Contracts come and contracts go, but the bosses continue to plot against
the working class. ---- The trade federations of CGIL, CISL and UIL havecalled a strike of workers in the automotive sector for October 18, with
a national demonstration in Rome. This day of struggle has also received
the applause of employers' and pro-government newspapers. Faced with the
massive increase in pace and overtime, accompanied by redundancy
payments, incentivized exoduses and layoffs, the concertative unions
have found nothing better than to call on the working class employed in
the automotive sector to fight for the interests of the bosses. In the
statement issued by the union bureaucracies, in addition to the whining
about the car crisis, we read the explicit request to the government to
make public resources available to multinationals in the sector "in
exchange for employment guarantees".
But how does Stellantis behave in other states? We publish below an
excerpt from an article published on the US website "Labor notes",
dedicated to the behavior of the multinational automotive company in the USA
FACTORIES LIKE CASH COWS
The Stellantis company, in the United States, announced in December 2022
that it was closing the assembly plant at the gigantic complex in
Belvidere, Illinois; a year later all the jobs had disappeared, promptly
following up on what was announced. The same company, last year,
following an agreement established that in 2024 it would launch a
distribution hub for components at the same plant; to date, nothing of
what was promised has yet been seen. Similarly, Stellantis assured in
the contract that in 2028 it would also build a new battery plant worth
3.2 billion dollars in the same complex, and that by 2027 it would
invest 1.5 billion dollars to resume production, at the same site, of a
medium-sized truck, the Dodge Dakota. Therefore, the company would have
created 5,000 new jobs in the United States. But Stellantis now says
that due to "market conditions," all of those plans are "postponed."
Promises that were perfectly kept when it came to eliminating jobs are
completely unfulfilled when it comes to creating jobs.
"We have no choice but to strike to force this company to honor its
agreements," said Stephen Hinojosa, a member of UAW Local 12 and a
production team leader at the Toledo Assembly Complex.
Toledo is one of Stellantis' largest manufacturing plants in the
country, where 5,000 workers demonstrated extraordinary unity on the
first day of a stand-up strike a year ago. It was also one of the plants
where workers voted against the national agreement that ended that
strike, specifically criticizing the bonus structure, the conversion of
temporary workers, and the provisions on vacation and overtime.
The plant's problems have been simmering for some time. Hinojosa likens
Stellantis to private equity: It treats its U.S. auto plants like cash
cows to the bone.
"They've gotten there," he said. "They've stripped everything down to
the last cent, and they suck every profit they can. And when they get to
a point where there's nothing left to extract as profit from the
product, they sell the plant for scrap."
That's the modus operandi of CEO Carlos Tavares. "Every time he's taken
over a company, he's cut production and relegated jobs to places where
labor is cheaper; that's how he's been able to make those companies
profitable," Hinojosa said.
In a glowing 2023 profile in the French newspaper Le Monde, Tavares was
described as a "samurai, obsessed with work, demanding, cold, fast and
with enormous efficiency," characteristics that credit him with reviving
French automaker Peugeot from bankruptcy and rewarding shareholders with
lucrative dividends.
"To achieve these feats, Tavares shook up the company with staff cuts,
inter-plant competition, drastic cost control and pressure on teams," Le
Monde wrote.
Tavares's method is described as fiercely competitive in a Darwinian
world. "Only the
best will survive," he said. "When I talk to a worker about the goals I
have set for his plant, I tell him: It's demanding, but if you fail to
achieve these goals, you will be in a vulnerable position. Only
performance protects," Tavares told Le Monde.
It's always "market conditions" when it comes to laying off a worker or
closing a plant. It's never "market conditions" when it comes to raising
CEO pay by 56%. Carlos Tavares is telling American autoworkers, 'Market
conditions are for you, not for me.'
BOOST PROFITS, FIRE WORKERS
Stellantis is a voracious beast. Like the Roman god Saturn, who ate his
own children to prevent them from challenging his power, Stellantis has
devoured lesser corporate deities in a quest for monopoly. Formed in
2021 through a merger of Fiat Chrysler and French conglomerate PSA, it
has become the parent company of 14 auto brands, including Jeep, Ram
Trucks and Chrysler, and one of the world's most profitable automakers,
with net income of $20 billion last year.
