[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 95 (Thursday, July 16, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Page S8274]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     AUTOWORKERS OF FLINT, MICHIGAN

  Mr. WELLSTONE. Mr. President, for more than 5 weeks, the Nation's 
largest industrial corporation has been locked in a labor dispute with 
workers in two of its Flint, MI, plants. I do not believe that we have 
had any discussion on the floor of the Senate about this. I want to 
speak about it. The company and the workers are fighting over local 
issues--health and safety, speeding up the production lines, and 
sending work to outside suppliers--but these local disputes also 
highlight a broader national concern that affects millions of working 
Americans: how U.S. corporations invest, how they compete, and where 
they invest.
  GM's hard-line stance and labor-war tactics endanger the livelihoods 
of tens of thousands of workers in the automotive industry and in the 
industries that rely on auto production for their business. Ironically, 
these hardball tactics also undermine the very competitiveness that GM 
says it wants. Competitive firms need good labor relations; and good 
labor relations begin with a handshake, not a 2 by 4.

  Monday's Washington Post reported that high-level negotiations to end 
the strike broke down Sunday ``amid signs the auto maker now may be 
willing to risk an all-out labor war.'' The company has asked an 
arbitrator to rule on the legality of the strike. The union has said 
fine. But GM's vice president in charge of labor relations broke off 
negotiations, refusing to even participate further in talks to reach an 
overall solution to the strike. The Post further reported, ``A GM 
source said some top company officials are pushing for a form of 
drastic action to `send a clear message to the UAW' * * * Options 
reportedly under consideration, the source said, range from a legal 
action challenging the walkout * * *; cutting off health-care benefits 
to all UAW members idled by the strike; or shutting down the two 
strike-bound parts plants in Flint, Mich., and contracting out the 
work. Such a move,'' the Post explained, ``would amount to an all-out 
war.''
  GM has taken the first step, filing a lawsuit against the union. GM 
would apparently rather sue than negotiate. They would rather fight 
than talk. The Post has reported that, ``Company sources said the 
lawsuit is probably the first step in an escalating war between the 
company and the union.''
  This is no way for the Nation's largest industrial organization to 
treat its workers and their representatives. The duly recognized 
representatives of GM workers, the United Auto Workers, had sought to 
negotiate a global settlement. GM senior representative should come 
back to the table.
  Yes, GM has every right to seek to improve productivity and profits. 
But as yesterday's New York Times reported, ``G.M.'s biggest 
productivity problem lies in its auto parts factories, which were * * * 
starved of investment during the 1980's * * * and have antiquated 
machinery as a result.''
  GM entered into agreements with the United Auto Workers to invest 
more in its American operations but has fallen short of making new 
demands on workers before it would comply with what it had already 
promised.
  What is really at stake here are American jobs--good jobs, with good 
benefits. The workers at GM's Flint parts plants are fighting to 
preserve those American jobs. Over the next 2 years, in this act alone 
GM threatens to transfer about 11,000 of these jobs to subcontractors 
or out of the country altogether. GM's workers are justifiably 
concerned with what the New York Times calls ``G.M.'s steady push to 
build factories overseas while slowing investment in its low-profit 
American operations.''
  GM should stop fighting its workers and get back to investing in the 
creation of those good jobs which bring good benefits right here in the 
United States. Strikes are hard on everyone--on the company, on the 
economy, and hardest of all on the men and women on the picket line. 
The best way for GM, or any corporation, to avoid picket lines is to 
address the underlying problems that lead to strikes, not to challenge 
the right of workers to strike.
  The free world looked upon strikes in the 1930s with hope, because, 
as Franklin Roosevelt said in 1939, ``Only in free lands have free 
labor unions survived.'' As long as there have been unions, we have 
known that the right to strike and liberty go hand in hand.
  That is why, in 1860, Abraham Lincoln told striking New Haven shoe 
factory workers, ``Thank God we have a system of labor where there can 
be a strike.''
  I have confidence in the auto workers of Flint, MI. Although I stand 
here today on the floor of the U.S. Senate, in my heart I stand with 
the auto workers of Flint, MI. They know the history of work, the auto 
workers of Flint, MI.
  It was the auto workers of Flint, MI, who, on December 30, 1936, 
called another strike against the same company, General Motors. The 
goal of that strike was simple, too. All the strikers wanted was for GM 
to recognize the union. For over 6 weeks, the auto workers of Flint, 
MI, stopped production in the famous Sit-Down Strike of 1937. They 
slept on unfinished car seats and ate what food their families could 
slip through the factory windows. The auto workers of Flint, MI, faced 
tear gas, heat shutoffs, and company security guards. Led by their new 
29-year-old president of Local 174, a man named Walter Reuther, and the 
great union leader, John L. Lewis, the auto workers of Flint, MI, 
prevailed.

  Because the auto workers of Flint, MI, were willing to strike, the 
auto industry was forever challenged. Because the auto workers of 
Flint, MI, were willing to strike, over the years the automotive 
industry became a source of good jobs with good benefits and the Nation 
prospered. GM was the most successful auto maker in the world when it 
paid the highest wages, not the lowest. Americans want to be the 
beneficiaries of a more competitive firm, not their victims. And that 
is exactly why the auto workers of Flint, MI, walk the picket lines 
today.




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