Clarios workers set a powerful example, but they can’t win strike alone

 

Power to the rank and file! Brothers and sisters: I urge all UAW members to support the 525 striking workers at the Clarios battery manufacturing plant in Holland, Ohio, just outside of Toledo. These workers are fighting the world’s largest auto battery maker and the powerful financial interests behind it. The outcome of this strike will have major consequences for the hundreds of thousands of GM, Ford and Stellantis workers facing their own contract battles this summer.   Clarios, formerly the battery division of Johnson Controls, was bought by the private equity firm Brookfield Partners in 2019. Although the company made $1.6 billion last year, its wealthy investors want to boost profits by 30 percent in the next few years before they “flip” it for a massive payout.  In the last few years, workers have lost $10 an hour or more due to repeated cuts in piece rates. They regularly work 19 days in a row and 12 hours a shift at straight time before they get two days off and do it again. Exposure to toxic chemicals is so bad that workers must get tested for high levels of lead in their blood, which can cause lifelong disabilities and be passed onto their kids. Workers report that it is commonplace for retirees to get cancer and die a few years after leaving.  There are two more critical things about the strike that workers must know.  First, the walkout would never have happened if rank-and-file workers had not revolted against the UAW apparatus and rejected the deal Local 12 officials had negotiated by a margin of almost 99 to 1 percent. Workers then made it clear they would not accept any more contract extensions that would help the company stockpile batteries, forcing the UAW International to sanction the strike on May 8, 11 days after the defeat of the contract.  After the strike began, UAW Local 12 President Bruce Baumhower told reporters, “We’re not in the mood for concessionary contracts” and “We’re not going backwards in today’s economy.” But it was Baumhower and Local 12 officials who tried to push through a pro-company deal that contained a miserable 3 percent raise and other concessions. And it was the rank and file who threw this garbage into the trash.  Second, if this decisive strike is to be won, it is necessary for all UAW members to come to its immediate assistance.  The company is digging in for a long fight. Chief Human Resources officer Elizabeth Powers came to Clarios after overseeing a seven-month lockout of 2,200 ATI (Allegheny Technologies Inc.) steelworkers in 2014-15 and a 105-day strike in 2021.  Right now, trucks carrying thousands of batteries are being sent across the strikers’ picket lines, and Lucas County sheriff’s deputies are threatening workers with arrest if they don’t let the trucks through. These batteries are being delivered to Ford, GM, Stellantis and other plants in Toledo, Detroit and across the country.  As one striking Clarios worker said, “We build 1,500 batteries a day for the Ram 1500s at the Warren Truck plant alone. I would say to those workers: Stop putting batteries into those trucks. We all got to stick together. We should all go out at once.” Read the full statement →

Ⓒ Will Lehman Will Lehman, Pennsylvania, United States