Do you want to gag every time you hear a company that’s cutting wages, laying off workers, and shipping jobs overseas proclaim that workers need to be “competitive”? Well, Karma may be real. Labor Notes looks at how what goes around comes around in It’s Working: Auto Workers’ Strike Is Forcing The Big 3 to Pony Up!
The Stand-Up Strike strategy draws inspiration from an approach known as CHAOS (Create Havoc Around Our System), first deployed in 1993 when Alaska Airlines flight attendants announced they would be striking random flights. The unpredictability drew enormous media attention and drove management up the wall. Meanwhile the union was able to conserve its strength and minimize risk; it only actually struck seven flights over a two-month period, but Alaska had to send scabs for every plane, just in case.
This year, the auto companies miscalculated where the UAW was going to strike first, stockpiling engines and shipping them cross-country to the wrong facilities. Auto workers relished the self-inflicted supply chain chaos.
Sure seems like the general public has had enough…
The union is winning the P.R. war too. A CNN poll found that 76 percent of Americans stand with auto workers, while just 23 percent support the car companies.
“The workers win,” whimpered Jim Cramer, the corporate mouthpiece who hosts CNBC’s “Mad Money.”
(free graphic via clipart.com)
