When General Motors opened their new superplant in Lordstown, Ohio, it was designed as a major weapon against low-priced imported cars. To offset the low labour costs of the foreign car makers and still keep the quality high, the plant was highly automated. and the Vega cars that were to be built there were greatly simplified by using 42 per cent fewer parts than a typical American car. The assembly line was thus to be the fastest in the world, turning out 100 cars an hour instead of the normal 50 to 60.
But the plan backfired from the start. A dispute with the construction unions delayed the building of a companion plant to supply parts, the national General Motors strike in 1970 hampered the commencement of full production, and then machinery cracked under the strain of the ultra-fast assembly lines. Equipment that was fine in other auto plants at speeds of 50 or 60 cars an hour tended to destroy itself at the faster pace. For example, a gate system that swings body panels into position for automatic welding was constantly breaking down simply because it was being jerked in and out of position so fast. Engineers had to modify the system to reduce the strain on key parts.
The speed of the line itself has also tended to case a loss of production. A minor It in the body-building operation doesn't Ily sop the sembly line at the other end of the plant because there is normally a reserve supply of bodies ahead. But the line siphons off that reserve so fast that it is sometimes all but gone by the time a repair man gets from his station to the trouble spot.
Now the workers too who were sup posed to be motivated by the import challenge, have reacted against the speed of the assembly line in what promises to be one of the bitterest disputes ever known in the American motor industry. The United Auto Workers Union claims that since the plant opened over 700 workers have been made redundant in order to cut costs, and the remaining 5.300 Vega workers and 2,400 truck-line workers have been forced to take up the slack. Gary Bryner Phate by aruce Cline They passed the work around among those that are left while keeping the line at the same speed - in effect, a speedup", says Gary Bryner, president of UAW Local 1112. "This is the fastest assembly line in the world. A man has less than 40 seconds to do his job."
At the beginning of October a new manage ment team headed by Alvin B. Anderson was brought in by General Motors to make the Vega plant pay off, one way or another. Since then, grievances filed by the Lordstown workers have soared from 100 to 5,000. More than 1.000 of these complain of violation of work standards -or overwork. General Motors concedes that it has juggled the assignments of some workers, and has given extra duties to others, but insists that no man is being asked to do more than a fair day's work for a fair day's pay". Mr. Anderson agrees "that there are increases in the amount of work some are doing, but in these cases it is overdue"
Gary Bryner, though, says that if there is any feather-bedding going on, I'd like to see it"". He says he simply "can't believe" that General Motors intentionally hired 700 too many workers (9 per cent more) for the plant to begin with. He draws many parallels between the present dispute and the problems of the early UAW pioneers, and accuses General Motors of putting profits ahead of human values. In his stand he is supported by the entire membership of the local which, with an average age of about 25, is the youngest in General Motors. Says Bryner, *These guys have become tigers. They've got guts" One assembly line worker is typical of the rest when he says, "1 actually saw a woman in the plant running along the line to keep up with the work. I'm not going to run for anybody. There ain't anyone in that plant that is going to tell me to run.
The company has responded to this militancy by drastically increasing disciplinary layoffs. These layoffs, which last usually for one to five days, are handed out for alleged infactions ranging from non-performance of an. assigned task to arguing with foremen. Now General Motors have posted new notices making non-performance of an assigned task grounds for dismissal. The company claims that failure to complete assembly line tasks is often intentional; but union members insist that work isn't being performed because workers can't complete their jobs in the 40 seconds allotted (workers in the typical assembly plant have about 60 seconds).
The workers, however, have refused to be intimidated by these threats. As a result the McCarthyite practice of red-baiting and guilt by association has been introduced into the dispute. "Subversives by the carload" have been accused of exploiting the labourmanagement dispute by the Cleveland Plain Dealer. The same newspaper has also attempted to use the fact that Bryner and J.D. Smith, secretary-treasurer of the local, endorsed the October 13th demonstrations against the war and the National Peace Action Coalition convention in Cleveland in December. The paper quotes the notorious House Internal Security Committee as identifying NPAC as "an affiliate of the Trotskyite Socialist Workers Party" which "favours the overthrow of the American system through a workers' revolution". In face of such tactics the workers at Lordstown are continuing to stand firm against the management. In a poll conducted by UAW Local 1112, 97 percent of those voting were in favour of authorising the union to call a local strike if necessary. A long and bitter dispute seems to be on the cards now. and it is one which will be watched with anxiety by the American bourgeoisie, for the Vega's ability as an import fighter hangs in the balance and Lordstown is at the moment the only source for the car. What is equally clear, however, is that the dispute will be watched with the same close attention by other workers in the American car industry, as a microcosm of the developing national struggle against speedup and the accompanying disciplinary layoffs and dismissals.