By Frank Hammer and Paige Shell-Spurling.
RENEWED HUNGER STRIKE
“The workplace injuries and illegal firings in Bogota,” protest organizer Paige Shell-Spurling told the crowd, “are just the tip of the iceberg. There’s an epidemic of disabled autoworkers at GM factories.” Citing documentation provided by Nihil Mehta, General Secretary of the Indian National Trade Union Congress, Shell-Spurling added, “269 instances of spinal injuries have been documented at GM’s Halol plant – out of a plant employing 1,600.”
BARRA – COMPLAINTS “WELL-VETTED”
When asked by Michigan Radio journalist Steve Carmody about the safety problems in the
Barra’s dismissive response stands in sharp contrast to her remarks to GM employees on June 5th in the midst of the vehicle recall scandal. In a live webcast from the Warren, MI Tech Center, she signaled a departure from the “old” GM and its decade-long concealment of defective ignition switches which caused fatal crashes, killing well over 100 vehicle occupants and injuring thousands more. She urged employees to communicate directly with her in the event they could not – at a local level – resolve quality and safety issues.
Workers and union representatives at the Bogota, Colombia and Halol, India facilities responded by sending her emails in early August to alert her to their concerns. She dismissed their complaints out of hand, claiming they were – in her words -“well-vetted” by “local authorities.” Neither she nor anyone else at GM ever responded to their emails.
“This is ‘old’ GM’s way of doing things,” according to 32-year veteran GM employee, and former UAW representative, Frank Hammer, who added, “Barra’s approach is like old wine in a new bottle. The new CEO is reverting back to suppressing issues raised by employees.”
COURT UPHOLDS GM WORKER
One of Colombia’s largest papers, El Tiempo, reported August 21st on a recent court decision
In fact, this illegal practice was enabled by “local authorities” in the Labor Ministry, to whom Barra refers. One of these officials, Luis Alvarado Vasquez, was found guilty of falsifying papers for GM (and other companies) and sentenced to a six-year prison term.
Debra Simmons, civil rights activist and retired Detroit school teacher, expressed the protesters’ demands, saying: “We are demanding that Mary Barra do the right thing. We want justice, we want negotiations [with ASOTRECOL], and we want it now!”