Bill Berry: Memo to workers: You're on your own, suckers

Bill Berry  —  6/10/2008 7:52 am

The message is clear to American workers: You're on your own, suckers.

As General Motors announced last week it was closing the Janesville assembly plant and three others in North America, the workers in those plants didn't even merit a nod from the Bush administration, which hailed the job-cutting announcement as a demonstration of the virtues of the free market. White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said, "It's a sign that Detroit continues to adapt and evolve and address the change in consumer tastes and attitudes."

In this case, the "free market" means that thousands of workers at GM and related industries in south-central Wisconsin will be free to fend for themselves. Oh, there will be worker retraining and some rather generous termination benefits, at least for United Auto Workers union employees, but after that, see you later.

The free-market spin will blame union wages and benefits for the downfall of the auto industry. It's true that huge pension payrolls are a burden for the old-guard automakers, but then they furiously fought off union proposals in the 1960s to pool company pensions.

The modern-day history of UAW and many other unions can be summed up in one word: concessions. That has been the standard response to corporate power. Speaking to The Associated Press last week, UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said there was little the union could do about the latest changes at GM and Ford. So much for the big, bad unions.

Canadian Auto Workers President Buzz Hargrove, meanwhile, expressed shock and outrage over the closing of the Oshawa, Ontario, plant, which came only weeks after his union pushed through a concessions contract. Hargrove then went off on a nationalist tirade, saying, "This is an American company, controlled by Americans, and they are making decisions in tough times to protect American jobs." He denounced Mexican workers because GM had decided to build hybrid pickups there instead of in Canada.

The Canadian spin doesn't ring particularly well here in central Wisconsin, where a major sector in the area economy has been dismantled piece by piece. The Canadian-owned Soo Line Railroad was sold to a newly formed company called Wisconsin Central in the 1980s, and workers were immediately informed that their unions had no say in the matter. They were offered new jobs at lower pay and benefits, take it or leave it. Many took it. For a while, Wisconsin Central thrived. But a few years ago, it was sold to -- surprise -- the Canadian National railroad. Hundreds of Wisconsin jobs have been moved elsewhere in the wake of that change.

We have another example of the powerlessness of workers here in central Wisconsin. Locally owned Consolidated Papers was sold to the Finnish company Stora Enso less than a decade ago. In no time at all, Stora had pared about 2,000 jobs, and communities like Wisconsin Rapids and Biron were reeling. Their unions could do little to protect them.

Canadian union boss Hargrove's anger might have been misplaced, but you have to give it to him and his charges for showing some spunk. They picketed GM headquarters in Ontario and threatened to block the entrances to the Oshawa plant should GM seek to dismantle and move equipment.

It used to be that corporations would just send in some thugs and pound some heads at times like that. It's more sophisticated these days. The systematic dismantling of worker rights has been engineered in the bowels of government, the courts and the marketplace. The thugs do their work from behind radio microphones and on TV at night, in the employ of corporations that enjoy all of the legal rights of individuals but few of the responsibilities.

Unions have been an inconvenient impediment in this new age, but they're slipping off the radar one plant closing and one buyout at a time.

Meanwhile, workers in non-union settings pretty much fend for themselves. Layoffs, buyouts and terminations are at the will of the company and are borne in loneliness and despair by those who are cast off.

It would be dishonest and unfair to paint every corporation as a bad guy. Many, perhaps most, of them treat their workers with respect and offer excellent wages, benefits and workplace amenities. They play stellar roles in communities and support many charitable causes.

But when times get tough, in a country that fails to provide its citizens with affordable and accessible health care, that has stepped away from its responsibilities to protect worker health and safety because it was seen as anti-business, and where we now hear strident calls for dismantling Social Security and other safety nets for the average Joe and Jane, the message is quite clear: You're on your own, suckers.

Bill Berry of Stevens Point writes a semimonthly column for The Capital Times.

Bill Berry  —  6/10/2008 7:52 am