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| Teamster leafletting about BMW's cruel treatment of its workers. |
Proposed layoffs of 65 of our Teamsters brothers and sisters at BMW in Ontario, Calif., epitomize the evisceration of the middle class, writes Michael Hiltzik in a terrific LA Times column. Hiltzik writes,
Every working American should be dismayed by — and afraid of — what BMW is doing.BMW's parts warehouse was the jewel in the company's distribution system, writes Hiltzik.
Supplying dealer service departments throughout Southern California, Arizona and Nevada, it received gold medals from BMW for its efficiency and employed several of the top-ranked workers in the country. In the roughly 40 years its workers had been represented by the Teamsters union, there had never been a labor stoppage.A negotiating committee from Local 495 went to the plant last month to start negotiations over the contract that expires on Aug. 31. They expected a crappy wage increase and to pay more for health insurance. Instead, they were told all the Teamsters would be fired. Writes Hiltzik,
BMW's defenders will point out that the company has a perfect legal right to outsource any jobs it wishes. Fair enough. Yet by the same token, American taxpayers had a perfect legal right to tell BMW to drop dead when the firm's credit arm asked the Federal Reserve for a low-interest $3.6-billion loan during the 2008 financial crisis. BMW got the money then because U.S. policymakers saw a larger issue at stake: saving the economy from going over a cliff. Just as there's a larger issue involved at Ontario, which is saving the American middle class from going over the same cliff.John Williams, director of the Teamsters Warehouse Division, views the layoffs as a skirmish in the larger War on Workers:
This is the most ruthless type of employer action that we see. Stopping the war on workers starts with stopping companies like this one from destroying lives.Bob Lennox, principal officer for Local 495, is leading the fight to save those jobs. He made an impassioned plea for help at the 28th International Brotherhood of Teamsters Convention (watch the video here). Lennox collected pledges of support from Teamsters to donate time leafleting BMW dealers in California, Oregon, Washington, Arizona and Colorado. Above is a photo of a Teamster passing out a leaflet about BMW's savage behavior. Hundreds of Teamsters and their families are doing the same.
There's a website, BMW Ultimate Misery, with information about the campaign to save those 65 jobs. You can access it here.
