General Motors-Rosario- Argentina - March 11th 2017
 

As the auto company General Motors announced a few days ago, with the warranty of SMATA trade union bureaucracy, it started with its plan of suspending 350 workers for 9 months, which will turn into dismissals. This is part of the ongoing attack that is happening also in other auto companies such as Volkswagen, which will suspend 600 workers from its plant in General Pacheco, and the attack on all the workers of the country...

The workers respond with assembly and mobilization, This is the way to fight!

LONG LIVE THE ASSEMBLY OF GM WORKERS THAT VOTED TO DISREGARD THE AGREEMENT BY CRYING OUT LOUD "DOWN WITH THE AGREEMENT, WE WANT TO WORK!”

OUT WITH BARROS, PIGNANELLI AND ALL THE SMATA BUREAUCRATS!

On March 1st, the bosses of General Motors, a company which has approximately 2400 workers, announced the suspension of 350 workers for nine months, with 80% of their wages. This very same situation is happening in Volkswagen, Toyota, Fiat, etc. It's an attack all along the line on the auto workers for the bosses to keep making fortunes at our expense. The pretext and the blackmail is the recession in Brazil and the production of only one model car. The production will lower from 17 cars an hour to 15. It is a lie that GM bosses are in crisis! They have plenty of money! Let's open the accounting books to show all the workers and the people that this transnational company has superprofits!

General Motors informed for the second quarter of 2016 that its net profits rose 2870 million dollars, or 1,81 dollars per title. After the results, this auto company rose the expected profits for the whole year.

"GM also said its net profits in the second quarter rose up to 2870 million dollars, or 1,81 dollars per title, while the same quarter last year they had 1100 million dollars or 0,67 dollars per share". (El Financiero, 21/7/2017)

A month ago, the councilor of GM, Mary Barra, declared: "In 2016 GM produced a second year in a row of record profit with record figures in their incomes, in adjusted gross result of exploitation and in profits per action". These imperialist parasites in 2016 had net profits in the world for 9427 million dollars! And they sold over 10 million cars.

Also, GM just sold the brands Opel and Vauxhall to PSA group (Peugeot owners) for 1300 million Euros (1376 million dollars).

"General Motors considers opportune to sell these brands because on the one hand it will allow the company to save 2000 million dollars a year which will be good for the investment plan in USA in research and development. Besides, the company will also get shares of PSA Group in this operation." (El Financiero)

"The transaction is another step in the continuous work of GM to transform the company, which has three years of record work and high expectations for 2017 and it had returned a significant capital for the shareholders." (it was reported in a communicate)

We are before a huge blackmail of GM and the auto bosses to relax the labour conquers, benefits and working conditions even more. No more blackmail! We don't accept suspensions or dismissals or lower in the wages! State-ization without payment of every factory that shuts down, suspends or dismisses, and place it under worker's control! Expropriation without compensation of the entire auto branch and place it under workers control, in order to guarantee cheap cars for the poor people, machines for the public works and quality transport!

If in any of its plants there is a lower in their profits, it's not a problem of the workers, since that company as a whole has made fabulous profits.

Barros, a bureaucrat of SMATA in Rosario, asserted GM's plan was to fire 400 workers but thanks to them there were 350 suspensions. Shameless! They knew what was coming and they did nothing for the workers. Why don't the union bureaucrats live with 80% of a wage?

In addition, Barros said he couldn't do anything and the suspensions were coming so each one should see on his own what will happen. On Monday 6th, workers staged long queues at the door to find out what will happen with their jobs and the bureaucracy said "this is not our fault" and "accept the suspensions and within these months the company will contact you to arrange the compensation because it's difficult to be re-hired". Bastards! Not only they will reduce the wages of the suspended workers from 80% to 65% after three months, and then to 55% after three months more, but also the tiny letter of the signed agreement says that once the period of suspensions is over, the workers will be fired. Just as the entire trade union bureaucracy, the leaders of SMATA are servants of the bosses and they don't serve the workers! We have to kick them out from our union!

