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labournet.tv presents

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"The time of life is short.

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An if we live, we live to tread on kings"
(Shakespeare, Henry IV)

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The Opel-GM plant was set up
in Bochum in 1962.

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It was the biggest GM
production plant in Europe.

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In 1980, 22,000 people
worked there.

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Extreme work pressure,
extreme work pressure...

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In 1972, an oppositional
unionist group was formed.

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GoG.

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"Group of
oppositional unionists"

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They expressed what
I merely thought.

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Such images from Bochum have been a thorn
in the Detroit managers' flesh for years.

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No unionist can sign this because
it goes beyond human limits.

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We used all the lockers
like letter boxes.

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We were standing
nose to nose.

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"You have done this
to me once. Just once.

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You are a unionist?
You are an asshole but no unionist!"

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That was
really cool!

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We know, without fun
there is no revolution!

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Air to breathe

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40 years of opposition
at Opel-GM in Bochum

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<i>They are people from KPD, from
KPD-ML, from the Green Party,</i>

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<i>extreme left social democrats,
who come together in unity</i>

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<i>and are against
all decisions and plans.</i>

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My name is Wolfgang Schaumberg,
and I worked at Opel-GM for 30 years.

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I was hired as a warehouse worker,
that was 1970.

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In 1972, I was the
co-founder of GoG.

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My name is Uwe Lübke, and I started to
work at Opel in Bochum in 1965.

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My name is Rainer Jansen,
and I am 72 years old.

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I was employed by Opel
from 1969 until 2003.

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I started to work
at Opel in 1981.

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My name is Jürgen Schwartz,
and I am 55 years old.

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I was employed by Opel
in Bochum for 24 years.

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The last 16 years, I was
a member of the works council.

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I liked the atmosphere
and the work more

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than the atmosphere
in that union body,

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that was so set in its ways
that you had the feeling

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everything was
predetermined anyway.

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And if you open your mouth
then you get a beating.

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When GoG was founded, the situation
was characterized by mass strikes.

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In France, 9 million workers
went on strike in 1968.

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In West Germany, hundreds
of thousands of workers

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took part in wildcat strikes
in 1969 and 1973.

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There was also a revolutionary youth
movement at the end of the 1960s

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which tried to get
close to the factory workers.

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Everyone talks about
the weather. We don't.

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What the workers need is not
a false peace with capital

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and some well-paid posts
in the supervisory board,

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but a consistent struggle and a
clear front against the exploiters!

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For many young people who
were politicized and radicalized

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it was a matter to orient
oneself towards the working class,

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the industrial workforces
(for them that was the same thing).

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And they focused
their politics on that.

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And many entered the plants
like me and many others too.

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At the time, we wished
to be able to initiate

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a revolutionary movement
here in West Germany.

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In 1968, there was an offensive
in all western countries,

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in Italy, in France,
in Germany...

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... there was an
offensive everywhere...

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... in Spain, as well.

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Offensive means that there was a feeling
in the society and in the workforces

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that we can make
offensive demands

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because, in the balance of power,
capital is in a weaker position.

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Several thousand younger comrades
turned up in front of the plants

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with similar ideas and
distributed leaflets and so on.

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In order to give an idea of
what the atmosphere was like:

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When we distributed leaflets
in front of the factory plants

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our own "Bochum Workers' Paper"
and leaflets of the GoG,

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sometimes 3 or 4 organizations stood
in line at the Opel gates.

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They wanted to have the leaflets,
they reached out for them.

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They were eagerly read
in the plant,

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and sometimes they were discussed
and there were arguments over them.

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When we made the first leaflets, at the
end of 1971, we called for a meeting

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to prepare for the works council
elections 1972.

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This meeting was attended by
4 colleagues from the plant

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who also had originally gone
through a communist education

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and who were willing
to make contact with us.

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At that time, more than 2,000 people
from Spain worked at Opel.

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Among them were comrades who already
had a communist orientation in Spain.

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So the first assembly was attended
by a bunch of people from Opel

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but the large part of the audience
and supporters came from outside,

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from the youth movement
and the student movement.

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The first time I took part
I hardly understood anything.

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People talked about "the proletariat",
- and I had no clue.

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After that I didn't attend
meetings for a while.

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A colleague came and asked,
"Don't you want to come anymore?"

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I told him: "I don't understand
a thing of what you talk about."

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Until a colleague said: "Then you have
to do things your way,

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and the students need
to learn your language!"

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That worked out,
and we had our way.

