Autoworkers coordinate worldwide

Autoworkers around the globe, who work for General Motors, Ford, Fiat/Chrysler and PSA Peugeot Citroën, coordinated efforts on May Day. Their demands listed in their leaflets were for “no plant closings or cutbacks in workers’ rights, reduction of working hours with no loss of pay and save our environment from the profit system.” (sindmetalsjc.org.br)

Autoworkers in Latin America, Europe and the U.S. carried posters with those slogans in their cities’ May Day actions. Autoworkers in all these countries are fighting mass layoffs and/or demands for huge concessions. For instance, German workers at the GM Opel plant in Bochum, protesting GM’s plan to close their plant in 2014, rejected a concessionary contract that would only keep their plant open another two years. In Sao Jose dos Campos, Brazilian GM workers, fighting mass layoffs and a possible plant closing, are in negotiations to save their jobs. The photo is of Brazilian autoworkers in Sao Paolo.