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﻿<title﻿>﻿New Socialist Magazine, Landmark Strike at GM Limits Outsourcing - Article﻿</title>﻿

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﻿<b﻿>﻿Landmark Strike at GM Limits Outsourcing 

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by David McNally with files from Bruce Allen and Alan Sears﻿<br﻿>﻿

﻿<i﻿>﻿New Socialist Magazine, November 1996﻿</i>﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

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After three weeks on strike, 26,000 workers at GM Canada returned to work October 23 with a contract which limits the company's ability to eliminate jobs through outsourcing (the contracting out of work to a cheaper - usually non-union - supplier of auto parts and components). At a time when manufacturing firms throughout North America are cutting huge numbers of jobs through outsourcing - and causing severe drops in union membership in the process - the GM agreement is a landmark. It may also be little more than a truce in a long-term battle. 


﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

In late September, the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) managed to achieve limits on outsourcing in a negotiated agreement with Chrysler. But, given that it has moved to outsource more slowly than either Chrysler or Ford, GM was destined to be a tougher target. The company has been determined to reduce costs, eliminate jobs and further boost profits through a continued push on outsourcing. Recognizing that organized labour had to draw a line, the CAW decided to make this the central issue in its 1996 contract negotiations with North American auto manufacturers. 


﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

While Chrysler decided it could live with some of the CAW's central demands in this area, it was widely believed that GM would not. And when negotiations over outsourcing broke down and the CAW began setting up picket lines on October 2, many commentators felt GM would not budge on the issue and that the CAW would eventually have to give ground. But a solid strike that saw a brief plant occupation in Oshawa and the shutting down of affected facilities in the US put growing pressure on the company. On October 16, GM chairman Jack Smith flew into Toronto for a private meeting with CAW president Buzz Hargrove devoted to breaking the logjam in negotiations. Inside a week, the CAW had an agreement. 


﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

Central to the CAW's strategy was the promotion of a concept known as "work ownership." Simply put, the union was insisting that work at profitable facilities should not be contracted out, and that if the company did so, it should be obligated to provide affected workers with unionized jobs elsewhere in its operations and covered by their existing collective agreement and the wages and benefits it provides. While there are limits to the CAW's concept of "work ownership" -- in particular it refers to profitable operations and could thus be seen to encourage the union to commit itself to helping the company stay profitable -- winning strong language limiting outsourcing must nevertheless be seen as a major achievement. 


﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

There can be no doubt that the outsourcing issue resonated strongly with CAW members. "Our strike is about the issue of the '90s -- job security," one St. Catharines striker told New Socialist. Like many others, this striker was speaking from direct experience. GM Canada now has 26,000 unionized employees, down from 40,000 only 15 years ago. In the US, the United Auto Workers organized nearly 1.5 million members 20 years ago; today the figure is barely half that. 


﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

In addition to defending union jobs, the CAW's fight against outsourcing also resists management efforts to create a two-tiered workforce consisting of a shrinking group of relatively better-paid "core workers" surrounded by a growing periphery of more poorly paid (and often non-union) workers. This trend has been especially strong in the United States; in fact, in a terrible concession to management, the UAW has accepted a two-tiered system at Ford. But outsourcing is more than a US phenomenon; it is a world-wide trend. In Brazil, for example, outsourcers have come right into a Volkswagen plant to produce parts using low-wage labour right next to unionized workers who are assembling the final product. 


﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

By moving in this direction, companies lower costs, reduce the number of unionized workers they employ, and create fear throughout their workforce that any job could be outsourced - all of which can have a chilling affect on workers. Outsourcing is thus a key part of an employers' offensive against organized labour and the wages and conditions they seek to maintain and improve. 


﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

Another of the key goals of employers in this area is to eliminate industry-wide agreements that establish uniform wages, benefits and conditions across an industry and within a single company. In recent years, a growing number of companies have moved to break "pattern bargaining" where a union achieves an agreement with a single firm that is then extended throughout the industry (be it autos, steel, farm equipment, and so on). 


﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

In a major defeat for labour, Caterpillar Corporation won a bitter struggle against the United Auto Workers in Ohio last year which broke pattern bargaining. Stelco, Canada's largest steel company, provoked a major strike in 1990 to establish its ability to bargain separately with workers at each of its 12 business units. The company no longer has a single master agreement with the Steelworkers union; instead it has a patchwork of different contracts. A similar trend is at work in the BC forest industry where the largest employer, MacMillan Bloedel, is trying to break pattern bargaining. 


﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

For unions, the breakdown of pattern bargaining is insidious. As Bruce Allen, a long-time CAW activist at GM in St. Catharines, Ontario explains, companies argue today that pattern bargaining belongs to a bygone era; they claim that new global economic realities require new "lean" and "agile" forms of manufacturing and that pattern bargaining restrict their ability to implement these. 


﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

"There is a real clash between the traditional form of collective agreements in auto and the lean and agile manufacturing systems," says Allen. "It's in our interests to maintain pattern bargaining so that workers identify with their union and with the whole working class," Allen continues. After all, when pattern bargaining is broken, workers no longer so readily see their common cause with other workers. Their horizons tend to be restricted to their individual plant, rather than their industry and their union as a whole. The CAW's battle against outsourcing is thus about more than defending union jobs, wages and benefits -- it's also about maintaining a form of collective bargaining that does more to encourage working class solidarity. 


﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

And solidarity was a key part of the strike at GM Canada. Members of UAW Concerned from Michigan and Indiana brought a truck loaded with food and paper supplies to strikers in Windsor on Thanksgiving Day. And on Saturday, October 18 members of the New Directions movement in the UAW drove from Rochester to St. Catharines to spend nearly five hours on picket lines despite a heavy downpour. Representatives of the Democratic Movement of Ford Workers in Cuautitlan, Mexico also sent a stirring message of support telling GM workers "We consider your struggle as ours" and offering their "humble but sincere solidarity." Similar messages were received from workers in Germany and South Africa. 


﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

Perhaps nothing more captured the attention of workers else﻿where than the five-hour occupation of a GM fabrication plant in Oshawa. When the company applied for a court injunction against picketing so that it could move dyes for parts used by outside customers, 200 workers occupied the plant while hundreds more rallied outside. Putting up signs reading "This is our plant now," and waving CAW flags from the factory roof, the occupying workers disabled the dyes in the plant by taking some of their parts and hiding them in different parts of the factory so that the dyes would be effectively useless. The mood was militant and determined, drawing comparison with the great sitdown strikes of the 1930s and with the mass strikes and factory occupations in France in 1968. 


﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

The Oshawa occupation was a turning point in the strike. It indicated that CAW members and their leaders were prepared to escalate the struggle by using more militant tactics. And it sent a clear message to the company that any attempt to break the picket lines and move product or equipment would backfire. The company quickly backed down and occupiers left the plant only when CAW president Buzz Hargrove received assurances that the dyes would not be moved. 


﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

The determination of GM strikers, the Oshawa occupation, and the achievement of the Chrysler pattern at GM all represent significant accomplishments of this strike. At the same time, important as it is to get contract language limiting outsourcing, there can be no illusions that this is any kind of final and lasting settlement of the issue. As Bruce Allen puts it, "It's only a truce. The forces that are behind outsourcing will not disappear. This is a victory the company will challenge down the road. They will try to push outsourcing again as a way to raise profits." 


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When the next round in the battle comes, GM workers will need to draw upon the determination and solidarity they demonstrated in 1996 - and raise them to a new level. 


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