The World Socialist Web Site calls on workers at the Mercedes plant in Ludwigsfelde: Take the fight for your jobs into your own hands, place no trust in the IG Metall union and its representatives in the plant!
Establish a rank-and-file action committee!
Instead of blackmail and division between the different workforces, act together at all sites to defend jobs, wages and social gains!
Spread this call via Facebook, WhatsApp, etc., as well as with flyers!
Starting in 2028, Mercedes-Benz plans to launch a new electric van. The new model is to be produced exclusively in Eastern Europe. The company is using the switch to electric mobility to launch a general attack on wages and jobs. Automotive companies operate internationally and play off workers at different locations against each other in search of the cheapest labour to maximize their profits. Mercedes-Benz is no exception.
Production in Ludwigsfelde is to be discontinued at the end of the decade. This threatens the loss of all 2,200 jobs here. Production of the chassis-cab versions of the Sprinter van is to be relocated from Ludwigsfelde to Dsseldorf, where the full-body models are already manufactured.
Mercedes van business is already highly profitable. Finance daily Handelsblatt reported on September 9, 2022 that in the first half of the year, the Stuttgart-based company achieved an operating return of 9.4 percent on sales of 7.8 billion euros and 190,000 vehicles sold.
None of this is benefiting the workers, who have produced the profit but will continue to be bled dry.
As the representatives of IG Metall made clear at the factory meeting in September, the union is trying at all costs to prevent a joint struggle by workers at all sites. When they talk about safeguarding locations, they mean rationalization measures and social cuts. When they talk about competitiveness, they mean job cuts. They consider plant closures to be unavoidable and play off employees at different plants against each other.
The fact that workers can only lose with such a strategy recently became clear at Ford, where IG Metall and the works council organized a bidding war between the plants in Saarlouis and Almussafes, Spain. Acting in the interests of the companies, the works council representatives in Germany and Spain submitted offers of sweeping wage cuts and concessions on working conditions. They competed to offer the company the most exploitative conditions.
In the end, the workers at both sites lost out. The plant in Saarlouis, which lost the bidding war, is to be closed by 2025 at the latest. But the plant in Almussafes is now also facing closure: Ford has withdrawn its previous announcement that it would manufacture electric vehicles there from 2025.
The first thing that any worker who seriously wants to fight must understand is the foul double game played by IG Metall and its local plant officials. While feigning concern at union meetings, they work closely with management, support its profit plans and play a key role in pushing through layoffs and plant closures. Defending jobs requires a separate path from that of the unions, one that places the interests of the workers higher than the profit interests of the company.
It is necessary to create rank-and-file committees independent of the union officials at all sites, which will then take joint action to defend jobs and wages. This is the only way to prevent management and the union from negotiating either shutdowns, massive job cuts or drastic regressions in conditions at one plant after another behind the backs of the workforce.
Central to this is focusing on the common interests of all workers at all sites, rather than bowing to corporate interests.
The rank-and-file committees advance a program of international workers solidarity to oppose the orgy of enrichment of the corporate top management. This is the only way to prevent a handful of super-rich executives and shareholders from deciding the future and well-being of workers and their families.
You are not alone. Fellow workers in Dsseldorfunlike the works council representatives theredo not see themselves as winners in the current reorganization of production. They have bled in the past and know that defeats at one location are defeats for all Mercedes-Benz employees. The same applies to colleagues at other locations such as Stuttgart, Sindelfingen, Rastatt and so on.
In Eastern Europe, tooin Hungary, Romania and Polandworkers have been bitterly squeezed and would welcome a hand extended to them in solidarity to improve their working conditions and wages.
But it is not only in Germany and Europe that you have allies. All over the world, resistance is growing against ever more brutal forms of exploitation, against mass layoffs, plant closures and social attacks. Just recently, Mercedes workers at the largest plant outside Germany, in So Paulo, Brazil, went on strike because 3,600 of 9,000 jobs are set to be eliminated.
Added to this are the consequences of the war against Russia in Ukraine. Never before has the danger of a third, nuclear world war been as great as it is today. The great powersincluding Germanyare using the Ukraine war to massively increase armaments spending to secure their own imperialist interests. We workers are being made to pay for it.
This is the case in every country in the world. Workers everywhere face the same problems. They are suffering from rising energy costs, which are skyrocketing because of the sanctions against Russia, and from galloping inflation.
Protests and labour disputes are on the rise all over the world. In the process, workers are confronted not only with governments and corporations, but also with unions that want to stifle and hold down this wave of resistance. Increasingly, therefore, workers are deciding to organize independently in rank-and-file committees.
