UAW local presidents ratify historic betrayal of US auto workers

Acting directly at the bidding of Wall Street, the UAW bureaucracy is surrendering without a fight the hard-won gains of more than 60 years of sacrifice and struggle, such as guaranteed pension and health benefits and annual wage increases. These concessions, along with the establishment of a two-tier system that drastically reduces pay of new hires, set the stage for the transformation of American auto workers, once the best paid industrial workers in the world, into a cheap labor force.

General Motors workers must vote to reject this contract, but this is only the first step. The fight to defend the vital interest of workers requires mobilizing the ranks of GM, Ford and Chrysler workers independently of the company stooges in the UAW apparatus and the building of democratically controlled rank-and-file committees to take negotiations out of the hands of Gettelfinger & Co.

The WSWS warns GM workers that the UAW bureaucracy will stop at nothing to obtain ratification of this agreement. This could include thug attacks on dissident workers and the rigging of votes.