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Later, more and more
of the students disappeared

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so that only colleagues
were left at Opel.

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I trusted them
straight away,

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because if there were
any problems anywhere,

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even with the manager, they did not
just say "please, please"

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but went there and weren't
afraid of the confrontation.

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GoG was an expression
of the attempt

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to consistently take the interests
of the people seriously

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and not to say as a delegate, "just carry
on working, I will solve this for you"

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but to include the
colleagues in the action.

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People also heard, "just take
sick leave, or just come late to work"

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and such things... or even
sometimes "do something else".

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all that
is possible.

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If you know certain people
all that works.

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And many people did
actually participate.

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In 1972, GoG participated
in the works council elections

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on 1 of 10
oppositional lists.

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The ground in Germany was
somehow ready for this.

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There was
even the RAF,

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there was a situation
with an optimistic political spirit,

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and people weren't prepared
to put up with everything anymore.

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And that showed
clearly at Opel.

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GoG got 2,000 out of nearly 18,000
votes and won 5 seats in the works council.

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In 1975, they got even one third
of the votes and won 12 seats.

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A sensation!

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The workforce actually felt that,
in everyday life, we tried hard

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and that we voiced critique
during staff meetings

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and ideas that led to
very tough disputes,

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but the people noticed
on which side we stood.

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Until then, works councillors only
sat and hid in the office

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and did a more
or less lazy job.

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When doing the works council job,
we went out amongst the people.

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We forced them to come
out of their offices.

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That's why they
hated us.

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We made a completely
different kind of politics.

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We were with the people on
the site so they saw us daily.

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This way we were informed about what
happened both in Plant 1 and Plant 2.

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I have always liked that,
the flow of information.

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Before the works council
had never released anything.

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And through people who were close
to our members in the works council

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information was shared, often
which we were not meant to receive.

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They always had plans to reduce
the workforce or speed up work.

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There was always
something going on.

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At first, that was always discussed
"confidentially" in the works council,

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it was not meant to
reach the workforce.

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But we did not
comply with that.

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The confrontation between
the old works councillors and us

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became more and more
intense because of that.

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Points of conflict were,
on one hand, our leaflets

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and, on the other hand and
from the start, the staff meetings

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where we had hot debates
starting in the 1970s.

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With just a few people we were
able to dominate the staff meetings.

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The head of the works council
said in one interview at the time:

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"They transform the staff meetings
into 8 hour assemblies.

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If the lawmakers had known that, they
would have limited them to 2 or 3 hours."

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Their radicalism and their success at the
works council elections in 1975

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made many curious
about GoG.

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At that time, I was a member of a small
socialist revolutionary organization

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that was called GIM,
Group of International Marxists.

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Once a week, we organized a
book stall at the university.

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At that book stall, we always prominently
placed a big pile of a GoG brochure.

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GoG had written that
brochure around 1975.

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That was a great brochure
that explained to people

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who had absolutely no clue
about labor activism inside the workplace.

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It was written in an energetic, not at all
sectarian, and well articulated way.

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It was really good, and we always
had such a pile of them at the book stall.

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The students were really interested
to know what happened in these big plants.

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They had not known anything
about the big plants before.

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Only through us did they learn that
the factory is not a black hole

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but that there are people
who work there.

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What is happening
to those people?

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That is what
we spread.

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At the beginning, we lived in a squatted
student home in Frankfurt, Rosswitzheim.

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One morning, I entered
the student home

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and there was a big newspaper
clipping on the wall

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about the speech of a colleague
from Opel in Bochum: Andres Lara.

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It was the printed speech
from a staff meeting.

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After the speech, it was
decided to dismiss him.

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I still remember today how
I stood in front of that speech,

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and how it expressed
exactly what I felt.

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It was a speech that addressed
equality in a good way

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as well as the demands the union always
makes: percentage raises.

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Why don't they demand
a certain fixed sum?

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Why is such inequality
permanently reproduced

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amongst colleagues so that
who has more also gets more?!

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That was one thing,
and the other thing was

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that it also talked about
an oppositional group

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that supports these notions.

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With our Spanish
colleague, Andres Lara,

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we experienced something
during a staff meeting.

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The place was packed,
with several thousand people present.

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Suddenly we heard chanting, "Lara, Lara..."
that came closer and closer.

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And then
Andres Lara came.

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The Spanish colleagues had had
a separate meeting,

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and Andres Lara came with 500 or 600
of the Spanish into our staff meeting,

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and they walked up to the front
and the speaker's desk,

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chanting
"Lara, Lara...!"