The very same day, the workers started to make assemblies at the door of the factory and a group of workers marched to the Ministry of Labour. The next day, another assembly of 900 workers took place and voted to march to the Local Council. LONG LIVE THE ASSEMBLIES OF GM WORKERS! THE BOSSES ATTACK AND WORKERS RESPOND!

Don't trust the ministries or any institution of the bosses, or their officials or their politicians! They command the attack on all the workers of the auto industry and on all the Argentinean workers movement! The certification (or not) of the agreement will only make possible to be "legally" fired.

GM workers made another huge assembly at the doors of the factory on Thursday 9th and voted to disregard and reject the agreement signed by the bosses and the trade union bureaucracy and to march over the union SMATA in Rosario. This is the way to fight! This is the road to confront the attack of the bosses, the government and the sellout of the trade union bureaucracy!!

The workers of General Motors certainly know that suspensions are the prelude to dismissals and the imposition of a brutal increase in the rates of production for the workers that are still working, since they will have to substitute the production made by dismissed workers. That's why the whole rank and file of the factory quickly responded to this attack with assemblies and demonstrations. It is the moment to strengthen these assemblies with all the hired contracted workers and outsourced at the doors of the factory to march to a strike of the plant and organize and vote a struggle plan, calling the workers of the entire industry (FOLLOWING THE EXAMPLE OF VOLKSWAGEN WORKERS THAT WERE THERE) to make rank and file assemblies in all the plants of the auto industry (Volkswagen, Fiat, Toyota, etc.) sending mandated delegates to unite us in a struggle plan to impose the GENERAL STRIKE of the union in the country.

The trade union bureaucracy of CGT and CTA has been guarantor of thousands of dismissals, suspensions, relaxation of workers benefits, sellout of collective agreements, lowering wages and all the attacks we have suffered by the government and the bosses. With them in the unions we cannot fight to this true class war they have declared on us. They guard the profits of the bosses, as they showed at March 7th demonstration together with the boss parties such as PJ and Frente Renovador and the bourgeois sectors that were affected by Macri's government economical policies. Tens of militant unions, factory union leaderships and the militant vanguard that have fought the hardest in the last period have the authority and credit enough to head the coordination and the grouping that we need to stage the fight we must fight and defeat the attack of the government and the transnational companies.

A national coordination organ of all the workers in struggle with the auto workers of General Motors, with the workers of AGR Clarin, food oil workers, oil workers, textile workers, teachers, civil servants, Canale factory (metalworkers), bus drivers of Line 60 (that occupied the stage of the rally on March 7th) will have a thousand times more credit that the CGT scab seller-out triumvirate that was kicked out, to prepare the general strike and to knock down the attack of the bosses and the government.

NO LAYOFFS, NO DISMISSALS! EVERYONE WITH THEIR JOBS!
SHARE THE WORKING HOURS WITHOUT REDUCING WAGES! FOR A 6 HOURS SHIFT SO THAT WE DON'T EXHAUST OUR MUSCLES AND NERVES IN THE MACHINE AND HUNDREDS OF UNEMPLOYED CAN GET A JOB.
ALL THE OUTSOURCED WORKERS SHOULD BE CONTRACTED WITH THE SAME COLLECTIVE AGREEMENT OF METAL-MECHANIC!
INCREASE THE WAGES AT THE LEVEL OF THE TYPICAL BASKET, ADJUSTED ACCORDING TO INFLATION!

In the last assembly at the doors of General Motors the leader of the union of Brazil was there. He brought the solidarity of a 5000 workers assembly from GM in Brazil. This imperialist trasnational company imposed the same attack that are unleashing now to the workers of Rosario plant with the endorsement of the metalworkers union leadership of Sao Jose dos Campos (Brazil); imposing a sliding scale of dismissals, suspensions, wage cuts and increase of working hours. One single class, one single struggle across borders!

This is the chance of uniting in a common struggle with our class brothers and sisters of Brazil GM, to break the agreements signed by the bureaucrats with the bosses that sell out our conquests! Against the same transnational companies: one single struggle of all the metal-mechanic workers of Mercosur, Mexico and the entire continent!

 

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