Main Street

Solidarity Forever

I got the news about Toyota looking at its North American manufacturing structure. They’re thinking about when to open a plant in Mississippi (or, maybe, if?) and if they should keep a California operation running (yeah, that’s the one that is a UAW represented plant that was a joint venture with
GM). I think this is the money quote from the Detroit News:

“That put us in a very difficult position,” Inaba said. “We are carefully evaluating all the options.”

He didn’t commit to a timetable for a decision on Nummi, but said a decision would be made “quite soon.” He said Toyota hadn’t received an incentive package from California yet.

The hourly workers at Nummi are represented by the United Auto Workers, and the contract expires next month. Inaba said the UAW contract “is one consideration, but not the single deciding factor.”

Think about that for just a minute. Toyota is hurting. Sales are down 38% over a year ago, but then again, all vehicle sales are down 35%. With sales down, they’re not looking at reducing costs, being more efficient, maybe even rolling layoffs, nope, not Toyota, they are looking at closing one of the few union plants they have. That’s their bang for their buck.

But Toyota is not unusual. Even in the International labor market, they aren’t doing anything that the corporate big brothers do on a daily basis. Take Morocco, did you know there’s a pilot’s union? Or that they were on strike for 3 days last week? It’s true.

And why?

Well, Reuters captured it well:

RAM has rejected the pilots’ demand that it give priority to Moroccans over foreign pilots at its low-cost subsidiaries Atlas Blue and RAM Express, saying it made sense to hire non-Moroccans whose salaries are more than 20 percent lower.

Corporations seem to get all the breaks, don’t they?

We treat them like they exist as equals to human beings, but the reality is they aren’t.

Corporations have one motive, profit. Screw the workers. Screw the environment. Nothing matters except profits. And does that surprise any of us?

I suppose nothing surprises me anymore. I’m just a bit tired of how often we as workers allow ourselves to be pitted against one another, like in the Moroccan pilots case. Their union negotiated wage and other benefits. They worked for years to represent the pilots, then the company decides to expand
and cut out the very workers that made them a success and able to expand in the first place. Instead, RAM decides to bring in foreign pilots who will make about 20% less in pay.

The only way to combat this epidemic is to do what unions have always done well, come together, in Solidarity.

To our brothers and sisters at Toyota and those who pilot the planes of Royal Air Maroc, you are in my thoughts.

Tags: unions