smlp
05-05-2009, 10:51 AM
http://wsws.org/articles/2009/may2009/wage-m05.shtml
By Patrick Martin
5 May 2009
The wage cuts imposed on auto workers at Chrysler and General Motors at the insistence of the Obama administration demonstrate the class strategy that American big business as a whole is carrying out: to impose a reduction in the living standards of American workers on a scale unprecedented since the Great Depression.
The White House has given the green light for nationwide wage-cutting with its demands on Chrysler and GM workers, who have seen wages for new-hires slashed by 50 percent, along with the abolition of cost-of-living raises and cuts in vacation pay.
Several new reports show that big business is following the example set in Washington with enthusiasm.
According to an account published Sunday by the Washington Post, recent wage cuts have included a 10 percent reduction for contractors working for Microsoft, cuts for hotel workers in New York City, and reductions for state and local government workers in many areas and in much of the newspaper industry.
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http://wsws.org/articles/2009/may2009/auto-m05.shtml
Chrysler bankruptcy sets stage for assault on GM workers
By Jerry White
5 May 2009
Last week’s decision by the Obama administration to drive Chrysler into bankruptcy was a deliberate political action aimed at ratcheting up the pressure on General Motors workers to accept even deeper job cuts and wage and benefit concessions. This fact has been acknowledged by administration officials, news commentators and the United Auto Workers president himself, in the days following the bankruptcy announcement by the third largest US automaker last Thursday.
Using the refusal of a handful of Chrysler bondholders to accept a reduction in debt payments as a pretext, the US president implemented a plan to push the company into bankruptcy that had long been advocated by his auto task force, which had spent months laying the financial and legal groundwork for such a filing.
From the beginning, the task force, led by wealthy investors Steven Rattner and Ron Bloom, has sought to use the crisis to fundamentally restructure the auto industry in order to guarantee large returns to Wall Street. The plan to “save” the industry has nothing to do with defending the jobs and living standards of auto workers. Instead it is intended to drastically reduce the size of the industry—in line with its sharply smaller market share—and eliminating so-called “legacy costs,” i.e., the higher wages and benefits won by auto workers through generations of struggle.
Since 2006, Chrysler has already eliminated 33,000 jobs in the US. Only 27,000 hourly workers remain, compared with a peak of 110,000 in 1978. In carrying out its planned restructuring of General Motors, however, the Obama administration is seeking to carry out even more ruthless and rapid downsizing.
Writing in a May 3 article, New York Times chief White House correspondent David Sanger said, “Fresh from pushing Chrysler into bankruptcy, President Obama and his economic team are hoping the hard line they took last week gives them leverage to force huge changes in General Motors, a far larger and more complex company.”
By Patrick Martin
5 May 2009
The wage cuts imposed on auto workers at Chrysler and General Motors at the insistence of the Obama administration demonstrate the class strategy that American big business as a whole is carrying out: to impose a reduction in the living standards of American workers on a scale unprecedented since the Great Depression.
The White House has given the green light for nationwide wage-cutting with its demands on Chrysler and GM workers, who have seen wages for new-hires slashed by 50 percent, along with the abolition of cost-of-living raises and cuts in vacation pay.
Several new reports show that big business is following the example set in Washington with enthusiasm.
According to an account published Sunday by the Washington Post, recent wage cuts have included a 10 percent reduction for contractors working for Microsoft, cuts for hotel workers in New York City, and reductions for state and local government workers in many areas and in much of the newspaper industry.
------
http://wsws.org/articles/2009/may2009/auto-m05.shtml
Chrysler bankruptcy sets stage for assault on GM workers
By Jerry White
5 May 2009
Last week’s decision by the Obama administration to drive Chrysler into bankruptcy was a deliberate political action aimed at ratcheting up the pressure on General Motors workers to accept even deeper job cuts and wage and benefit concessions. This fact has been acknowledged by administration officials, news commentators and the United Auto Workers president himself, in the days following the bankruptcy announcement by the third largest US automaker last Thursday.
Using the refusal of a handful of Chrysler bondholders to accept a reduction in debt payments as a pretext, the US president implemented a plan to push the company into bankruptcy that had long been advocated by his auto task force, which had spent months laying the financial and legal groundwork for such a filing.
From the beginning, the task force, led by wealthy investors Steven Rattner and Ron Bloom, has sought to use the crisis to fundamentally restructure the auto industry in order to guarantee large returns to Wall Street. The plan to “save” the industry has nothing to do with defending the jobs and living standards of auto workers. Instead it is intended to drastically reduce the size of the industry—in line with its sharply smaller market share—and eliminating so-called “legacy costs,” i.e., the higher wages and benefits won by auto workers through generations of struggle.
Since 2006, Chrysler has already eliminated 33,000 jobs in the US. Only 27,000 hourly workers remain, compared with a peak of 110,000 in 1978. In carrying out its planned restructuring of General Motors, however, the Obama administration is seeking to carry out even more ruthless and rapid downsizing.
Writing in a May 3 article, New York Times chief White House correspondent David Sanger said, “Fresh from pushing Chrysler into bankruptcy, President Obama and his economic team are hoping the hard line they took last week gives them leverage to force huge changes in General Motors, a far larger and more complex company.”