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Then there were
disputes up there:

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"You have to wait until it's your turn!"
there were whistles and such.

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Finally, he was
able to speak.

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And that was an experience
that still makes me shiver.

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First he spoke Spanish
and an interpreter translated,

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then he moved
the interpreter aside

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and spoke German
which he mastered well already.

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You could have heard
a needle drop.

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It was great how he explained that they
would prefer to work in their home country.

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"We come from Andalusia in southern
Spain, but there was no work.

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As a peasant, you could only
earn very little.

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Then they asked us
to come to Germany,

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and they looked
at our teeth,

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and they sold us
like slaves there.

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Now we are here, and we are
put under pressure here.

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This is not what we originally wanted,
and this is, in fact, no life.

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Our country would offer
enough possibilities,

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but capitalism does not
allow that there, either."

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Off the cuff, he described
his situation

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and why they ended up here and
that it is not their life goal either

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to stand at the
assembly line in Bochum.

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He got a big applause when he said we 
have to resist against all attacks together.

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Then he was handed the
dismissal without prior notice.

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So he was
fired then.

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Shortly after,
he returned to Spain.

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Even today, that experience
still makes me shiver.

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Then I drove to Bochum
and met two sympathizers of GoG

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who were part of the
solidarity committee.

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They were
pretty inspiring.

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What I got at the time was
that they were people

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who were very close to me
in terms of their social context.

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I felt that they weren't just
such super intellectuals

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who only talk about
Marx and revolution

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but people who had a certain
knowledge, on one hand, on Marx

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but, on the other hand, they also had
created a social connection

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so I could imagine
to work with them.

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They said that the group of Opel
colleagues met regularly every week,

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but also that there was a second group
that met "around" the first one,

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the solidarity committee, where people
took part who wanted to support them.

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It was similar to a party structure,
and that was normal at that time.

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I knew from my experience
with party structures

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that these relationships
were rather instrumental.

230
00:18:02,720 --> 00:18:05,000
The people from the party
were leading the group.

231
00:18:05,200 --> 00:18:07,600
They knew how things
had to be done

232
00:18:07,800 --> 00:18:10,920
and the "stupid" workers
were treated like kids.

233
00:18:11,120 --> 00:18:14,520
They had to be enlightened,
with Marx or Lenin or anybody.

234
00:18:14,720 --> 00:18:17,931
And, from the very start,
that wasn't the case there.

235
00:18:19,920 --> 00:18:21,880
<i>The struggle for the demands
of the colleagues from abroad</i>

236
00:18:22,160 --> 00:18:25,680
<i>Opel in strike!
300 marks cost of living bonus!
</i>

237
00:18:28,440 --> 00:18:32,280
<i>Strikers are a roaring and rampaging mob!
Reinstatment of all dismissed colleagues!!!</i>

238
00:18:33,880 --> 00:18:37,520
GoG declared its solidarity
with the colleagues from abroad

239
00:18:38,840 --> 00:18:43,520
and fought for the reinstatement
of sacked militant works councilors.

240
00:18:44,720 --> 00:18:50,640
The supporters translated GoG leaflets
into Spanish and, later, into Turkish.

241
00:19:18,668 --> 00:19:22,809
At the time, I was expelled
from the IG Metall [metal workers union]

242
00:19:22,991 --> 00:19:26,800
together with several
others from GoG.

243
00:19:27,033 --> 00:19:30,751
The reason was
that I had been

244
00:19:30,954 --> 00:19:35,228
a candidate on the
oppositional list at that time

245
00:19:35,448 --> 00:19:39,150
and not on the official
list of the IG Metall.

246
00:19:39,474 --> 00:19:45,307
There was a nationwide campaign
of expulsions from the IG Metall.

247
00:19:45,568 --> 00:19:49,822
Most often the accusation
was "anti-union organization."

248
00:19:50,041 --> 00:19:52,327
They could not
accuse us of that.

249
00:19:52,518 --> 00:19:57,632
In our case, it was simply said that our
attempt to establish an opposition

250
00:19:57,840 --> 00:20:01,600
inside the IG Metall was an attempt
to divide the union here.

251
00:20:01,659 --> 00:20:04,780
Then I had
the trial,

252
00:20:04,975 --> 00:20:07,460
and I
simply said

253
00:20:07,663 --> 00:20:11,796
that if those right-wing works councillors
continue to act like that

254
00:20:12,000 --> 00:20:16,000
and follow their business and not
engage in activity at the workplaces

255
00:20:16,200 --> 00:20:22,590
then I will run on the
oppositional list again like before.

