BY JOHN STEELE
TORONTO - At the Ford Electronics plant in Markham near Toronto, where I work as an assembler, production was shut down for two hours September 8 to celebrate the unveiling of the company's new name.

The day shift of about 600 was herded into a huge tent erected in the parking lot for the occasion. There we were shown videos with a live satellite hookup to Frankfurt, Germany, where the new company president acted as MC for the event. The hookup included Sao Paulo, Brazil; Enfield, England; and Dearborn, Michigan, where other Ford workers were shown also waiting for the unveiling of the new name. At the end of a 25-minute countdown broadcast to Ford facilities around the world, there it was - "Visteon" - a giant multibillion dollar auto parts and systems corporation made up of 68 factories on four continents. This reorganized division of Ford Motor Co. is designed to compete on the world market with Delphi, the largest automobile parts company in the world. Delphi is owned by General Motors.

With "inspirational" slogans such as, "We will be the best," company officials vowed that if we all pull together to "grow" a "competitive profit center," the future will be rosy for management and workers alike. Gary VanderHaagen, vice president and general manager of the electronics systems division of Visteon, announced that Ford would conquer the world, particularly in "emerging markets" like Thailand. By pulling together behind the Visteon vision "we" could "kill Delphi," he said.

The plant manager appealed for a new era of trust and cooperation between bosses and workers. This vision of the future was endorsed from the platform by the presidents of the International Association of Machinists (IAM) and the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) union locals in the plant.

Many workers applauded the unveiling during the event. In the following days, however, there was a lot of skepticism voiced on the shop floor.

"It's all lies," said Karen Bryant, an assembler in the plant for over 12 years. "We are going to lose jobs out of this. They have already cut seven positions on my line."

In response to the appeal of the Ford bosses to join with them against GM to "kill Delphi," assembler Mohammed Quarishi said, "The GM workers are just like us. We have nothing against them. They are working for a living."

Others expressed concern about how this move by the company would affect the upcoming contract negotiations. The IAM contract for the production workers at the plant expires in January.

These comments get to the heart of the matter. There is nothing in Ford's competitive drive against GM that is in the interests of Ford workers. Our interests lie with our fellow toilers - whoever they work for, and in whatever country they work.

Car industry heading for massive crisis
There is unprecedented "overcapacity" developing in the world auto industry as the depression conditions engulfing the capitalist market, caused by falling profit rates, continue to unfold.

According to an article in the May 10 Economist, by the year 2000 the auto bosses around the world will have the capacity to produce 22 million more cars a year than the estimated 60 million that can be sold. The article points out that in the past, GM and Ford had a profit rate of at least 8 percent when their factories were producing at least 70 percent capacity; now that rate has fallen to below 5 percent. The article states that the auto industry is heading for a crash that could result in some firms going under and several "capacity-cutting merges" that would mean layoffs. The largest 13 auto manufacturers currently employ about 2.5 million workers worldwide, with many more working in parts plants and auto-related facilities.

Over the last year Ford management has instituted what they call the Ford Production System or FPS, centered on "lean manufacturing" and the "elimination of waste." Many workers are suspicious that waste refers to them and that FPS is simply a code word for having fewer workers produce more in a shorter period of time for less pay and benefits.

These suspicions are well-founded.

Writing in the August issue of the Mosaic, the Ford Electronics magazine, company spokesperson Laura Trottier states that "when FPS was introduced, there was a lot of resistance, and there still may be resistance..(but) we must do this to increase our profit margins. We sell a lot of cars but our profit margin is too low." She claimed that becoming "lean" does not mean lost jobs or downsizing but being "competitive."

But reducing "labor costs" is exactly what FPS is all about. As profit rates fall and the market shrinks - the vision of massive sales to so-called emerging markets has been shaken by the recent currency crisis in Thailand and other countries in Asia - the auto bosses are driven to cut prices against their competitors. Since the real value of an automobile is determined by how much labor power goes into it over a given period of time, and since the market price centers around this value, the bosses have to drive down the amount of labor power that goes into producing each vehicle and the cost of that labor power to them. This is done through line speed up, combining jobs, more expensive computerized robots, forced overtime, attrition of the labor force through retirements, permanent layoffs, part-time work, two-tier wages, wage cuts, and other means.

This war between the auto giants is also a war against our unions. Thousands of GM workers who have lost their jobs through downsizing, or who have injured themselves through speedup and forced overtime, know this. On September 4, in Vilvoorde, Belgium, the French-owned Renault S.A. plant shut down, throwing 3,100 auto workers into the street. The increase in repetitive strain injuries at Ford Electronics, the pressure to do overtime, the introduction of more powerful robots that turn out more units with less human labor, is all evidence of what the auto bosses have in store for us as the price competition becomes more ferocious and the drive to increase profit rates more frenzied.

We cannot defend ourselves by enlisting in their war and by accepting the false view that we can get job security by killing the jobs of workers at GM or any other auto company.

The only way we can defend ourselves as the crisis unfolds is to start with our needs as members of the working class throughout the world, not the profit needs of the billionaire families who own the auto companies.

GM workers in the United States, who have been fighting forced overtime by demanding more hiring, deserve our support. Our unions need to support other workers who have decided to draw a line in the sand against the drive of the bosses to lower wages and weaken unions, like the UPS Teamsters who recently used union power to force "Big Brown" to put 10,000 more workers on full-time.

To win a contract that strengthens our union and our position in relation to the company we need to start from the reality of the struggle between our class and the owners of capital on a world scale - not the dangerous illusions being pushed on us by the bosses and their Visteon vision.

John Steele is a member of Local 2113 of the IAM at Ford Electronics. Sylvie Charbin, also a member of IAM Local 2113, contributed to this article.  
 
 
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