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Our Workplace Press articles12 Weeks of Strike
After 12 weeks on strike, workers at five American Axle plants in Michigan and New York state voted to accept the company’s latest demands.
There were few changes from the demands the company had made before the strike started. Workers go back with wages less than half what they were, with benefits severely reduced or eliminated, and most work rules tossed aside.
The common feeling was expressed by one Axle worker who said, “it’s a rotten contract, but probably the best we could get in the situation.”
In fact, it was not the best that strikers could get. It was the best that top officers of the United Auto Workers union (UAW) could get.
From the start, they said they were ready to give the company vast concessions, even though Axle was enormously profitable. They refused to double strike benefits. And they cancelled the one demonstration they had been forced to call.
The workers at Axle had the determination needed to win a strike. And even in defeat, they put a scare into the bosses. If their strike ended in defeat, it’s because the policy of the top leaders of the union doomed it.
In the coming months, we can be sure more companies will make outrageous demands. Workers who want to refuse will have to take control of their own actions from the beginning. Choose their own strike leadership. Decide when and how they strike, what they will do.
Bring other workers into the fight. Use those tactics the civil rights movement knew so well. Shake up the status quo. Tie up business. Ignore those people who live by the bosses’ rules. This strike had wide support from other workers – it’s a sign that workers could have the forces they need to win.