THE NEW LEFT TAKES OVER AMERICAN UNIONS

Carrol Cox cbcox at ilstu.edu
Thu Feb 18 09:48:58 PST 1999


Doug Henwood wrote:


>
> >From what I've heard, this is one reason the UAW has shied away from
> organizing auto parts suppliers - the workers aren't paid enough to justify
> the dues income. So they'd rather whine about Mexico and Japan taking away
> their jobs - when the UAW's more pressing problem is the nonunion suppliers
> in Ohio.

This has a long history. A friend of mine back in 1970 worked for a *very* low wage parts supplier in Detroit. (The workers there were mostly white males over 50.) Long hours, no overtime pay, really shitty. They tried to organize on their own, and asked the UAW *just* to provide a hall for them to meet in. No dice. They had to meet in a public park. The effort failed needless to say.

Carrol



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