AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY

NORTH AMERICA

May 27, 2010, Presentation to

Guangzhou Federation of Trade Unions

Cathy Walker

Former Director, Health and Safety Department

Canadian Auto Workers Union

中国朋友们

我姓王，叫王慧中

我以前当加拿大汽车工会职业健康与安全（劳

动保护）部长

CHINA AND CANADA ARE OLD

FRIENDS: NORMAN BETHUNE

CHINA AND OUR CANADIAN UNION: OLD FRIENDS,

VANCOUVER UNION LEADERS VISITED IN 1967

AND MET CHAIRMAN MAO

CAW IS THE LARGEST PRIVATE

SECTOR UNION IN CANADA

About 30% of

workers are in

unions in Canada

Better than in the

U.S. but not as

good as in

Europe

CAW REPRESENTS WORKERS IN A

WIDE VARIETY OF INDUSTRIES

Auto assembly and auto parts

Aerospace

Rail

Airlines

Trucking

Marine

Telecommunications

Mining and smelting

Hospitality

Health Care

Fishing

DELEGATIONS FROM

CHINESE UNIONS VISITED OUR

UNION IN CANADA

CHRYSLER BRAMPTON

ASSEMBLY PLANT

I’VE ENJOYED VISITING AUTO PLANTS IN CHINA:

(1974 visit didn’t see auto plants)

1991 First Auto Works, Changchun

2004 Beijing Jeep

2004 Toyota Tianjin

2004 Shanghai GM

2006 Beijing Hyundai

2008 Shanghai GM

2010 Beijing Benz

2010 Beijing Hyundai

2010 Yantai GM

2004 BEIJING JEEP UNION MEETING

BEIJING JEEP: VERY FAMOUS WORKPLACE

GM SHANGHAI: VERY SIMILAR TO

GM OSHAWA, CANADA

SHANGHAI GM UNION LEADERSHIP

REASONS FOR ANITA’S STUDY:

To show similarities between China and auto

production elsewhere

And to analyze the differences and the

reasons for the differences

EARLY MOTOR VEHICLES

NORTH AMERICA EVOLVED FROM

BICYCLE, HENRY FORD’S QUADRICYCLE, 1896

WHOLE VEHICLES MADE BY ONE OR A SMALL

GROUP OF HIGHLY SKILLED MECHANICS,

1901 HENRY FORD

MASS PRODUCTION LED TO

PRODUCTION EFFICIENCY

FORD ASSEMBLY LINE, 1913

INTERCHANGEABLE PARTS RATHER THAN

HAVING TO MAKE NEW PARTS FOR

EACH VEHICLE

Model A, 1903, skilled fitter took 8.5 hours to

build a major part of a car

Model T, 1908, completely redesigned

assembly line so that each job took 2.5

minutes

1913 introduced moving assembly line so

workers didn’t have to walk between

stations, reducing each job to under 2

minutes

FORDISM, MASS PRODUCTION MEANS THAT

JOBS ARE DIVIDED INTO SMALL PARTS SO

HUNDREDS OF UNSKILLED

WORKERS, TOGETHER, BUILD HUNDREDS OF

VEHICLES

WORKERS ARE ALIENATED FROM THE MEANS

OF PRODUCTION, KARL MARX

Capitalist owns the factory

And the workers are simply factors of

production

FORDISM

A term coined by Italian Communist, Antonio

Gramsci to describe a form of production

characterized by an assembly line (conveyor

belt factory system) and standardized

outputs linked with the stimulation of demand

brought about by low prices, advertising, and

credit.

MANY MYTHS AND HALF TRUTHS ABOUT FORD

$5 a day, high wages

Workers should be able to own the vehicles

they produce

But, the reality is that Ford did much to keep

unions out of his factories

FORD USED HIS OWN PRIVATE POLICE FORCE

AND COMPANY GOONS

The company threatened firing and did fire

people for ‘talking union’

Workplaces were full of favouritism and

bribery, eg. Workers needed to give the

supervisors a bottle of alcohol for better jobs

Company spied on workers’ personal lives

Shortage of labour during World War II

meant workers had more power

5 WEEK STRIKE IN WINDSOR, CANADA IN 1945

THOUSANDS OF PICKETS BLOCKADED PLANTS

FINALLY, UNION IS RECOGNIZED AND

COLLECTIVE AGREEMENT ACHIEVED

WE HAVE ACHIEVED A LOT IN OUR

COLLECTIVE AGREEMENTS

Detroit Big 3 bargaining in Canada for 66

years

Each collective agreement has been for 3

years

We have had 22 consecutive collective

agreements

CAW COLLECTIVE AGREMENT WITH

GENERAL MOTORS : 446 PAGES

WE BARGAIN FOR BETTER PROVISIONS

Collective agreements are the laws in our

factories and we try to get provisions in them

that are better than the law

TAYLORISM

FREDERICK WINSLOW

TAYLOR, AMERICAN, 1856-1915

TAYLOR: TASK OF FACTORY MANAGEMENT

determine the best way for the worker to do

the job,

provide the proper tools and training

provide incentives for good performance

TAYLOR BROKE DOWN EACH JOB

into its individual motions

analyzed these to determine which were

essential, and timed the workers with a

stopwatch

scientific management

1910

TAYLOR

eliminated unnecessary motion

thus workers followed a machine like

routine, becoming far more productive

IN MASS PRODUCTION,

WORKERS BECAME COGS IN MACHINES:

BOSS CAN EASILY SPEED UP PRODUCTION

TODAY, TIME AND MOTION STUDIES OF WORKERS’

