By JOHN CAST

“The members have spoken—no more tiers. … The members have spoken—same work = same pay. … The members have spoken—historic profits = historic contract. You now have all of our proposals, and now it’s your turn.”
— UAW Bargaining Update

A historic contract fight is being undertaken by UAW workers at Daimler Truck North America (DTNA) in North Carolina. The workers are set to strike on April 26 unless their demands are met. Their demands include cost-of-living adjustments, fair treatment in the form of the equal pay for equal work over all Daimler plants, improved retirement benefits, and major pay increases due to decades of stagnant wages—in addition to many other quality of life grievances.

This is occurring in the wake of the UAW’s announcement that it will organize Toyota, Honda, Tesla, and other non-unionized auto plants. Some 7000 Daimler workers are organized with the UAW.

This is also significant as a major workers’ fightback in the U.S. South, where historically low levels of union militancy, combined with the bosses’ use of racism and the reactionary state governments acting on the side of powerful corporations, has undermined unions. A victory for the Daimler workers in the South—with or without a strike—would be a powerful inspiration to Southern workers, especially off the heels of the powerful UAW strike against the “Big Three” automakers.

Workers Face Increasing Challenges

Workers at Daimler, and all over the South, face several mounting challenges in their lives. The new contract, if won, would help relive much of the aggravation workers face from historically stagnant wages. But workers are also concerned about other quality-of-life issues. UAW interviewees state that inflation on basic needs like kids’ clothes, food, and housing are cutting into slim budgets. Members often live paycheck to paycheck, and many have been forced to take second jobs, take long hours of overtime, or borrow money to make ends meet. These workers don’t have time to simply enjoy their lives with their families and friends.

The issue with overheating in the summertime was also mentioned by a UAW Daimler worker. Autoworkers work with heavy machinery constantly, and must be alert to avoid accidents. Due to the dangers of climate change, these issues of on-the-job safety are vitally important issues for millions of industrial and agricultural workers.

Mobilize across companies, across sectors!

To defeat the bosses, as well as the reactionary state governments that serve them, it is strategically vital to build connections across sectors and geographical locations in order to mobilize the full weight of the working class.

Daimler workers are showing the way by couching their contract campaign in a broader strategy of union solidarity. According to a Facebook post on the “DNTA workers for a strong contact” group, union members from Local 5287 attended the meeting of the Guiliford County Association of Educators, a teachers’ union. The autoworkers were given the opportunity to speak to the teachers and gained their support. In turn, the Daimler workers learned of the GCAE struggle for stronger public schools.

“Our struggles as working people are tied together. It is through solidarity and union power that we can win a better life for the working class,” notes the Facebook post.

Within the auto sector there is more news of union organizing in the U.S. South. Workers at a Mercedes-Benz factory near Tuscaloosa, Ala., recently filed for recognition with the UAW, with over half of the 5000-strong workforce signing cards. Chattanooga Volkswagen workers have attempted to win a union for the third time now; they are set to vote on union representation on April 19.

Autoworkers are taking significant steps with these advances in union organizing and working-class militancy. They have the ability—if they follow the strategy of consciously enlarging their base of solidarity—to mobilize large sectors of working people in the South. They will need all the support they can get.

Expose the bosses’ methods of division!

North Carolina was one of the first states to enact so-called “right to work” laws that banned mandatory union dues payments. “Right to work” is a capitalist tactic meant to undermine a union’s ability to function, while also allowing anti-union workers to sabotage a pro-union majority. All throughout the South, the legal discrimination against Black people under Jim Crow was used repeatedly both inside and outside unions to lower wages for workers across the board, and artificially divided workers into falsely opposed racial camps. This was no different in North Carolina, and these factors help explain why workers in the state have the lowest wages of all 50 states.

In addition to race, U.S. corporations will also exploit undocumented immigrant labor, while the right-wing arm of the U.S. political establishment cynically asserts it wants to remove immigrants. Both the Republicans and Democrats have deported millions of immigrant workers, and maintain an oppressive state apparatus to track and detain immigrants. Just as the Jim Crow laws had done in the past, modern U.S. immigration policy sets native-born against immigrant labor in order to super-exploit the latter and therefore lower the cost of all labor. U.S. corporations often relocate factories to the South for the same reason they might relocate to the global South—cheap, easily exploitable labor.

Not just in the South but in all U.S. states, companies from the auto sector to Amazon are installing two-tier systems that divide the workers across generations, while ensuring that the capitalists can exploit the next generation of workers with lower wages while they perform the same work.

Recent anti-union legislation has been passed in Florida, Georgia, and Alabama. These anti-union laws use obscure legal language and are being passed quietly so as to not disturb an extra-exploited working class. Continuing and deepening the efforts to increase solidarity across industries will be vital for autoworkers across the South to expose the state governments to the working class, and inspire the confidence in themselves that is needed to beat the bosses and secure a better future for all workers.

Photo: Scott Olson / Getty Images