UAW's Bob King: "by their words ye shall know them"

‘A UAW for the 21st Century’:Boss-Union ‘Partnership’

On August 2, fresh from his coronation as head of the UAW, President Bob King delivered a talk to the Center for Automotive Research Conference, an industry group, where he laid out his vision for the union’s future:

• “We are deeply grateful to the Obama administration…for saving the American auto industry. Enabling our companies to survive and turn around has saved hundreds of thousands of good jobs that would have been gone forever.…UAW members took wage-cuts of $7,000 to $30,000 a year. Benefits were also reduced significantly. Restructuring resulted in the loss of nearly 200,000 jobs.”

• “The UAW of the 21st Century must be fundamentally and radically different from the UAW of the 20th Century. This is a new world, and we must reinvent our union….”

• “The 20th Century UAW fell into a pattern with our employers where we saw each other as adversaries rather than partners.…The 21st Century UAW no longer views…management as our adversaries or enemies, but as partners.…Our new relationships…are built upon a foundation of respect, shared goals and a common mission.”

• “So the keywords of the 21st Century UAW are flexibility, innovation, quality, teamwork, productivity, continuous cost savings and respect. The rigid demarcation between management and labor that was so entrenched in the old model is discarded.”

That’s it, from the horses’ mouth, proof positive of what PLP has always warned. The greatest threat to the workers and the revolutionary communist movement is not the gutter racists and open fascists, as bad as they are, but the liberals! The Tea Party or Sarah Palin didn’t wipe out 200,000 auto jobs and cut wages in half, although they certainly support it. It was Obama and the union leaders.

In a period of growing war and deepening economic crisis, “Shared goals and common mission” means doing whatever is necessary to maintain U.S. imperialism at the top of the heap. It means war and fascism, with a “thank” you from UAW President Bob King.