the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
Oct 30, 2023
United Auto Workers (UAW) represented Blue Cross workers in four local unions in Michigan have been on strike for nearly two months now and still do not have a contract. Many workers are expressing anger about how the strike has been handled.
Striking workers have been largely kept in the dark by the UAW International union about what the specific sticking points are in the negotiations between the union and the company. So, people feel they can’t measure what they are striking for. Knowing this, the company jumped on it and beat the union to the punch in revealing contract content (their version) directly to Blue Cross workers in a letter they sent to union members.
Of course, the letter was full of malarkey about how much the company values workers while at the same time basically admitting that what they’re really concerned about is the bottom line, keeping down costs. Workers were generally unimpressed with what the company was offering. For example, Blue Cross says it is offering a 7% pay increase when an employee moves to a higher grade compared with the 5% in the previous contract. Unfortunately, hardly any workers see the possibility of any such promotion when, in reality, union jobs have been slashed dramatically in recent decades.
On the other hand, some striking workers are equally ticked at how their local union leaders are handling the strike. So much so, that after the company sent out its letter, the International union finally felt the need to give its members some information about what the disagreements were with the company. The International Union says it’s mainly fighting the company over outsourcing but says nothing about a strategy to make the company budge on the question.
And, the leaderships of some of the local unions are still doing nothing to involve their members in the running of their own strike. Workers should know what’s going on with contract negotiations and have a say in the running of their strike. The company’s offer needs to be brought out for workers to vote on. It’s the only way to call the company’s bluff.
Workers have the right to meet, discuss, and decide the direction of their strike, and that’s not what is happening in this strike at Blue Cross. To go forward, workers need to meet to discuss and decide it’s worth the fight.