Stellantis has laid off thousands of U.S. auto workers, with 2,450 more
to go next month. The company has reduced its global workforce by 47,500
(out of 242,000) from December 2019 to 2023, all the while racking up
profits by gorging on human sacrifice.
The cost-cutting is part of Stellantis' plan to double revenue by 2030,
but things aren't exactly going as planned. U.S. sales of its brands
fell 21% in the second quarter, compared to the same period last year,
and net income fell by $6 billion, down 48% in the first six months.
Sales are down, profits are down, and CEO pay is way, way up, but the
problem isn't the market: at General Motors and Ford, car sales are up.
So the problem isn't drivers, the problem is Carlos Tavares.
Tavares is one of the world's highest-paid auto executives, with a total
compensation of $39.5 million. Stellantis has pledged $3 billion in
stock buybacks this year and has already paid out $5 billion in dividends.
In July, Tavares blamed auto workers for the sales slump, targeting the
Sterling Heights, Michigan, plant for producing poor-quality RAM 1500
pickups, reducing the number of vehicles that have passed quality
certification and delaying deliveries to dealers.
A network of U.S. dealers, meanwhile, accused Tavares of "rapid
degradation" of the automaker's brands and "short-term decisions."
This isn't so much a story of a bust following a boom as it is of
mismanagement that shifts the blame to workers and shareholders while
the boss cuts production and reduces the workforce.
"Capital jealously guards its 'right to manage' from any influence by
labor, yet somehow it's always labor's fault when management gets it
wrong," said Brian Callaci, chief economist at the Open Markets
Institute, a nonprofit that studies the stranglehold that corporate
monopolies have on democracy.
Stellantis is recalling millions of vehicles, including the Toledo-built
Jeep Wrangler and Gladiator. The company's job cuts have led to fewer
quality inspectors and less oversight of supply chains.
ON THE MASSIVE WAGON
The situation in Europe is no better. In August 2024,
Stellantis-produced cars were registered in the European Union, EFTA
states and the United Kingdom, 103,612, a reduction of 28.7% compared to
August 2023. The reduction in registrations of Stellantis-produced cars
in the first two quarters of 2024 was 3.3 compared to 2023, for a total
of 1,491,967. In the same period, the market share decreased, going from
17 in 2023 to 16.2 this year.
Beyond the strong words against Stellantis and CEO Tavares, the
mobilization of the concertative unions aims to push the government to
support the automotive industry and create favorable conditions for it
to continue producing in Italy, that is, to guarantee substantial
profits at the expense of the community. It is no coincidence that all
this is happening while negotiations for the renewal of the national
metalworkers' contract are at a standstill: the threat of layoffs and
redundancy payments has always been considered by employers to be an
excellent tool for weakening any worker resistance.
An example of the union strategy is given by the Termoli factory, which
in the Stellantis plans should produce batteries for electric cars and
employ two thousand people. The government had committed to contributing
400 million from the PNRR, which however were allocated to other
investments, because the management of the new factory decided to
postpone the investment, both due to the slowdown in demand for electric
cars in Italy and the need for a technological update on the batteries
to be produced. Now the unions are asking, among other things, for the
commitment of 400 million in public money to be maintained.
Let's do some math. The total investment is two billion, of which 400
million would come from the PNRR; if the two billion were given directly
to the people employed, they would translate into an annual income of 50
thousand euros per person for 50 years, without pollution, without
increasing extractivism, reducing illnesses.
We must free ourselves from the work ethic, which is only exploitation
of the working class and plundering of the environment, we must free
ourselves from the idea of defending jobs: with this logic the
concertative unions have signed thousands of agreements to the downside
on wages, rights, public services. If we want to win we must unite
everyone, those who have a job and those who don't, those with permanent
contracts and those who don't, for a general battle for income. The
story of the strike of the 18th demonstrates once again that the
concertative unions are only the errand boys of the multinationals,
let's organize ourselves in the grassroots, conflictual and direct
action unions.
Tiziano Antonelli
https://umanitanova.org/metalmeccanici-reddito-non-lavoro/
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