Work at Dakkota, Ford or in the auto industry? Fill out the form below to get involved with the Autoworkers Rank-and-File Committee Network at your plant.
The following statement was issued Tuesday by the Dakkota Workers Rank-and-File Committee, a group of militant workers who have organized opposition to a series of shotgun sellout contract votes at the auto parts plant in Chicago.
Dakkota supplies suspensions and other components to the nearby Ford Chicago Assembly Plant (CAP), which employs over 4,350 production workers and is Ford’s oldest continually operating factory.
Brothers and sisters at CAP,
We’ve been on strike for more than three weeks. We’ve rejected FOUR attempts by UAW officials to shove these sellout contracts down our throats. Each time, they offered us poverty wages and crumbs with nearly identical contracts. And each time we voted them down and stood up against threats to our jobs.
But our strike is at a turning point now. We struck more than two weeks without strike pay, which hurt us a lot financially. The UAW bureaucracy starved us on the lines, refused to give us water or even signs and told us to pay for them ourselves! Many of us make little more than $16 an hour to supply critical parts to Ford Chicago Assembly. Without the parts we build, there’s no cars at Ford!
You must now help us. By using scab parts, our strike is endangered every hour. We know you are all outraged that you are being forced by the UAW officials to work with parts sent by Dakkota while we are on strike. Shawn Fain and the UAW international have ignored us while our Local 3212 has abandoned us. Your leadership at 551 also tells you nothing can be done. But these are lies!
THE MEMBERSHIP IS THE HIGHEST AUTHORITY! UAW officials say this all the time! Then let’s show them what that really means. All power to the rank-and-file members!
Therefore, we urge you all to:
Talk with all your coworkers about collectively banning scab parts at Ford Chicago immediately
Call for an emergency meeting to discuss a resolution that will enforce a ban
Take votes on the resolution with your coworkers on the floor, on the UAW 551 Strong Facebook page, or if need be at the union hall
Enforce the resolution by refusing to handle scab parts
When you refuse to handle scab parts, you will immediately strengthen our strike. We will operate the strike on our own and fight to build a powerful joint rank-and-file counteroffensive against the attacks on our jobs by the auto companies and Wall Street.
Support our strike in action! Ban the use of scab parts!