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| Can you imagine a plan that would save jobs at the Ford plant in St. Paul, fulfill Minnesota’s transportation needs, address the problem of global warming, boost both the Twin Cities and the Iron Range economies, and encourage democracy in the workplace? If that sounds utopian to you, I’m with you. If it sounds impossible, please read on.
A group of Ford workers, union members, and environmental activists have come up with a proposal to transform the Ford plant into a publicly owned, worker managed manufacturer of wind turbines and solar-powered light rail trains. Leaders of this effort include Lynn Hinkle, Health and Safety Representative of the United Auto Workers Local 879 that represents the Ford plant, Christine Frank of the Climate Crisis Coalition, and Alan Maki, union organizer and DFL activist.
The proposal is a visionary response to four major catastrophes facing our local community, our nation, and our planet: 1) The loss of tens of thousands of union jobs in the auto industry; 2) a climate crisis of global and cataclysmic proportions; 3) an oil-centered economy that is costing thousands of lives in wars to secure petroleum supplies; 4) the global trend toward privatization of industries essential to human needs – like water and transportation, thus increasing global inequality and eroding livable wages.
The immediate catalyst for this unique proposal was the recent announcement that in 2008 the Ford Motor Company will be closing its Twin Cities assembly plant on Ford Parkway in St. Paul as part of a major restructuring, destroying 1,885 jobs locally and 30,000 jobs nationwide. Ford’s layoffs and closings follow similar massive downsizing at General Motors. The organizers believe that public ownership and retooling of the Twin Cities Ford plant could be the beginning of a nationwide solution to our transportation needs that puts the needs of workers and society ahead of the profits of CEOs and shareholders.
Climate scientists are predicting that we have a small window of opportunity to retool our economies, our priorities, and our energy consumption habits before global warming becomes global destruction. While the climate crisis affects every human being and living creature on the planet, it is highly industrialized nations, especially the United States, where the greatest changes must take place in order to reverse the current trend. What better place to start than at the Ford plant in St. Paul, turning Ford Rangers into solar-powered light rail engines?
The majority of people in the United States currently oppose the war in Iraq. Reasons for this opposition vary. However, there is a growing consensus that big oil companies are behind the perpetuation of this unpopular war. Many are appalled by the growing death tolls of U.S. soldiers and Iraqi citizens, in a war that appears to profit only the likes of Halliburton and other multinational corporations. Also there is growing awareness that this “volunteer” army is a working-class army. Our young people deserve decent union jobs and college educations. They are not cannon fodder for oil corporations.
The move to endorse the production of E85, the 85% produce-based fuel, is one manifestation of this concern. However, producing corn for fuel does not fulfill our need for nonpolluting sustainable energy. Transforming the Midwest from a bread-basket of the world to another source of dirty energy does not represent a solution to either our needs for clean energy, decent urban and rural jobs, transportation, or sustainable food sources. The natural gas- and water-guzzling E85 may provide a short-term boon to Minnesota farmers. However, it moves us away from an economic model of sustainable agriculture that can feed the Earth’s people and provide a decent living for farmers and agricultural workers.
A publicly owned, worker-managed plant that assures decent wages and a product that meets society’s needs would provide a powerful alternative to a world where even resources as basic as water are becoming privileges of the rich. An industrial plant that actually provides blue-collar jobs that fulfill the wage and benefit needs of working families would be a beautiful antidote to the horrific crime of workers without healthcare, and full-time employees without homes that defines our economic reality today.
If you think this creative proposal to save jobs at the Ford plant and create environmentally sound mass transit warrants at least a full hearing, then learn more from the United Auto Workers Local 879 or www.ClimateCrisisCoalition.org. You may also want to attend the Labor and Sustainability Conference, where this plan and others to merge labor and environmental agendas for the good of our community will be fleshed out. The conference will take place on January 19 and 20, 2007 at the UAW 879 Union Hall, 2191 Ford Parkway, St. Paul, MN. For more info: lhinkle@peoplepc.com. Sponsored by the Climate Crisis Coalition. |
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