Somebody has to start the fight against concessions! Why not Ford workers?

[Hannah Bell]

We are Ford workers who fought against the last concessions and we are ready to fight against them again.

Alan Mulally and other Ford executives have made it clear – they want more concessions from Ford workers. Just 2 months after Ford workers gave up major concessions, company executives are demanding more. They want the same concessions that GM and Chrysler got from the UAW.

The concessions at GM and Chrysler matched the Ford contract, and went even further. GM and Chrysler retirees lose part of their medical coverage (dental and vision). But even more destructively to all autoworkers, the UAW leadership agreed to binding arbitration in the 2011 contract. They gave up the union’s right to strike. They gave an arbitrator the right to bring down our wages and benefits even further in 2011, to the level of the transplants, even as the transplants are preparing to lower THEIR wages and benefits.

If it wasn’t clear to everyone before, it certainly should be now – concessions have nothing to do with the economy being bad. It’s clear that we can’t wait until the economy gets better and expect that the companies will give back what they have taken from us. The auto companies intend to keep taking concessions, again and again. They intend to take back all the gains that autoworkers have won over the past 70 years.

But we are not ready to go back there.

We work at the Dearborn Truck Plant and a few of us started a campaign against the last concessions and our plant voted “No” by 64%. We know workers in other Ford plants who also campaigned against the concessions and their plants voted “No” by more than 70%. At least 9 Ford units or locals voted down the contract. If there were people in a few more Ford plants doing the same thing, the last contract could have been voted down. Now we have to get ready for when Ford comes after us again.

We believe that autoworkers do not want to keep taking concessions after concessions. We think that concessions can be stopped. Somebody just has to take the first step and say “No!”

If you agree and are ready to fight concessions, please get in touch with us.

contact info here:

http://www.soldiersofsolidarity.com/

[tomreedtoon]

1. You're union people. You've forgotten how to fight.

As I've said time and again, it's been a long time since River Rouge.