Update: Car-Industry

As an update on the situation and strikes in the car industry in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Germany and Italy we took some material from several (leftist and not) newspapers. The struggle at Dräxlmaier in Bremen, Germany, is yet another example of the industrial power workers have in their hands in post-fordism. Dräxlmeier is one of the main German direct investors in Romania and other countries in Eastern Europe. The (wildcat) strike at Skoda in the Czech Republic and the spontaneous protests at Fiat Mirafiori in Italy counterpose the silent closure of the Rover factory in Britain (see also the articles on Skoda and Citroën in this edition of the newsletter and those on Daimler, GM/Opel and others in ‘prol-position news’ #1).

First strike for thirteen years at Skoda, Czech Republic
[See also other article on this strike in this newsletter.] 30th of March. Some 12,000 of the 21,000 employees at Skoda walked off the job for an hour on the 30th of March, putting the company 240 cars under its daily quota of about 2,000. Negotiations began with the unions, which originally demanded a 10 percent wage increase, while management offered a straight cost-of-inflation increase of 2.8 percent. In the new collective agreement signed between Skoda management and the unions that goes into effect retroactively from April 1st, employees will receive a 7 percent wage increase, for the regular wage and the 13th salary. In addition, they will receive an annual bonus of 3,500 Kc, said Jaromir Cvrcek, a trade union spokesman. This has been the highest wage increase since the transition/end of socialist regime in 1989/90. Skoda is the Czech unit of Germany’s Volkswagen. The Czech workers earn about 800 Euros per month, which is the lowest income of the Volkswagen Group. Comrades from the Czech Republic told us that the demonstrations and roadblocks were more or less under union control and that they heard of anti-German slogans being put forward by the unions (‘We are not a German colony’). The media warned openly that the strike at Skoda could spread to other international companies and car suppliers in the Czech Republic, such as Bosch, Siemens, Panasonic, and Philips.

Siemens wants to close down plant for automobile parts and re-locate production to the Czech Republic
April, 2005. After the Easter holiday 2005 it became official: about 1250 jobs will be cut in Würzburg/Germany and re-located to Ostrava in the Czech Republic. The metal union in Germany reacts as usual: they complain about the anti-patriotic management, they beg politicians for solidarity and they organise toothless symbolic protests, such as a human chain around the factory, on the 15th of April 2005. Nevertheless the rank-and-file union members talk about a ‘combative atmosphere’ and refer to ‘the loss unemployment benefit and the difficulty to survive on Hartz IV money (see article in newsletter n.1)’ as the main fear and driving force of the workers.

US-company Danaher closes NEFF (automation and driving technology) in Waldenbuch, Germany
22nd of April, 2005. The US company bought the supplying company and wants to re-locate production to Brno in the Czech Republic. The unions organised actions similar to those at Siemens. There is also a web-site with info on the stage of resistance.
http://www.arbeitnehmer-danaher.de

Slovakia: Argument about labor-shortage
April 13th, 2005. In this country, car-producers have to deal with an unknown problem: the lack of qualified employees. In Slovakia it is already by far the biggest industry. In 2004, according to the Slovakian weekly newspaper for economics “Trend”, the automobile industry reached a turnover of 310 billion crones (roughly 8,2 billion Euros), accounting for 25 percent of the overall industrial production of the country.
Volkswagen Slovakia is, according to Minister Miku-láš Dzurinda, the “motor of the Slovakian economy”. In addition to Volkswagen and its many car-suppliers, two big car-factories are coming into the country with PSA Peugeot Citroën in Trnava and Kia in Žilina.  The concentration of such firms will, of course, attract other suppliers. The automobile sector will also be the biggest employer of the country by far. According to a prognosis of the federation of the Slovakian automobile industry, Slovakia, ultimately, is supposed to produce 800.000 cars per year by 2007, when PSA and Kia reach full production.
Volkswagen Slovakia employees more than 9000 employees already, according to its own statements. PSA and Kia want to hire between 2300 and 2800 employees each. A multiple of those numbers of employees will be required by employers in the supplier industry.
Assessments project that in five years up to 100,000 people will be employed by the automobile industry. And so investors, who are coming in streams, are threatened with the paradoxical situation, that they will have to vie for qualified workers, despite an unemployment rate of almost 18 percent. [In German here]

