Date: Wed, 01 Jul 1998 07:53:39 -0800 From: Doyle Saylor <djsaylor at netcom.com> Reply-To: djsaylor at netcom.com X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.01-C-MACOS8 (Macintosh; I; PPC) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: LBO <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com> Subject: Re: GM strike Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Hello everyone,
Dennis R. Redmond (July 1/98) made some comments to Justin Schwartz which I like in a larger scope of the points that Doug originally made about the GM strike. I.e. the wages of GM workers in relation to other workers in this country. A lot of the writing in response to Doug went straight to defense of the wage level at GM, but a lot of working people in this country aren't unionized. They don't have any protection, and the UAW ain't organizing the un-organized. I know there are organizing projects, but the percentages of union workers is pitiful in this country and either stagnant or declining.
Dennis' comments seem to me to make two points, one that workers ought to have the freedom to criticize what they see. Second, the policies of GM lead straight to out sourcing, and there is precious little the UAW is doing to confront this in this country.
You know Justin I'm a worker. My whole life has been in the lowest sections of the working class. When I hear someone tell me they paid their dues so they have a right to complain about their union, and I don't then I get kinda mad (because you think people on the lbo don't have a right to speak their mind). The UAW ain't doing enough, and like Dennis says if we had an independent movement that was large enough then the talk by UAW defenders about paying your dues before you speak would get short shrift in a big fight to get rid of the problems besetting the working class in this country. We need a working class movement, not an industrial union that is losing the fight for the working class. The unions in this country have enough resources to start a national voice and a national party, but I don't see them doing it. They could do it, but they don't. When are the unions going to stop blocking a labor movement in this country? Go to hell demos. Doyle Saylor