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UAW should reject tentative contract

DEAR EDITOR:

General Motors Lordstown, in a coma induced by corporate greed since March, has now been declared dead by a tentative contract reached after a monthlong national strike by the UAW.

The key word in this gross injustice is “tentative.” The deal sacrificing GM Lordstown and two other plants on a barbaric altar of outright avarice cannot and must not stand. Not only does the tentative agreement close GM plants leaving workers’ families and surrounding communities devastated, it continues the unfair two-tier workforce system leaving grossly underpaid temporary part-time workers vulnerable to massive layoffs before gaining full-time status. Moreover, the modest projected wage increases barely keep pace with inflation and do next to nothing to overcome the 16 percent decline in real wages suffered by autoworkers since the $50 billion bailout of GM by taxpayers.

This is no way to end the proud legacy of workplace excellence at GM Lordstown, the economic engine of our hard-pressed community and a gold mine of enormous profits stemming from the hard work and great sacrifices of UAW members. The moral imperative of reciprocity demands that those profits be returned to labor instead of concentrated in the bulging portfolios of vulture capital. Justice demands a rejection of this sellout contract and its immediate replacement with one that resurrects GM Lordstown and restores equity to the workforce.

WERNER LANGE

Newton Falls

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