were bad," said Wood.
Taking up job safety and the production of unsafe products is a pressing moral challenge to the labor movement, and is why the struggle to strengthen the unions in face of company assaults is needed to defend the lives and limbs of working people. Instead of bowing to the company's profit drive and attempts to foster divisions in the working class, we can build a fighting union movement that reaches out for solidarity to other workers and farmers to wage a successful struggle to enforce safety and quality control on the job.
Erica Brandt works in an auto parts plant in Detroit and is a member of the United Auto Workers union.
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