JOBS MEASURE TINY FRACTIONS OF A SECOND

The effect is that workers no longer can work

ahead on an assembly line to get small breaks

They have no time to rest within their jobs but

must follow the steps laid out by management

precisely or they cannot keep up

CAW BARGAINED UNION- SELECTED, COMPANY-

PAID WORKER TIME STUDY REPRESENTATIVES

The union trains these workers to be able to represent workers’ interests in ensuring jobs are not loaded with too much work

Especially during line balancing periods when new models are introduced, company industrial engineers try to put more and more work into each worker’s job on the assembly line

During line balancing periods when new models are introduced, the time study representatives are extremely busy arguing with company industrial engineers

Eventually either the union time study representative wins completely or at least a compromise is reached and the workload is reduced

LEAN PRODUCTION, TERM BEGAN IN 1988

John Krafcik, quality engineer in the Toyota-

GM NUMMI joint venture in California

Identify and steadily eliminate waste

Continuous improvement

Work intensification

Leading to workers’:

Stress

Injuries

FREE TRADE AGREEMENTS MADE SITUATION

WORSE: DEREGULATION, PRIVATIZATION

Mid- 1990s CAW did studies of workers to

see what effect lean production was having :

16 auto parts plants workers

Also a study of auto assembly plants workers

ANDON LIGHT

WARNS OF PRODUCTION PROBLEMS,

BUT WHAT ABOUT WORKER PROBLEMS?

WORKPLACE UNDEMOCRATIC IN CANADA

Only 17% reported that it would be easy to change the things they did not like about their jobs.

35% reported they had little if any opportunity to vary the pace of their work during the day.

31% had to find a replacement worker before they could go to the washroom.

48% reported they could train someone to do their jobs in a few days or less.

19% reported receiving some classroom based training in the last three months.

35% reported management was now collecting more information on their work performance.

WORKLOAD

There were strong indications that workload was both excessive and increasing in the industry.

61% of those surveyed (61% of women and 61% of men) reported that their workload was either too fast, too heavy, had to be done by too few people, or in too little time.

52% of those surveyed (59% of women and 48% of men) reported that in the last two years their workload had increased, becoming either heavier, faster, or having to be done in less time. (6% reported their workload had been reduced.)

WORK MORE STRESSFUL AND UNHEALTHY

51% of those surveyed (58% of women and 47% of men) reported high levels of workplace health risks. The health risks were considered to be high if workers reported at least two health risks from a list which included: working in pain at least half the days in the last month, working in an awkward position at least half the time, feeling tired after work most days, or being tense at work. *

41% of those surveyed (50% of women and 34% of men) reported their work had become less healthy in the last two years.

UNHEALTHY WORK

40% of those surveyed (42% of women and 39% of men) reported working in pain or physical discomfort half the days in the last month.

37% of those surveyed (40% of women and 35% of men) reported working in physically awkward positions at least half of each day.

44% of those surveyed (50% of women and 40% of men) reported that compared with a couple of years ago, their current job was more tense.

45% of those surveyed (56% of women and 38% of men) reported that compared with a couple of years ago, they were more tired lately

UNION RESPONSE TO LEAN PRODUCTION’S

WORK INTENSIFICATION AND SPEED-UP

We bargained union chosen, company paid

for union ergonomics representatives to

investigate ways of making jobs

easier, redesigning jobs to make them more

comfortable and less likely to produce

injuries

ERGONOMICS IN GM SHANGHAI

FOLLOWS PROCEDURES BEGUN BY

UNION IN CANADA AND US

CONFERENCES AND TRAINING ON ERGONOMICS

Union ergonomics representatives from the plants get together once a year and share their problems and solutions

Union developed a one week course for all auto union leadership on ergonomics so they will understand workers’ strains and sprains problems and the ways of solving them

Ergonomics conferences so more people will understand the problems and solutions

Ergonomics manual for workers, posted it on our home page

UNION RESPONSE TO LEAN PRODUCTION’S

WORK INTENSIFICATION AND SPEED-UP

We bargained more time off during the year so workers have more vacation time, from 2 weeks paid vacation time per year for new workers up to 6 weeks paid vacation per year for older workers

We bargained more long weekends so workers will have more time to rest

We bargained longer rest periods during the day

CURRENT ISSUES FOR WORKERS IN CANADA:

JOB LOSS

Contracting out, ie jobs go elsewhere to

other plants in Canada or to other countries

Free trade agreements and de-regulation

have hurt workers, allowing companies to go

where they want, when they want

IMPROVING PRODUCTIVITY IN AUTO ASSEMBLY

If an auto assembly company can reduce the

number of its direct employees by sub-

contracting out or in (using dispatch

workers), its reported productivity goes up

And since it is seen as a productive

company, the price of its shares goes up

Today, a plant producing 250,000 or more

cars per year is considered efficient and

productive

WORKERS RESIST,ED LED BY THE UNION

OCCUPATION OF GM FACTORY, 1996

ISSUE, CONTRACTING OUT, 5 WEEK STRIKE

CRISIS OF OVERPRODUCTION:

ENDEMIC TO CAPITALISM AND A MARKET

ECONOMY, EXACTLY AS MARX DESCRIBED

Late 2008, GM and Chrysler faced

bankruptcy in US and were bailed out by US

and Canadian governments

BUT WE RESISTED THE LEVEL OF CONCESSIONS

THE COMPANIES WANTED, THE GOVERNMENT

FORCED SOME EROSIONS TO VACATION

PERIODS BUT WE MAINTAINED OUR WAGE

STRUCTURE

THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IS

Unions must be on the side of the workers at all times

It is our role to defend workers collectively and individually

In the workplace

In the community

In the country

And internationally

THANKS VERY MUCH