The defence of jobs, wages and social standards goes hand in hand with the struggle against the threat of war and also against the policy of allowing COVID-19 to run wild, which is now threatening another surge of the disease in winter, with all its consequences.
The WSWS calls on Mercedes workers in Ludwigsfelde and all other locations to self-confidently take the fight for the defence of jobs into their own hands and refuse any longer to be dominated by IG Metall and the works council. Establishing a rank-and-file committee is the first step. The way forward is to join forces with fellow workers in Eastern Europe and also in the USA, Brazil, Mexico and the rest of the world.
The time could hardly be more opportune. Workers around the world are coming into conflict with the trade unions and forming independent rank-and-file committees.
We support you in building a rank-and-file committee in Ludwigsfelde and in networking with other rank-and-file committees worldwide. The point is to discuss in a circle of trustworthy colleagues what is necessary to defend all plants and jobs.
The first thing to do is to break through the division of workers fostered by the unions pitting of each site against the others. A common struggle requires contacting workers from the other German Mercedes-Benz sites, as well as international sites such as in Hungary, Romania, Poland, Brazil, Mexico, etc., and linking up with workers from other plants, all of whom face similar conditions and similar tasks.
The WSWS supports the International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees (IWA-RFC), established to facilitate such international networking. Since its inception, this alliance has been gaining support worldwide.
In the US in particular, workers in the auto industry have formed strike and rank-and-file committees independent of the corrupt unions. There, socialist Will Lehman is running for president of the United Auto Workers (UAW) union. He is winning enormous support with his demands for the abolition of the union bureaucracy, the return of power to the rank and file and for the international unity of the working class.
Workers must stand together! The rank-and-file committees build on the great tradition of workers struggles and confidently project workers strength onto the field of battle. Do not be intimidated! Managers and works council representatives do not build vehicles. You, the workers, create all the value. The shareholders, the managers, the union officials and the works council representatives are the beneficiaries of your work.
It is important to take action now. We say to workers at all sites: support, spread and share this call. Contact us via WhatsApp +491633378340.
Stay informed. Sign up to our Autoworker Newsletter.
See the original post here:
- The Abolition of Work--Bob Black - Primitivism [Last Updated On: March 25th, 2016] [Originally Added On: March 25th, 2016]
- Part I: The Abolition of Work - Inspiracy [Last Updated On: June 10th, 2016] [Originally Added On: June 10th, 2016]
- Bob Black - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia [Last Updated On: June 12th, 2016] [Originally Added On: June 12th, 2016]
- Campaign for the Abolition of Terrier Work - Badger Baiting [Last Updated On: June 16th, 2016] [Originally Added On: June 16th, 2016]
- The Abolition of Work Bob Black [Last Updated On: June 16th, 2016] [Originally Added On: June 16th, 2016]
- The Abolition of Work & Other Essays by Bob Black ... [Last Updated On: June 19th, 2016] [Originally Added On: June 19th, 2016]
- The Abolition of Work - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia [Last Updated On: June 19th, 2016] [Originally Added On: June 19th, 2016]
- William Wilberforce: biography and bibliography [Last Updated On: June 21st, 2016] [Originally Added On: June 21st, 2016]
- THE ABOLITION OF WORK - Deoxy [Last Updated On: June 25th, 2016] [Originally Added On: June 25th, 2016]
- The Abolition of Work by Bob Black - Inspiracy [Last Updated On: July 12th, 2016] [Originally Added On: July 12th, 2016]
- Campaign for the Abolition of Terrier Work - About Us [Last Updated On: July 23rd, 2016] [Originally Added On: July 23rd, 2016]
- Abolition - The African-American Mosaic Exhibition ... [Last Updated On: August 14th, 2016] [Originally Added On: August 14th, 2016]
- Granville Sharp (1735-1813) The Civil Servant, Abolition ... [Last Updated On: August 23rd, 2016] [Originally Added On: August 23rd, 2016]
- Abolition of Work - scribd.com [Last Updated On: September 16th, 2016] [Originally Added On: September 16th, 2016]
- THE ABOLITION OF WORK by Bob Black [Last Updated On: September 16th, 2016] [Originally Added On: September 16th, 2016]
- The Abolition of Work and Other Essays: Bob Black ... [Last Updated On: September 20th, 2016] [Originally Added On: September 20th, 2016]
- The Abolitionists: The Abolition of Slavery Project [Last Updated On: September 20th, 2016] [Originally Added On: September 20th, 2016]
- Abolitionism - United States American History [Last Updated On: October 6th, 2016] [Originally Added On: October 6th, 2016]
- Nobel Peace Prize | Nobels fredspris [Last Updated On: November 21st, 2016] [Originally Added On: November 21st, 2016]
