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Profits And Poison-Protecting the Plant And How UAW Top Officials Were Silent About Poison

by Steve Zeltzer
Top UAW officials were silent when the people of Flint were being poisoned by Governor Snyder and his managers in Flint. They lauded GM for protection the engines at the GM engine plant but did not demand the same protection for the children and residents of Flint. They also boycotted marches and rallies of community members demanding clean water
flint_water.jpeg
Profits And Poison-Protecting the Plant And How UAW Top Officials Were Silent While Flint Was Being Poisoned
By Steve Zeltzer
KPFA WorkWeek Radio
March 17, 2016

The tradition of US business unionism is most typified by the United Workers Union UAW. They pride themselves in partnering with the unionized auto companies and have become joined at the hip with the management of these companies. They have "jointness programs" that they spend millions of dollars on and at UAW conventions, GM, Ford and other auto companies where they have contracts are welcomed with booths and open arms.
Even last year before he retired, former UAW president Bob King openly told a UCB meeting at the Boalt Law School that one of the jobs was to protect the "profits" of the auto companies. This idea of American unions that they have to look out for the profits of the corporations that they have contracts with may now have led to their complicity in the poisoning of many of the residents of Flint including many members, retirees and children.
On February 5 at a UAW press conference , the present president Dennis Williams berated the politicians for failing to act. “What’s going on in Flint is deplorable,” Williams told members of the news media during a roundtable discussion at the union’s Solidarity House headquarters in Detroit. “I still question why isn’t the governor and the state Legislature acting quicker than what they did, and why have they continued not to act?”
The real question however for Williams and the leadership of the UAW is why they were silent and failed to act after their Flint engine plant represented by UAW 599 when GM received special permission to transfer it's water from the Flint river to neighboring Flint Township because it was rusting the engines in October 2014.
“The water was rusting the [engine] blocks,” said Dan Reyes, president of UAW Local 599, which represents the plant’s nearly 900 workers, recalled in an interview in Autonews.com.
"In December 2014, the plant switched from Flint’s tainted water system to a fresh supply from neighboring Flint Township -- an option that was not afforded other Flint residents and businesses. As a result, the plant was able to sidestep a crisis that has befallen everyone else in the city where GM was born more than a century ago.
The workaround was made possible by the factory’s fortuitous location and some heads-up planning."

The Assistant UAW 1D Regional Director Steve Dawes from Flint who represents the region in an interview on WorkWeek radio congratulated General Motors for making arrangements to get a new water source to protect the engines. The company also took out all the water facets in the plant and put in bottled water for the management and workers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2V4Z9gYW2nQ
Ronald Jamison a member of UAW 599 at the same plant was interviewed on "Democracy Now and also reiterated the action of GM to protect the motors.
"In October 2014, General Motors recognized the Flint water was corroding its engines. They got permission from the city’s unelected emergency manager—who was appointed by Republican Governor Rick Snyder—to disconnect from Flint’s water and go back to Detroit water. It would be another year before the people of Flint were finally allowed to disconnect from the corrosive Flint River as their water supply and hook up again to the Detroit water system. By then, the Flint River water had corroded the city’s aging pipes, poisoning the drinking water with lead, which can cause permanent developmental delays and neurological impairment, especially in children. We speak with a GM autoworker in Flint about the company’s actions once it realized that Flint’s water was corroding car engines.

