Socialist Equality Party candidates speak to autoworkers about Gaza genocide and the war against workers

Socialist candidates Joseph Kishore for president and Jerry White for vice president spoke to autoworkers at Warren Truck in suburban Detroit Friday about the Socialist Equality Party program in opposition to the escalating US wars, including the ongoing genocide against the people of Gaza and the proxy war against Russia in Ukraine.

Many workers stopped to take the election flyers handed out by campaign supporters and sign the petition to put Kishore and White on the November general election ballot in Michigan.

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Workers at Warren Truck are still reeling from the firing of hundreds of supplemental workers earlier this year. Thousands of workers have also been laid off at the Stellantis Jeep plant in Toledo, Ohio, and Mack Avenue Assembly in Detroit. United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain had promised supplemental workers they would be promoted to full-time under the new contract signed in 2023, but at least 2,300 have been permanently terminated instead at Stellantis.

Kishore and White explained to workers that the Democrats and Republicans are backing the genocide in Gaza because they see it as part of a broader war for world domination. The working class is being made to pay the cost for militarism by attacks on jobs, living standards, healthcare and education.

A Lebanese autoworker at Warren Truck stopped when he heard that the SEP candidates were opposing war. He said, “They are talking more about the wars in the plant. They want to know the truth.”

Kishore replied, “We want to develop the understanding among workers that it is one war. The war in Gaza, the war in Ukraine and the war against the working class here.”

The worker replied, “Yes, when I talk with other workers, I say, ‘We are working six days, seven days, and our tax dollars go to war. That money should go here, not the wars.’ I don’t mind if my tax money goes to help the people, schools, hospitals.”

Other workers stopped to explain they were concerned with their own jobs. One worker pointed to the recent layoff by Stellantis of 400 white collar workers, engineers and software developers in the US. Another said that there was talk of more job cuts at Warren Truck, including so-called reverse layoffs, supposedly voluntary, of higher seniority workers.

Ford has also announced major cuts, eliminating the second shift at the Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in Dearborn, Michigan. GM has announced layoffs as well, including at the Lake Orion Assembly in the Detroit area and the Lansing Grand River plant.

Stellantis’ drive to cut costs is putting 670 workers out of their jobs at Universal Logistics, which does parts sequencing for Stellantis assembly plants in the Detroit area. The company owner, Detroit billionaire Marty Maroun, said the layoffs will take place May 31, according to a notice filed with the state of Michigan.

The workers are members of Teamsters Local 299 and are paid substantially less than current Stellantis employees. The cuts came as the Teamsters and Universal were continuing contract negotiations.

Local 299 President Kevin Moore told Crain’s Detroit Business that the union had asked for “moderate” pay increases. Moore said that the company would not be able to compete with lower paid nonunion labor. The Teamsters indicated willingness to talk about ways to “save” jobs, that is, impose concessions on its members.

A Stellantis engineering worker told an SEP campaigner, “My department was devastated by the white collar layoffs on March 22. I am salary union, and although they couldn’t lay us off, they laid off 70 percent of my department.

“We don’t have enough people to do the work the company has tasked us to do. Plus they want to outsource all our work, and they want to close the Tech Center in Auburn Hills, Michigan. This is how the current CEO Carlos Tavares wants to operate. The U.S. is considered a high cost country and the company would like to do less in this country.”