Strike at car supplier Dräxlmaier in Germany stops production in DaimlerChrysler plant
6th of April 2005. About 50 to 60 of the 336 workers at Dräxlmaier (Bremen) blocked the factory gates on Monday, 4th of April. They demanded a collective contract and the reduction of working time plus wage compensation. Dräxlmaier is not a member of the employers’ association, the working week amounts to 40 hours and wages are well below the wages of the collective contract. The management has also established an arbitrary bonus system, which further antagonised the workers. The final straw was the recent announcement of the management to dismiss and re-locate staff.
The plant in Bremen produces about 92 to 100 inside linings for the Mercedes sportscars SL and CLS. The workers combined their strike with a blockade of the factory gates and patrols, given that the management tried to load lorries with work material through a breach in the fence. At 12 o’clock the same day, when the assembly lines came to a halt in the nearby Mercedes factory, the management used helicopters in order to get parts out of the Draexlmaier factory. They were able to transport 25 to 30 of the inside linings. Production at the Mercedes plant was resumed two and a half hours later. Mercedes management confirmed that production had been affected by the strike, but refused to announce the number of cars lost that day. The helicopters also transported scabs, and not for free: about 300 Euros per minute for the three helicopters plus 1,500 Euros per hour for the local fire brigade. Thanks to a summary proceeding, the management won a legal decision which put an end to the blockade of the gates on the next Tuesday at 3 p.m.. The regional police forces were alarmed about the possibility of resistance against the decision of the court. There were some scuffles at the gate and ten lorries had to leave empty, but a big clash was avoided, also due to the announcement of the union to stop the blocking of the gates. The management had threatened the strikers with a penalty of 250.000 Euros in case the workers would have continued the blockade.
A worker told the ‘Rote Fahne’: “Most of us are members of the IG Metall (metal union), and the local reps give us advice, but we decide what to do ourselves. We want an official ballot, so that the union pays us strike money, but we continue the strike anyway. We won’t go back to work before the management agrees to an acceptable collective contract. So far the management offers are arbitrary. There are about 20 scabs here and some temp workers, who have been hired for that purpose. The management promised the scabs that in case of redundancies they would get paid their wages for another year. Once the stock is empty the production at Mercedes will stop again, with gate blockages or without”.
On the 8th of April the strike officially finished. The union announced that negotiations have taken place or will take place, but it didn’t make the results public. According to union information there might be an official ballot for an unlimited strike in the near future.

Dräxlmaier opens new production unit in Hunedoara/Romania
25th of May 2004. Dräxlmaier has invested 15 Million Euros in Romania, the firm’s fifth direct investment in the country since the opening of plants in Pitesti, Timisoara/Temeswar, Satu-Mare and Brasov/Kronstadt. The investment in Hunedoara secures about 600 jobs and by the end of the year 400 more workers are supposed to be employed. Dräxlmaier has invested over 120 Million Euros in total and is one of the most important foreign investors in Romania. The Group has 40 production units worldwide and employs 23,000 workers.

More spontaneous strikes at Fiat Mirafiori, Italy
21st of April 2005. Today Turin saw another short and spontaneous strike of blue and white collar workers at the Fiat factory Mirafiori. Last week, on the 12th of April, an assembly which was supposed to prepare a four-hours general strike in the metal sector on the 15th of April turned into a spontaneous occupation of the avenue Corso Agnelli in front of the factory. Surprisingly many office workers took part in the action. One reason for the protest is the announcement of the management to transfer 1,300 workers into the ‘Cassa Integrazione’ (people are sent home for a certain period, they get a small compensation paid by the state). The office workers know that Fiat is in deep crisis and that the announced three month of ‘cassa integrazione’ won’t be management’s last measure. The strike today was also combined with an occupation of the avenue in front of Mirafiori; the workers want to extend their protest beyond the factory gates.

Final crisis of Rover in the UK
On the occasion of the final crisis of Rover in the UK the Socialist Equality Party (Britain) published a detailed article on the development of the automobile industry in Great Britain: ‘The closure of MG Rover and the need for an international perspective’. Have a look here

[prol-position news #2, 5/2005]