- Contract Labour Act, 1970 - Vakilno1.com [Last Updated On: November 23rd, 2016] [Originally Added On: November 23rd, 2016]
- The Abolition of Man - Wikipedia [Last Updated On: November 29th, 2016] [Originally Added On: November 29th, 2016]
- Abolition of the ESA Work-Related Activity Component ... [Last Updated On: December 2nd, 2016] [Originally Added On: December 2nd, 2016]
- Prison abolition movement - Wikipedia [Last Updated On: December 2nd, 2016] [Originally Added On: December 2nd, 2016]
- The Pro-Slavery Lobby: The Abolition of Slavery Project [Last Updated On: December 7th, 2016] [Originally Added On: December 7th, 2016]
- What is Slavery?: The Abolition of Slavery Project [Last Updated On: December 14th, 2016] [Originally Added On: December 14th, 2016]
- The Abolition of Work | The Base [Last Updated On: January 6th, 2017] [Originally Added On: January 6th, 2017]
- Trump's Big Lie About 3 Million "Alien Voters" Cuts Far Deeper Than You Think - Truth-Out [Last Updated On: February 6th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 6th, 2017]
- Equality in Democracy: Tocqueville's Prediction of a Falling America - CNSNews.com [Last Updated On: February 6th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 6th, 2017]
- The question employers are wary to ask: when are you going to retire? - The Conversation UK [Last Updated On: February 6th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 6th, 2017]
- Indian Govt's Abolition of FIPB Will Help Spur Up Foreign Investments - Entrepreneur [Last Updated On: February 6th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 6th, 2017]
- High time for states to invest in alternatives to migrant detention - ReliefWeb [Last Updated On: February 6th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 6th, 2017]
- Indian sex worker groups slam global conference on abolition of prostitution - Reuters [Last Updated On: February 6th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 6th, 2017]
- Donald Trump 'taking steps to abolish Environmental Protection Agency' - The Guardian [Last Updated On: February 6th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 6th, 2017]
- Exploiting black labor after the abolition of slavery - Baraboo News Republic [Last Updated On: February 7th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 7th, 2017]
- Justice Ginsburg Backs Abolition Of The Electoral College - Daily Caller [Last Updated On: February 7th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 7th, 2017]
- If alliance wins, making CMPof 2 manifestoes will be a task - Hindustan Times [Last Updated On: February 9th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 9th, 2017]
- Effective abolition of child labour (DECLARATION) [Last Updated On: February 9th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 9th, 2017]
- Judicial review is government at work - The Independent Florida Alligator [Last Updated On: February 10th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 10th, 2017]
- Did Darwin's theory of evolution encourage abolition of slavery ... - Washington Post [Last Updated On: February 10th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 10th, 2017]
- Italy sets up fast-track asylum courts for migrants - The Local Italy [Last Updated On: February 11th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 11th, 2017]
- Take Five: Susan B. Anthony - The Sun Chronicle [Last Updated On: February 12th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 12th, 2017]
- Pope Francis on death penalty - Philippine Star [Last Updated On: February 12th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 12th, 2017]
- Protests as Iowa considers its own 'Scott Walker bill' - Washington Examiner [Last Updated On: February 14th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 14th, 2017]
- Executives Reflect on Evolving GUSA - Georgetown University The Hoya [Last Updated On: February 14th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 14th, 2017]
- Report: Improved school access in Tanzania still leaves work to be done - Africa Times [Last Updated On: February 15th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 15th, 2017]
- Might mandatory retirement come back with 70 as the new 65? - The Globe and Mail [Last Updated On: February 15th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 15th, 2017]
- Monument to Thomas Fowell Buxton on Bincleaves Green in Weymouth - Dorset Echo [Last Updated On: February 15th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 15th, 2017]
- Tate announce QUEER BRITISH ART 1861-1967 - FAD magazine [Last Updated On: February 15th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 15th, 2017]
- County To Apply for Grant for I.V. Community Center | The Daily Nexus - Daily Nexus [Last Updated On: February 17th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 17th, 2017]
- The myth of the alpha leader is destroying our relationshipsat work and at home - Quartz [Last Updated On: February 17th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 17th, 2017]
