“This only verifies what so many of us thought was happening before and after our so-called contract negotiations”
Indiana Fiat Chrysler workers react to UAW bribery indictment
By
Jerry White
31 July 2017
Workers at Fiat Chrysler’s Kokomo, Indiana casting plant have been using Facebook to circulate the World Socialist Web Site’s article on the federal indictment charging that FCA officials handed more than $1 million in bribes to the United Auto Workers (UAW) top negotiator between 2009 and 2014.
UAW Vice President General Holiefield, who died of pancreatic cancer in March 2015, pushed through pro-company labor agreements in 2007, 2009 and 2011 that imposed sweeping concessions on Fiat Chrysler workers, including a 50 percent cut in the wages of new hires and the establishment of the hated 10-hour-a-day “alternative work schedule.”
“This only verifies what so many of us thought was happening before and after our so-called contract negotiations,” Dan, a retired worker from Chrysler’s Kokomo Casting Plant, told the WSWS Autoworker Newsletter.
“Parts of your article were being circulated in the plant, and workers shared the whole thing on Facebook. It’s so upsetting they got away with this for so long.
“Workers here are not happy with the union in general. We’ve been lied to for years. It showed in the last contract when workers rejected it. The union reps said it was a great contract and they acted dumbfounded when we voted it down. They treat us like dummies.”
Fiat Chrysler workers rejected the UAW-backed deal by a 2-to-1 margin, prompting the UAW to denounce rank-and-file workers for using social media and listening to “outside agitators” like the World Socialist Web Site.
“The membership got to the point during the contract that we…