The Caterpillar Strike as Metaphor

[geefloyd46]

Not that anyone—least of all American factory workers over the last three decades—needs to be reminded that corporations have very little respect for working people, the International Association of Machinists (IAM) strike against the Caterpillar plant in Joliet, Illinois, removed any lingering doubts.

Judging by their actions, Caterpillar saw this negotiation as a unique opportunity to stick it to their workers. Indeed, its truculent, take-it-or-leave-it posture is emblematic of every offensive aspect of post-Reagan corporate arrogance. Labor relations have gone from hard-nosed collective bargaining to gladiatorial blood sport, with labor now shedding most of the blood. What used to be viewed as an undignified and unnecessary show of muscle by management, is now regarded as standard procedure.

What Caterpillar has said to the IAM is this: No matter how healthy we are as a company, no matter how profitable we become, and no matter how much cold, hard cash we manage to rake in, we will never, ever, under any conditions, share one more nickel with the hourly workforce than is absolutely, positively necessary. Which raises the question: Why is this company taking such a hard line with their long-time, loyal workers? Simple answer: Because they can.

While it was announced Wednesday that IAM district leadership (as opposed to local leadership, directly answerable to the rank-and-file) had reached a tentative agreement with Caterpillar management to end the 15-week strike (approximately 780 workers went out on May 1), there’s a good chance the local will reject the offer when they vote on Friday. No one can predict how these votes will go, especially after a lengthy strike, but given how disillusioned and resentful the membership it, a rejection is definitely a possibility.

According to reports, the company’s LBF (last, best and final offer) was very close to the concession-laden LBF that precipitated the strike in the first place and resulted in the membership spending 15 long, agonizing weeks on the bricks, drawing a paltry $150 a week in strike benefits. It’s going to be interesting to see how successful IAM’s apparatchiks are in persuading the membership to accept what is, by all accounts, a profoundly inferior contract.

Among other things, it calls for a staggering 6-year freeze on wages and benefits. A company making billions of dollars in profits off the backs of its workers insists on a 6-year wage freeze? How cold is that? And not only is this freeze being offered with a straight face, it’s being presented as one of those “If you don’t like it, pal, you can rot in Hell” propositions. It’s true. The company has indicated that if the union remains coy, they’re prepared to fire everybody and take their chances with a brand new workforce.

Full Story: http://laborspains.blogspot.com/2012/08/sent-to-me-by-friend-of-blog-tom.html

Original Post here: http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/08/17/the-caterpillar-strike-as-metaphor/

[Populist_Prole]

1. K&R. I'm too angry to say anything more right now though

[vverm]

2. All You Need Is a Caterpillar.

It was late summer and I was walking through an old but well maintained neighborhood on the outskirts of Harrisburgh with my girlfriend... Enjoying eachothers vibrations and general conscousness when out of knowwhere... A man on a stoop, talking to another man (in my perifrials) sais to the man "All you need is a caperpillar". We walk along, seconds of happy thoughts rush our minds. We are ment for eachother we thought, but together as one. Then at the same time we realise what the man on the stoop said "All you need is a caterpiller". We both laughed. I then told my girlfriend Joelle at the time that I'm going to write a book someday; that book will be called "All You Need Is A Caterpillar".

Good title. Didnt get to the post, thank you for the happy thought. -jake

[Hassin Bin Sober]

3. Hate to ruin it for you but they were probably discussing how to dispose of a body.