Government Hands Off UAW!

On August 28, the FBI raided the homes of United Auto Workers (UAW) president Gary Jones and his predecessor, Dennis Williams, intensifying the government’s attack on the union and its top leadership. The timing was no accident. The UAW contract with the Big Three automakers (GM, Fiat Chrysler and Ford) is due to expire on September 14. Over 150,000 autoworkers, fed up with the multi-tier wage system, cuts to benefits and the proliferation of temp work, just voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike. The government, under the pretext of rooting out corruption, is attempting to intimidate the membership and launching a pre-emptive assault against any potential struggle.

The job of the capitalist state, including its courts and cops, is to defend the profits, property and rule of the bosses. Any and all state intervention into the internal affairs of the UAW poses a threat to the entire labor movement and must be unequivocally opposed by all union members.

The government campaign against the UAW is aimed at tightening its grip on this major industrial union. The probe began under the Obama administration, shortly after the 2015 contract sellout. The Feds say they are investigating alleged collusion between some UAW officials and auto executives involving stolen funds, bribes and kickbacks. Agents from the Justice, Labor and Treasury Departments have pried deep into the union’s finances and got their hands on hundreds of thousands of union documents and other material. The recent raids, as the Detroit News (28 August) noted, raise the prospect that the Feds “could assume oversight of the union under anti-racketeering statutes,” namely RICO, the government’s weapon of choice for assuming sweeping powers over the unions.

Already, several former UAW officials have been convicted, including Norwood Jewell, who headed negotiations with Chrysler four years ago. Last month, Jewell was sentenced to 15 months after pleading guilty to taking money from employers in violation of the Taft-Hartley Act. The primary purpose of that 1947 anti-labor legislation was to purge the reds from the unions and ban militant union tactics like hot cargoing (refusing to handle scab goods). A number of UAW local officials assisted the prosecution against Jewell. Such cooperation only gives aid and comfort to the class enemy as it seeks to cripple the union.

The bureaucrats sitting atop the UAW and other unions are craven and pro-capitalist, and many siphon off union dues for personal gain. But their corruption is rooted in their program: the union tops sell out the working class every day by pushing a partnership with the bosses and throw away far more dues money to fill the election coffers of capitalist politicians, particularly the Democrats. There needs to be a struggle within the unions against the class collaborationism of the labor officialdom.

The betrayals of UAW misleaders have for decades resulted in one defeat after another. The Obama administration’s 2009 bailout of the auto industry, aided and abetted by the UAW brass, was a major blow against the union, opening the door to massive layoffs and forced retirements so the auto giants could take maximum advantage of the low-wage tier for new hires. With many union members itching to walk out in 2015 when the no-strike pledge imposed in the bailout was up, the UAW tops rammed through rotten deals that added more tiers; Chrysler workers were forced to vote a second time after the initial offer was rejected by a two-to-one margin.

For the unions to become instruments of militant struggle against the bosses requires a fight to oust the pro-capitalist union tops and replace them with a new, class-struggle leadership based on the complete independence of the working class from the bosses’ state and its political parties. Labor must clean its own house! Feds, get your dirty hands off the UAW!