The following statement was issued by the Ford Workers Rank-and-File Committee in response to police raid of the Michigan Assembly Plant, which was sanctioned by the United Auto Workers leadership.
Brothers and sisters,
The police incursion January 31 at Michigan Assembly Plant (MAP) brought to light something foul unfolding behind our backs. A conspiracy of the company, the union bureaucracy and the police threatens to impose a quasi-police-state regime in every shop.
No matter what the bureaucrats from Solidarity House or the locals say, we do not give up our Constitutional rights when we walk into the plant. Under the Fourth Amendment to the US Constitution, enacted into law in 1792 and upheld ever since, no agency of government, no company nor individual has the right to conduct unreasonable searches and seizures of our property or our persons, no matter where they may occur.
Ford was taking advantage of the chaos and intimidation caused by Trump’s ICE raids and seizures of foreign-born workers along with massive cuts in government jobs to trample on our democratic rights.
ICE agents have already begun sending workers to the expanding black site at Guantanamo Bay without trials, with no legal protections whatsoever. The non-response of the whole Democratic Party and every union apparatus has only encouraged Trump, Elon Musk and their fascist goons.
Ford Motor Company wants to exploit the situation to threaten us with similar treatment as they implement vast cuts in jobs and hours. Thousands of jobs have been cut globally, while many shifts that remain have been reduced by more than half the hours to just 3.7.
In all of our plants we have foreign-born workers from many different countries working side-by-side co-workers born in the US. The searches were planned to catch us unawares and take advantage of Trump’s sweeping assault on democratic rights. To defend our rights, we must defend every worker. An injury to one is an injury to all.
On Friday, January 31, the company and the UAW brought a police K-9 unit into MAP for both morning and afternoon shifts. The local news media did not report the police sweep. Workers reported on social media that Ford terminated three workers on the spot. There were no reports that illegal drugs or weapons had been found on site.
As of this writing, UAW President Shawn Fain has not commented on the raid, let alone done anything to mobilize the power of union members to defend our democratic rights. On the contrary, the shop chairman at MAP has made it emphatically clear that the UAW supports the company’s initiative.
A week later, in an effort to hide what had happened, a long-time mouthpiece for the auto bosses Jamie L. LaReau wrote in the Detroit Free Press, “[The police] were not looking to make a bust, but rather to make it safer in the long run.”
LaReau let the cat out of the bag when she quoted Finley Carter, the deputy police chief in the city of Wayne. “We’ve been in discussions with Ford for a long time in planning this,” he said. “And there will be … more.”
Scott Elliott at MAP UAW Local 900 told the Free Press, “If you bring a gun in here, you’re getting fired, period. If you bring pot in here, you’re fired, period. You are putting the company at risk, period. These are the company rules, period. If you don’t like it, you’re fired.” He and his ilk do not speak for the men and women who fought and died to build the UAW nearly a century ago to defend our rights.
The claim by the company, the union, police and the Free Press that the searches are being conducted for no other reason than the safety and security of the employees on the assembly line is laughable. We have been compelled to work through the COVID-19 pandemic which infected thousands of us and took the lives of hundreds of our brothers and sisters—along with nearly a million and half people nationwide.
At Dearborn Truck, Tywaun Long died on the line after being refused medical care. His massive heart attack was likely induced by a severe case of COVID that he caught in the plant, along with long hours.
We are not going back to the conditions of industrial slavery, enforced by Fords Servicemen goons, that existed before our fathers and grandfathers built the union. Decades of corruption as one sellout contract followed another and a globalized economy have transformed the UAW apparatus into a corporatist apparatus integrated into the government and company management.
Everyone knows the factories of Elon Musk are notorious for surveillance, abuse and super-exploitation. The claim by both the company and the union that these searches are conducted for no other reason than our safety and security is ridiculous.
Brothers and sisters, the time has come to call a halt.
• No police in the plants!
• End ICE raids!
• Defend democratic rights for all workers!
• An injury to one is an injury to all!
• No layoffs!
• Restore retirements!
• No loss in pay! (If hours are reduced, increase pay to compensate.)
• Build rank and file committees to take control of conditions in every plant.
For on-the-spot reporting and guidance in building rank and file committees in every plant, sign up for the WSWS and the Autoworker Newsletter at WSWS.ORG/AUTO. We need a new organization based on the international unity of the working class. Ford employs 174,000 workers in 131 countries and its global supply chain includes several hundred thousand more. Our strength is in unity. Join the IWA-RFC to build that unity worldwide.