Mei W.
The strike by 90 Cummins workers in Oshkosh, Wisconsin has entered its third month after the majority of striking workers voted to reject the arms manufacture monopoly’s latest contract proposal on June 2. The strike continues amid a wave of strikes and authorizations of strikes against arms manufacture companies in recent months.
Cummins workers in Oshkosh, represented by the United Auto Workers (UAW) union, walked off the job on March 18 in protest of the company’s unfair labor practices. A worker told a local student newspaper that Cummins met to negotiate for the first time only the day before the previous contract expired in January. Demands include higher wages, blocking an increase of mandatory Saturday shifts, and prohibiting the hiring of temporary workers.
Earlier this month, 1,700 Cummins workers represented by Diesel Workers Union in Columbus, Indiana and surrounding areas held a strike authorization vote. Results are yet to be announced by the union. 97% of the workers voted to reject the company’s proposed contract in late May.
The Cummins workers’ struggles for new contracts continue as other arms manufacturing monopolies face strikes and strike threats.
On May 5, 3,100 Pratt and Whitney workers in Connecticut represented by the International Association of Machinists went on strike, demanding job security, higher wages, and better retirement benefits. The strike ended three weeks later with a new contract proposal, which includes a 2% annual raise of hourly wages that is counterbalanced by a loss of a $5,000 bonus, amounting to wage cuts for the majority of workers, according to workers’ social media posts.
Earlier in June, a month-long strike of 900 Lockheed Martin workers in Orlando, Florida and Denver, Colorado ended after just 56% of workers voted to accept the company’s proposal, which offered a starting wage of $20, 20% less than the living wage for a single individual in the two cities.
On May 1, General Electric workers from across the country rallied in Lynn, Massachusetts ahead of contract negotiations between the company and the International Union of Electrical Workers-Communications Workers of America (IUE-CWA). The contracts cover 2,100 workers in Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, New York, and Tennessee, and negotiations have begun on June 2 as workers demand higher wages, safer working conditions, and better benefits.
Arms manufacture monopolies have received massive government contracts in recent years as US imperialists ramp up their genocidal wars abroad. Lockheed Martin, whose F-16s and F-35s have been Israel’s primary means for carrying out carpet bombings in Gaza, has received multiple billion dollar contracts from the US Department of Defense in the past two years. General Electric, whose engines power the Israeli Air Force’s attack helicopters, F-15s, and F-16s, received a $5 billion contract from the Department of Defense in March. In the midst of their growing crisis, the imperialists are ramping up arms spending while desperately rampaging across the world, caught in quagmire after quagmire—and facing workers’ struggles at home even from their arms workers.
Image: Cummins workers in Oshkosh WI walk out on strike in March, UAW press release
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