Whether Daimler, Karstadt or Opel, it’s always the same story: management has failed, wrong decisions are made and billions are wasted.
These well paid managers have either got away with nice pay-offs or else they are still sitting safely in their seats. This sounds like the script to the well known story of “failures in pin stripe suits”, whose only solution, as always, is that the workforce should pay the price and accept wage sacrifices of 500 million Euros a year. The trade unions are supposed to get this over and done with quickly and quietly, so that “economic growth” is not harmed.
All wheels stop...
The action of the workforce in Bochum’s Opel factories who spontaneously stopped work on 14th.Sept 2004 was not part of the bosses’ script. But the workers in Bochum realised that as long as they stop production they control the shots. If the supply of exhausts and axles from Bochum is stopped, it also interrupts the work in the other factories of General Motors in Belgium, Poland and in the UK. This is the only language the top bosses in Detroit understand.
Threats by Henderson
The GM executive for Europe, Mr Henderson, has threatened to close the Bochum plant if the strike continues. This is blackmail and a declaration of war and will and should be answered by a similar response. The Bochum workers are advised not to give in to his threats, a cut of 4000 jobs now is a prolonged closure of the plant over a period of time. Experiences over the last year show that even if the workforce, the works council and the trade unions accept wage and job cuts in order to “stay competitive” and make the concessions demanded by the bosses, the bosses will never be satisfied. Undermining wage agreements and other cuts are usually not the end of the problems, but the beginning of a downwards spiral. As long as workers in Poland, the Czech Republic and further East earn only a fraction compared to German workers, the bosses will continue to drive down wages and working conditions. One Opel worker from Ruesselsheim told us; “In 15-20 years we will see contract workers waiting at the station to be picked as day labourers.” We must never allow it to get that far.
One aim
From the position of the managers and executives there is only one aim: to increase profits and reduce production costs without consideration for the workforce. A highly modern car plant whose working capacity is only 60%, over a long period of time, is regarded as ballast that needs to be got rid of. They are prepared to close down whole areas and risk the devastation of entire regions. Cities like Bochum or Ruesselsheim could never recover from the closure of the plants and the resulting mass redundancies.
‘Failures in pinstripe suits’
With a management like this there is no future. These failures have driven the proverbial cart into the mud and still expect a reward for it, whereas normal people have to live with HartzIV (the new benefits system in Germany) after one year of unemployment!
Therefore: Take the running of the plants out of the bosses’ hands. Let them go – but without any compensation. The factories should be under the control of the workers, the trade unions and the wider public.
What are the alternatives?
Our demands are simple: we want work, a reasonable income and a safe future. We want to produce goods that will make our lives easier and more worth living and benefit the whole of mankind, with our work, our machines, the knowledge and experience of all workers, technicians and engineers. Therefore it is a crime to send even one able and well trained worker into unemployment, to leave expensive machinery unused or even to scrap it. This might increase the profits and share prices, but economically it is madness.
But isn’t there a vast overproduction of cars? If the workers, technicians and engineers were in charge without the dictations from the top, better, longer lasting and more environmentally friendly cars could be produced. And who says that the workers and machines in the Opel factories can only produce cars and not other, more needed goods? In World War 2 the production was changed from cars to weapons in no time. The production could be changed to civilian goods equally quickly in a modern factory today. How this could be done was shown in the British car supply and arms factory Lucas Aerospace in the 1970s. The workforce was threatened with redundancies and developed alternative production plans for civilian goods and products with the same machines.
Transfer into common ownership
Hard times need hard measures. If the executives in Detroit don’t have an interest in the European market and cannot guarantee the viability of all their plants and the security of every job under proper working conditions, then the factories should be taken out of their hands and given into common ownership. If the workforce could take production into their own hands with the help of IG Metall and the backing of popular support, this would send a signal to workers everywhere in Germany and in Europe. Millions of people know there is something wrong in the way society works and that a change for the good of ordinary people is necessary: Bochum could be the spark. Therefore: we must not be lulled into any concessions only to be crushed later.
International appeal
The Opel-workers in Bochum need practical acts of solidarity
This appeal to the workers at Vauxhall (British General Motors company) has the support of British trade union activists and was distributed by our British sister journal Socialist Appeal to Vauxhall workers:
The movement of the workers in Bochum has received support from everywhere in Germany during the last few days. Many local trade unionists visited the site and messages of solidarity from all over the world have been sent. The workers have put pressure on the workers councils and trade unions that no agreement should be made, nor the strike to be called off without a ballot of the whole workforce. The workers council wants General Motors to guarantee that there will be no redundancies. However, trade unionists have warned that this won’t be enough. Even if there are no immediate redundancies, the jobs of retiring workers will not be filled and therefore job opportunities for young workers will disappear. General Motors has tried the well known tactic of “divide and rule” and has attempted to play the workers of one factory against another. Nobody should fall for this.
The colleagues at Bochum need your active support. If production in all factories stops, this is the language the bosses in GM will understand. Company wide strikes strengthen the Bochum workers and are vital to break the meddling of the General Motors headquarters.
Send messages of solidarity to the Opel workers in the Bochum plant:
Fax +49 234 - 989 2680
Fax +49 234 - 989 3499
To the Colleagues in Ruesselsheim:
Every further reduction in wages and job cuts will be catastrophic for Ruesselsheim. Karstadt had to close their main department store branch years ago, because of low customer spending. Many retailers are rightly worried about going bankrupt if there are any further cuts in the Opel factories. You are also fighting for the survival of Ruesselsheim! If there are any more cuts, everybody will feel the consequences. If you read this join in the fight, whether you are a baker, computer programmer, teacher, pupil, mechanic, shop assistant or varnisher, just as in Bochum! Make a mark, don’t let them “rationalise” you and your city to death without a fight! Those who fight back only half-hearted know that they have lost already. Ruesselsheim needs to see decisive action.
Now it’s time to struggle for a life worth living. They can’t ignore us for ever, if we don’t fight alone. Let’s all stand up together!