256
00:20:22,910 --> 00:20:28,919
Wham! Next was my death sentence.
"Get out! Bye bye!"... and fuck them!

257
00:20:29,247 --> 00:20:34,752
They only want to keep up the
competitiveness of the German companies.

258
00:20:34,987 --> 00:20:38,682
That is the central goal,
and there is no way around.

259
00:20:38,927 --> 00:20:41,518
And everything else is
"damaging the union".

260
00:20:41,754 --> 00:20:44,517
That is the
fundamental policy.

261
00:20:44,762 --> 00:20:49,149
And that is necessarily contradicting
the workers' interests.

262
00:20:50,383 --> 00:20:54,000
IG Metall did not
just expel the left.

263
00:20:54,475 --> 00:20:58,840
It also produced black lists
for the companies

264
00:20:59,480 --> 00:21:03,320
in order to make sure that the
companies don't hire "troublemakers".

265
00:21:41,198 --> 00:21:45,395
50 percent of the workers at Opel
in Bochum became disabled

266
00:21:45,760 --> 00:21:49,065
before they reached
retirement age,

267
00:21:50,359 --> 00:21:56,409
and a significant number
of them died before the age of 60.

268
00:21:58,008 --> 00:22:02,502
GoG fought for decades against the
patronisation and persecution

269
00:22:02,737 --> 00:22:05,861
of colleagues
with health problems.

270
00:22:06,863 --> 00:22:12,076
From the start, the top
of their leaflets

271
00:22:12,505 --> 00:22:18,443
showed the demand for the
reduction of the daily working time.

272
00:22:21,875 --> 00:22:27,271
The group followed this line
of struggle for 25 years.

273
00:22:27,880 --> 00:22:31,988
That was always a central topic:
the working time must be changed,

274
00:22:32,158 --> 00:22:34,992
and a big part of the workforce
stood behind that demand.

275
00:22:35,324 --> 00:22:38,394
What do you think about
the demand for a 35 hour week?

276
00:22:38,730 --> 00:22:40,811
That would not
be bad for us.

277
00:22:41,006 --> 00:22:42,936
But who knows
what comes next?!

278
00:22:43,147 --> 00:22:44,882
And when it will come,
nobody knows either.

279
00:22:45,198 --> 00:22:49,217
But the employers claim that
this demand of the IG Metall

280
00:22:49,452 --> 00:22:51,744
would ruin the
German economy.

281
00:22:52,120 --> 00:22:56,436
I don't believe that. I think,
that is a bit exaggerated.

282
00:22:57,529 --> 00:22:59,252
It would be
easily possible.

283
00:22:59,721 --> 00:23:02,818
Would you go on strike
for the 35 hour week?

284
00:23:04,484 --> 00:23:05,813
Yes!

285
00:23:07,629 --> 00:23:11,473
When the movement for the
introduction of the 35 hour week,

286
00:23:11,824 --> 00:23:14,465
that reached
its climax in 1984,

287
00:23:21,511 --> 00:23:26,785
had pushed through
the 35 hour week in 1995

288
00:23:27,457 --> 00:23:34,829
GoG finally saw the opportunity to
enforce its old demand:

289
00:23:36,541 --> 00:23:41,978
8 hours shifts including
a paid break of 30 minutes.

290
00:23:43,265 --> 00:23:47,967
But instead of a reduction
of daily working hours

291
00:23:48,242 --> 00:23:53,046
the works council still wanted
to introduce non-working shifts.

292
00:23:54,257 --> 00:23:59,304
There were tough conflicts even
between the shop-stewards.

293
00:23:59,564 --> 00:24:03,789
We even insulted some
of the shop-stewards.

294
00:24:04,101 --> 00:24:11,664
"You assholes just want non-working shifts
to be able to work longer

295
00:24:11,908 --> 00:24:14,367
and to come to work
on Saturday and Sunday!"

296
00:24:14,607 --> 00:24:16,314
And we put up
a fuss!

297
00:24:16,552 --> 00:24:19,622
We threatened
them with poles.

298
00:24:19,846 --> 00:24:23,638
"Then there will be
a rampage here!"

299
00:24:24,639 --> 00:24:27,404
It was a narrow decision
but we pushed it through.

