In the midst of hundreds of thousands layoffs and more than 25 million unemployed…
Ford wants to close all its plants in Brazil…
Tens of thousands of workers will be left on the streets!
ENOUGH!
WE MUST STOP THE HANDS OF THE CAPITALISTS AND THEIR WHIP, THE BOLSONARO GOVERNMENT!
We are all Ford workers!
That the leaderships of the CUT, CTB, FS and all the trade union centrals break with the employers and the state!
Unified Strike Commands and Strike Commands of all Metalworkers in Brazil!
EXPROPRIATION OF FORD AND ALL THE FACTORIES THAT CLOSE, FURLOUGH AND DISMISS, WITHOUT COMPENSATION AND UNDER WORKERS' CONTROL!
The automotive transnationals, after pocketing hundreds of billions of dollars during decades of exploitation in Mercosur, now want to throw hundreds of thousands of metal/automotive workers out onto the streets. But the Ford workers have come out to fight against the closure and in defense of their jobs in Camaçari (Bahia) and Taubaté (São Paulo) and they cannot be left alone! Unified fighting committees of all metal/automotive workers together with the workers of the Ford!
As they impose massive layoffs, the metallurgical/automotive transnationals have just been guaranteed the worst flexibility and the destruction of the collective bargaining agreements, which the union bureaucracy have sold out at the negotiating table with the employers. As seen in the struggles of the metal workers of the US and Mexican GM, in these industries the infections and deaths from COVID-19 were massive.
Now, as the global economic crisis deepens, the transnationals want to reverse the fall in the profit rate by reorganizing production, relocating their transnationals and redefining the world division of labor.
That is why in Brazil we see how German transnationals such as Mercedes Benz and Volkswagen threaten to lay off at least 4 thousand and 6 thousand workers respectively from all their plants in the country and there are more than 20 thousand indirect jobs who will be also affected by this measure. Ford, which during 2019-2020, has just closed its doors at the São Bernardo do Campo plant, throwing at least 4 thousand workers off onto the streets, now announces that it will close all its plants in Brazil, leaving only its test facilities and its administrative offices from where it manages its plants in Mercosur. This means that at least 20,000 workers will get unemployed, i.e., 5,000 direct jobs and 15,000 indirect ones.
GM, after imposing a fierce flexibility and the layoffs of at least 5,000 workers during 2020, announces some “investments” in its plants in San José dos Campos and São Caetano do Sul.
This happens in the metallurgical companies after they have benefited enormously from the terrible working conditions and production rythms, miserable wages and the trimming of a lot of labor conquests, achieved at the negotiating table, after the bureaucracy imposed terror with the blackmail of the massive dismissals during the pandemic.
IT IS A LARGE-SCALE BLACKMAIL, LAUNCHED BY THE METALURGICAL TRANSNATIONALS TO PUT THE LABOR MOVEMENT ON THEIR KNEES!
Before it's too late ... THE METAL/AUTOMOTIVE WORKERS OF MERCOSUR MUST STAND UP! Metal workers' Fighting Committees by region, by state and coordinated at the national level must be set up without delay, unifying direct, temporary contracted and outsourced workers from all auto parts factories and assemblers throughout Brazil.
IT IS NECESSARY TO TAKE OVER ALL THE FORD PLANTS! All factories that close, furlough or lay off workers must be occupied! Expropriation of Ford and all the metallurgical/automotive transnationals without compensation and under workers' control!
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From the CSP-Conlutas we are already fighting against the attack by Ford, calling on the other centrals to "resist the attack" and raising the demand for "Nationalization of Ford under the control of the workers." Let us fight from the CSP-Conlutas and from the militant base committees of the CUT, CTB, FS and all the trade union and struggle centrals of the working class to set up and organize without delay Committees of struggle from the metal workers' base Assemblies in all factories and establishments!
