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On Strike! Workers Fight Boss' Attacks

By VVAW

Scarcely a day passes when the evening news or daily newspaper doesn't talk about a strike--one that's going on or just settled or about to happen. If it isn't a big national strike, it's a local strike. Usually, the news items are accompanied by dire predictions and thunderings of economic doom from some government expert or corporate executive. "Inflationary," they bleat; "The economic recovery will suffer."

They're right that their "economic recovery" is moving right along, for the moment, though it won't last. First quarter earning reports for major corporations averaged around 100% improvement this year over a year ago with Dupont up 600% and Honeywell up 1,165%. Economic recovery is a temporary reality to the corporations and fat cat owners. But ask the worker who was laid off a year ago and still can't find work. Or the veteran who is unemployed and trying to scrape by the $270 per month from the GI Bill. Or the worker who has a job but finds that recovery means forced overtime and speed up, or whose wage increases three years ago haven't come close to keeping up with inflation. Economic recovery is just one more lie, brought to us by the people who sponsored lies about Vietnam and more lies about Watergate.

The economic crises is still with us and the bosses are still trying to make us pay for their crisis. But in 1976 they've come up against a year when major contracts are expiring: teamsters, rubber, electrical, construction, garment, and auto contracts all are up this year, along with hundreds of smaller contracts around the country. And workers don't forget quite as easy as the bosses would like--they remember all the layoffs in the past two years and the way contracts have been gutted in the past and he way in which their union leaders have, in the past, sold out the rank and file.

With all of this in mind, 400,000 truckdrivers and warehousemen, members of the Teamsters Union, approached the first national contract of the year. On March 31, they went out on their first-ever nationwide strike. Although the strike didn't last long, some Midwest teamsters wildcatted even after the settlement. But the importance of this strike was not its length; it was significant that it happened at all.

The trucking industry leaders tried hard to prevent the strike, so they could get by with a minimum settlement. They had powerful allies in other bosses in the US ruling class, since other corporate executives and their mouthpieces in government knew that the teamster contract could set a pattern for other major contracts to come. The bosses had another ally in Frank Fitzsimmons, head of the Teamsters Union, who said before the strike, "We have never had a national strike in this union and I will do anything possible to ward off any work stoppage." All of these forces combined to try to stifle the struggle of the Teamsters' membership.

The attacks on members came from many sides. The trucking companies tried to say how broke they were and, when negotiations began, offered absolutely nothing. The media screamed about how, if the teamsters went on strike, they would hurt other workers, an old divide and conquer tactic. And, to keep the pressure on Fitzsimmons as well as stab at the union, there were threats of investigation of the Teamster Pension Fund and a national TV "expose" of corruption in the union--none of these things because the capitalists care how Fitzsimmons runs the union so long as he can "control" his membership, but to turn the screws a little tighter.

None of these tactics worked. As one striking driver described the situation, "The only reason (Fitzsimmons and the union leadership) sanctioned the strike is because they know we were staying out. We're all fed up and this time we're beginning to stick together." Groups began to organize against a union leadership sell-out. Teamsters across the country began to organize to fight the companies and their union leadership. Through their militance, some of their demands were won.

With one eye on the gains won by the Teamsters and another on their sell-out contract of three years ago, the 68,000 rubber workers, members of the United Rubber Workers (URW) went out on strike on the 20th of April. Over the period of the last contract, rubber workers' standards of living had been going down, as the small wage increases gotten back in 1973 had been more than gobbled up by inflation. And the rank and file were in no mood to allow a similar contract this time around: they started out with demands for a 40% pay hike, better pensions, and unlimited cost of living increases. In fact the membership was angry enough at the last contract that Peter Bommarito, URW President, was not even elected from his home local as a delegate to the last union convention. This anger forced the union leadership into a strong position in negotiations and, when the companies tried to run their sob stories, the union leadership had no choice but to call for a strike. In the past strikes have been directed against only one of the big four tire makers, but, since the companies have a "mutual aid pact" to compensate whichever one is struck, this has not been effective though it has gotten union leadership off the hook. This time, however, all four companies were struck.

And struck hard. At the international headquarters of Goodrich, workers carried a telephone pole to block a gate. Cops jumped them, hospitalizing several and arresting six. The public outrage was so strong the county was forced to suspend one deputy sheriff for hitting a striker with a flashlight. And when a court injunction prevented more than 4 strikers at a gate, one Goodyear gate was manned by four 55 gallon drums--with 20 workers acting as "visitors" to one side.

Anxiously watching the results of the Teamsters and Rubber workers struggles were the giant car makers wondering if their fat profits were threatened. Already, rank and file auto workers are organizing to fight for a good contract; members of a rank and file group, Auto Workers United to Fight in '76, staged a demonstration on the first day of a Special Bargaining Convention, the place where the United Autoworkers union was making plans for negotiations in the fall. Among the rank and file demands and "Defend and Extend Our Right to Strike Over Speed-up & All Grievances," No More Forced Overtime and No Overtime in Any Plants Where Workers Are On Layoff," and "An Improved Cost of Living Allowance & Across the Board Wage Increase."

In each of these strikes, there's more on the table than simply wages. For sure workers have to get paid to keep up with inflation which shoots prices out of sight. But, in this time of economic crises, wages are only one problem as the ruling class of the country tries to shift the burden of their crises on to working people. In the plant after plant, full-time workers are laid off and temporary workers put in their place, saving the bosses a few more nickels. Speed-up and forced overtime are common. These add up to a powerful number of reasons that rank and file union members around the country are forcing their leadership to take a stand in this contract year. As a worker on strike for two months against Budweiser said, "What good does it do to have good wages if they can make you work twelve hours a day, lay you off and replace you with part-time help, and run all over you with a lousy excuse for a grievance procedure like we got? There is a lot more than money at stake here."

A lot more at stake. Each strike and each striking worker underlines a fundamental point. Harvey Firestone with all his piles of money can't create a single tire. Henry Ford with his millions can't build a single a car. It's the workers who make the tires and make the cars, and who create the wealth. And it's the workers who have the power to say no, we won't continue to create under these conditions of layoff, overtime, speed-up. For the bosses, 1976 will be a long year.