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Auto Workers March in Detroit

By staff

Detroit, MI – More than 600 rank-and-file auto workers demonstrated here, Jan. 8, to protest attacks on working people by Delphi and General Motors. The Delphi Corporation, which makes GM auto parts, wants to use bankruptcy proceedings to make huge cuts to wages, benefits and pensions.

A statement from Soldiers of Solidarity, the group that organized the march, noted, “ Corporate greed, not necessity drives GM/Delphi’s planned attack on workers and our communities. Delphi was a healthy, debt-free corporation in 1999 after they were spun off from General Motors. The pension was fully funded. Delphi had no retirees. Six years later Delphi is broke. They drained the pension fund and the stock is worthless.”

“Delphi ’s failure is not the fault of workers, it is the fault of overpaid, incompetent frauds. GM/Delphi planned the bankruptcy in order to break the contract and dump their responsibility to retirees onto American taxpayers. If the court sanctions this scam, other multinational corporations will follow suit. Delphi is the test case, ” the statement continued.

Most of those at the demonstration were rank-and file-members of the United Auto Workers. The UAW did not endorse the protest and has a record of making big concessions to the auto corporations.

The stage is set for a major confrontation between this crucial section of the working class and some of America’s biggest corporations. All workers have a stake in the outcome of this battle.

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