300
00:24:27,892 --> 00:24:30,490
That was the biggest measurable
success for us.

301
00:24:30,713 --> 00:24:34,841
Before, the working hours lasted
from 5:45 a.m. to 2:15 p.m.

302
00:24:35,009 --> 00:24:37,692
and 2:15 p.m.
until 10:45 p.m.

303
00:24:37,861 --> 00:24:42,052
We changed that, thank goodness,
after pressuring for a long time.

304
00:24:42,635 --> 00:24:46,060
We felt that
physically and firsthand.

305
00:24:46,269 --> 00:24:49,559
It was such a relief to start
at 6:00 in the morning

306
00:24:49,718 --> 00:24:51,849
and to finish work
at 2:00 in the afternoon,

307
00:24:52,034 --> 00:24:55,052
or to start at 2:00 in the afternoon
and finish at 10:00 in the evening.

308
00:24:55,287 --> 00:24:56,669
45 minutes earlier!

309
00:24:56,875 --> 00:25:02,172
I would have never expected that
this would be such a big difference!

310
00:25:02,708 --> 00:25:07,115
That was the last boost where a
noticeable life improvement

311
00:25:07,380 --> 00:25:10,184
was successfully won
through the struggle.

312
00:25:11,507 --> 00:25:15,210
The successful struggle for the reduction
of the working time remained an exception.

313
00:25:16,335 --> 00:25:21,484
Basically, most of the struggles
between 1975 and the plant closure in 2014

314
00:25:22,210 --> 00:25:25,223
were defensive
struggles.

315
00:25:25,882 --> 00:25:32,632
I will try to explain that
using a simple example.

316
00:25:34,722 --> 00:25:41,178
For instance, the spontaneous
strike wave in 1969 and 1973

317
00:25:41,422 --> 00:25:48,203
happened while it was steadily
going uphill, with capital growth,

318
00:25:48,414 --> 00:25:51,921
and as a result we could also
fight for and win larger portions

319
00:25:52,147 --> 00:25:54,783
if we were brave enough
to do so.

320
00:25:54,949 --> 00:25:58,060
That was the starting
point, the base

321
00:25:58,321 --> 00:26:03,559
for this kind of oppositional class
struggle that developed at that time.

322
00:26:06,121 --> 00:26:12,590
But capitalism develops
a dynamic of intensifying crises,

323
00:26:12,810 --> 00:26:14,652
that take
some time,

324
00:26:14,852 --> 00:26:19,084
such a cycle takes
about 10 years,

325
00:26:19,285 --> 00:26:21,192
maybe a bit less
or a bit more,

326
00:26:21,404 --> 00:26:23,770
but those crises
regularly return,

327
00:26:23,976 --> 00:26:26,067
and they become
much more severe.

328
00:26:26,297 --> 00:26:30,496
Here in West Germany, after the post-war
boom, the first crisis hit in 1966.

329
00:26:30,692 --> 00:26:34,301
It was small, and unemployment
disappeared again fairly quick.

330
00:26:34,539 --> 00:26:37,914
After the crises of 1974/75,
unemployment stayed.

331
00:26:38,108 --> 00:26:41,424
In the crisis at the beginning
of the 1980s it doubled.

332
00:26:41,664 --> 00:26:43,890
I became unemployed, too,
and suddenly

333
00:26:44,101 --> 00:26:46,702
I was in a completely
different situation.

334
00:26:46,934 --> 00:26:50,414
I was unemployed for 2 years
and did not get anything!

335
00:26:50,844 --> 00:26:54,684
More than 2 million
were unemployed.

336
00:26:54,891 --> 00:26:59,515
That completely changed
the situation.

337
00:27:01,714 --> 00:27:05,491
Especially, within the
industrial labor force

338
00:27:05,882 --> 00:27:10,038
it became obvious
and visible

339
00:27:10,285 --> 00:27:13,808
that there was
no security,

340
00:27:14,035 --> 00:27:17,929
and that it was not
always going uphill!

341
00:27:18,192 --> 00:27:21,715
We had such crises
around 1978 and 1979

342
00:27:21,944 --> 00:27:25,684
where the dismissal of 2,000
people was discussed

343
00:27:25,897 --> 00:27:30,297
and where it was not about "Let's
get rid of capitalism!" anymore,

344
00:27:30,512 --> 00:27:33,996
which was still our
answer to that,

345
00:27:34,219 --> 00:27:38,686
but the colleagues were saying
"We want a job! At Opel!"