RONALD JAMISON: My name is Ronald Jamison, known as Coach Hollywood.
AMY GOODMAN: And how long have you worked at the Flint engine plant?
RONALD JAMISON: For 39 years, going on 40 this year.
AMY GOODMAN: So you were working there when Flint hooked up with the Flint River and was disconnected from the Detroit water supply.
RONALD JAMISON: Yes.
AMY GOODMAN: What happened at the plant?
RONALD JAMISON: Well, from what I hear, it basically was saying that it was causing corrosion. And what that was causing, they were saying something to the fact that what they were putting in the water. And they were saying we got this stuff called rust inhibitor, that keeps engines from rusting while they’re waiting to have oil put on them. And they went, I guess, tested it and found out, I guess, we were putting too much chlorine in the water. And so they told Flint that we’re not—you’re causing us to lose engines, because we have to tear them down and get the rust out before we put them—send them back.
AMY GOODMAN: And so, the emergency manager gave you a waiver and said you can disconnect from the Flint River and go back to the Detroit water system?
RONALD JAMISON: Well, what they did, they made an agreement, from what I hear, that they could leave, but once we got our water back right, that they would come back.
AMY GOODMAN: And you never got your water right.
RONALD JAMISON: No.
AMY GOODMAN: So, how did you feel? I mean, you were a worker in the plant, but you’re also a Flint resident. And that very water that was causing rust in the engine, you were drinking here in Flint.
RONALD JAMISON: Matter of fact, they took all the water fountains out of the plant. We have all water coolers throughout the plant.
AMY GOODMAN: So, what do you think about this?
RONALD JAMISON: To be serious, I made a joke to one of the supervisors that I was going to sue them, because they knew something had to be wrong and they never said nothing. All they said was "We’re not going to use it."
AMY GOODMAN: That was Ronald Jamison. His friends call him Hollywood. He has worked at the Flint engine plant for 39 years. So the emergency manager decides that to preserve the engines, the GM plant can switch back to the Detroit water system. But the people of Flint could not.
http://www.democracynow.org/2016/2/17what_did_gm_the_governor_know

One question Amy Goodman did not ask is why the UAW which represented the workers at that plant was silent about the poisoning of the people of Flint.

According to retired UAW local 909 president and former international staffer Frank Hammer the UAW was "mum" on the dangerous water at Flint.
The tip off to their complicity of silence was the failure to support and organize any protests when the residents were marching and protesting about the colored and highly contaminated water. Even when their own UAW plant shut off the water to protect the engines the union was silent. When community members and local rank and file trade unionists were marching to the capital the UAW was MIA.
FH: According to a recent interview with a worker from the GM Flint engine plant (Democracy Now!), GM shut down the water fountains in the factory and replaced them with water coolers. No more than that. To make matters worse, though the story appeared in local media, there was no response from my union. The UAW didn't speak out or act on behalf of Flint's residents. The UAW has remained mum to this day.
JB: How do you explain that disturbing union silence, Frank?
FH: The UAW embarked on a "partnership" with the domestic auto companies dating back to the 1980s. That partnership was elevated to a new level after the bankruptcy bailout of GM (and Chrysler) in 2009. At its 2010 Convention, the UAW conceded to be a provider of skilled labor, more like a labor contractor than a union organization. It has a material incentive: retirees healthcare benefits are partly under union administratorship, but tied to company profits. Thus, it has a conflict of interest, and has been protective of GM ever since.
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Understanding-Bernie-s-Hug-by-Joan-Brunwasser-Bernie-Sanders_Bernie-Sanders-2016-Presidential-Candidate_Bernie-Sanders-Supporter_Clinton-Campaign-160309-684.html

The question that UAW members, their families and the working people in this country have to ask is how a union that was built in struggle to fight these major corporations ended up defending their profits and forgetting to defend the members and their families and the working class of Flint, Michigan. They have faced the wrath of capitalist criminals like Governor Snyder and his privatizers. Even at this point, the UAW leadership is refusing to call for the removal of Snyder and his criminal prosecution. Of course they themselves are obviously complicit and culpable for not even fighting in October 2014 to stop the poison water pouring into Flint. It is becoming clearer every day that in this case profits trumped health and safety for their members and families.
For more information:
For more info:
https://soundcloud.com/workweek-radio/ww2-2-16-ual-ibt-contract-fight-and-flint-water-and-the-uaw
http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/index...
http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/index...
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/22/us/...
http://motorcitymuckraker.com/2016/01...
https://www.autonews.com/article/2016...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/r...
WorkWeek Radio
Steve Zeltzer
KPFA Pacifica WorkWeek Radio
https://soundcloud.com/workweek-radio
workweek [at] kpfa.org
§Flint Water Is Poison
by Steve Zeltzer
flint_undrikable.jpeg
The water in Flint was poison and was also rusting the GM Flint engine plant yet the union leadership was silent when the water was stopped from going into the plant to protect the engines. They also boycotted the community marches.
§Protest Against Poison Water
by Steve Zeltzer
uaw_flint_dan_reyes_pres_local_599_ct-flint-water-crisis-hoax-20160120-001.jpeg
The UAW local officials protested after the story broke nationally about the poison water but did not fight to get the UAW to demand that the poison water be stopped when it was rejected for the GM plant. The UAW union is still refusing to calling for criminal charges against Governor Snyder.
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virginia williams
Fri, Mar 25, 2016 10:04AM
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