The transnationals impose a single offensive on the working class of Mercosur, on both sides of the border, they impose the same conditions of slavery, flexibility and looting, in metal/automotive companies from Bahia, Minas Gerais and São Paulo in Brazil, to Córdoba, Buenos Aires Aires and Rosario in Argentina ...
The leaderships of the majority union centrals under the leadership of the PT and the PCdoB promise us that if we wait until 2022, Bolsonaro can be removed with elections and the conditions of the Brazilian people improve. Enough of this lie! Hunger, unemployment and misery do not allow us to arrive to 2022! They have already stolen our children's education and health, leaving us to die like flies in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic! We must stop the hand of the imperialist transnational companies and their whip Bolsonaro NOW! We must not give a second more truce to the transnationals and the governments that manage their businesses by handing over the nations to imperialist plunder, starving the people.
THAT THE METAL/AUTOMOTIVE WORKER UNION LEADERSHIPS BREAK WITH THE EMPLOYERS AND THE STATE! From the CSP-Conlutas of Brazil, the International Trade Union Network of Solidarity and Struggles, from all the trade union oppositions of the continent, let us make effective the call for a unified international fight against the metallurgical/automotive transnationals, there is nothing to prevent it ... NO TIME TO LOSE!
WE ARE ALL FORD WORKERS!
It is necessary to conquer a unified plan of struggle of the metallurgists and all the workers and exploited of Brazil, Argentina and the Americas.
METAL/AUTOMOTIVE WORKERS GENERAL STRIKE NOW!
Without respecting borders, the transnationals concentrate and restructure, while continuing their looting and worsening our hardships
ENOUGH FIGHTING DIVIDED!
We must fight across borders!
Ford closes its plants in Brazil. The metallurgical/automotive transnationals, after reaping huge fortunes, relocate and restructure their production, attacking mercilessly across borders. Meanwhile the leaderships of our fighting organizations divide us country by country and factory by factory.
Automotive/metalurgical multinationals close their plants and relocate, as they have to reorganize their production based on the new line of electric cars. The Brazilian plants will move to Argentina, the USA and other countries.
The automotive transnationals merge and restructure as the crisis deepens and the profit rate falls; thus they reorganize production, deepening their looting and concentration, with greater super-exploitation. Ford closes in Brazil and opens in Argentina, while WV, GM and Toyota (in Brazil and Argentina) will tell the workers "Either you accept layoffs, flexibility and wage reduction ... or we'll leave, we are ready to relocate if required".
While the transnationals are restructuring without respecting borders in the world economy and market, the leaderships of the centrals and metal/automotive workers' unions are preventing the metal/automotive workers from being the outpost of the exploited of the continent.
Enough is enough! The strength of the workers of Ford of Brazil and Mercosur are in the metal workers of the headquarters of Detroit and Chicago, they are in the maquilas of Mexico and in the metal workers of the GM of Silao in struggle, it is in the firm hands of the metal/automotive workers of Argentina that are resisting ... We must break the submission to the bosses and the state that the bureaucracy imposes on our unions and fighting organizations! We must break the division country by country and factory by factory!
We are all Ford workers! Unity of the metalworkers across borders! From Brazil, from the combative organizations of the metal workers of the CUT, the FS, the CTB and the combative workers organized by the CSP-Conlutas; from the trade union opposition in Argentina; from the Spanish CGT and the metal workers of Nissan; from France with Solidaires and the metal workers of ArcelorMittal in Paris; together with the metal workers of the German IG Mettal grouped by the Union Network; from the United States with the metal worker organizations and WAU and dozens of metal/automotive worker unions in the world that adhere to the Network; without further delay they should be put as the spearhead to organize a unified fight of the metal/automotive workers at the international level.
THERE IS NOTHING TO PREVENT IT! ALL FLEXIBILIZATION AGREEMENTS MUST BE BROKEN!
Against the imperialist transnationals and the masses-starving and anti-worker governments and regimes ... THE RANKS OF THE METAL WORKERS MUST UNITE ACROSS BORDERS!
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