- Equalities Secretary to seek UK assurances over benefits after ... - AOL Money UK [Last Updated On: February 18th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 18th, 2017]
- Disobedience: What Can We Risk? - Mad In America [Last Updated On: February 19th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 19th, 2017]
- Govt mulls abolition of parallel degree programs in public varsities - Capital FM Kenya (press release) (blog) [Last Updated On: February 19th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 19th, 2017]
- The redeeming chaos of a bull in the government china shop - Charleston Post Courier [Last Updated On: February 20th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 20th, 2017]
- Westminster warned against benefits 'claw back' once 'bedroom tax' abolished in Scotland - Scottish Housing News [Last Updated On: February 20th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 20th, 2017]
- Opinion: Let's take discourse about HB2 beyond just money - The Daily Tar Heel [Last Updated On: February 22nd, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 22nd, 2017]
- Fighting voter ID laws in the courts isn't enough. We need boots on the ground - Los Angeles Times [Last Updated On: February 22nd, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 22nd, 2017]
- Oped: Fight ID laws one voter at a time - York Dispatch [Last Updated On: February 23rd, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 23rd, 2017]
- Age Action calls on TDs to back Bill abolishing mandatory retirement ... - BreakingNews.ie [Last Updated On: February 23rd, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 23rd, 2017]
- New York dockers' union calls for abolition of crime-busting Waterfront Commission - The Loadstar [Last Updated On: February 23rd, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 23rd, 2017]
- Molly J. McGrath: Fight ID laws one voter at a time - Madison.com [Last Updated On: February 24th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 24th, 2017]
- Frederick Douglass Park: We're Fixing Our Typo! - Nashville Scene [Last Updated On: February 24th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 24th, 2017]
- Jim Goetsch: Abolition of abortions means changing the way we think - The Union of Grass Valley [Last Updated On: February 24th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 24th, 2017]
- Abolishing provincial championships only way to cure fixture ... - Irish Independent [Last Updated On: February 25th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 25th, 2017]
- Labor won't fight any Fair Work Commission decision to cut Sunday penalty rates: Bill Shorten - Western Advocate [Last Updated On: February 26th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 26th, 2017]
- Committee expected to recommend 100m water charges refunds to those who have paid up - Irish Independent [Last Updated On: February 28th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 28th, 2017]
- Sinn Fein attacks schools minister over plan to merge two transfer tests - Belfast Telegraph [Last Updated On: February 28th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 28th, 2017]
- 'As a lecturer in the 1980s, I kept my sexual orientation to myself' - Times Higher Education (THE) [Last Updated On: February 28th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 28th, 2017]
- Coveney says he will not legislate for water charges abolition as it would be illegal - thejournal.ie [Last Updated On: February 28th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 28th, 2017]
- Taoiseach refuses to back down on water - Newstalk 106-108 fm [Last Updated On: March 2nd, 2017] [Originally Added On: March 2nd, 2017]
- Heart of Smartness - Chronicle of Higher Education (subscription) (blog) [Last Updated On: March 4th, 2017] [Originally Added On: March 4th, 2017]
- 10 must see events in Hull 2017 season three Freedom this summer - Hull Daily Mail [Last Updated On: March 4th, 2017] [Originally Added On: March 4th, 2017]
- We are sick of being told what to do, says Freddie Forsyth - Express.co.uk [Last Updated On: March 4th, 2017] [Originally Added On: March 4th, 2017]
- Corruption: Abolish security votes, peg minimum wage at N50,000 Ekweremadu - Vanguard [Last Updated On: March 4th, 2017] [Originally Added On: March 4th, 2017]
- Saudi employers given one month to return passports - Gulf Business - Gulf Business News [Last Updated On: March 5th, 2017] [Originally Added On: March 5th, 2017]
- Religious bodies misguided - Trinidad & Tobago Express [Last Updated On: March 6th, 2017] [Originally Added On: March 6th, 2017]
- Ousted Rec Director Loses Case Against City - Athletic Business (blog) [Last Updated On: March 6th, 2017] [Originally Added On: March 6th, 2017]
- Any deal must provide route to full pay restoration, says ASTI - Irish Times [Last Updated On: March 6th, 2017] [Originally Added On: March 6th, 2017]
- Analysis of Pauline Hanson's flat 2 per cent tax shows it would help overseas imports - The West Australian [Last Updated On: March 7th, 2017] [Originally Added On: March 7th, 2017]
- Taxes for self-employed likely to rise in Hammond's budget - The Guardian [Last Updated On: March 7th, 2017] [Originally Added On: March 7th, 2017]