346
00:27:39,362 --> 00:27:43,069
I think, at that time
things began to change.

347
00:27:43,249 --> 00:27:47,252
The students were more interested
to follow their career.

348
00:27:47,522 --> 00:27:50,690
The insubordination
had disappeared.

349
00:27:51,921 --> 00:27:56,174
In the whole of West Germany, there was
a different political situation suddenly.

350
00:27:56,382 --> 00:28:01,917
Also the voting for the CDU [conservative
party], it all happened at once.

351
00:28:04,761 --> 00:28:11,081
Opening of the Opel-GM plant
in Eisenach [former East Germany] in 1990.

352
00:28:18,171 --> 00:28:23,138
Production at Opel-GM was rationalized and
the assembly line's ran on prolonged time.

353
00:28:24,336 --> 00:28:28,086
Parts of production
were outsourced

354
00:28:31,680 --> 00:28:34,623
and team work
was introduced:

355
00:28:35,791 --> 00:28:40,612
everybody should think about
how productivity could be increased.

356
00:28:42,127 --> 00:28:46,951
And in this way the night shift was
introduced at Opel in Bochum in 1990:

357
00:28:47,683 --> 00:28:51,561
At the moment, we have an
empty plant in Antwerp

358
00:28:51,769 --> 00:28:53,999
that we
could reopen.

359
00:28:54,211 --> 00:28:57,609
But it is a better solution and one that
safeguards the local plant here in Bochum

360
00:28:57,867 --> 00:28:59,952
to introduce
a night shift here.

361
00:29:00,549 --> 00:29:04,315
The chairman of the works
council Breuer (IG Metall)

362
00:29:04,468 --> 00:29:08,246
did not put up resistance
against such threats.

363
00:29:08,754 --> 00:29:13,371
We know that General Motors is
proceeding in the following way:

364
00:29:13,650 --> 00:29:19,904
Investments get redirected when
problems arise in this or that country

365
00:29:20,092 --> 00:29:24,115
operation times of the plants get
extended, or other things.

366
00:29:24,291 --> 00:29:31,470
And in that case, the shirt is closer
and we have to bite the bullet.

367
00:29:33,007 --> 00:29:36,195
For GoG such an attitude
was like surrender.

368
00:29:36,318 --> 00:29:38,788
With wage sacrifice
one does not save any jobs.

369
00:29:38,906 --> 00:29:41,434
That is an old experience
of the workers' movement.

370
00:29:41,536 --> 00:29:43,299
So that has never worked,
in your opinion?

371
00:29:43,542 --> 00:29:44,542
No!

372
00:29:45,093 --> 00:29:47,273
We give in
to the sacrifice,

373
00:29:47,467 --> 00:29:49,922
and the jobs are
still cut

374
00:29:50,155 --> 00:29:55,343
and we're promised that the ones
that are left have modern working conditions

375
00:29:55,577 --> 00:29:57,461
that the rest
are safe, for sure.

376
00:29:57,670 --> 00:30:02,163
Then the next round starts and we are told
we have to reduce from 12,000 to 10,000

377
00:30:02,362 --> 00:30:04,452
but those 10,000
are safe, for sure!

378
00:30:04,679 --> 00:30:07,578
We realize that
if we follow that logic

379
00:30:07,822 --> 00:30:12,821
and if we back it up as the only
alternative possible today,

380
00:30:12,951 --> 00:30:16,049
as if it were a
natural event,

381
00:30:16,269 --> 00:30:19,280
then we help with
cutting jobs.

382
00:30:19,978 --> 00:30:24,902
Instead of sacrificing, the members of the
opposition ask the workforce to resist.

383
00:30:25,107 --> 00:30:28,278
They are even willing to
accept the loss of voters.

384
00:30:28,532 --> 00:30:33,979
By the end of the 1980s, the opposition had
only 4 members left in the works council.

385
00:30:42,203 --> 00:30:47,312
The people from GoG took this
position outside the mainstream

386
00:30:48,488 --> 00:30:52,121
not only because
they were not corrupt.

387
00:30:53,102 --> 00:30:58,742
It was also connected
to their political education.

388
00:30:59,420 --> 00:31:04,627
They had discussed
every week since 1972,

389
00:31:09,930 --> 00:31:15,591
Since the 1980s, they even organized one
week of "educational leave" every year.

390
00:31:16,581 --> 00:31:21,459
At that time, there was the possibility
of the so-called "educational leave"

391
00:31:21,688 --> 00:31:24,764
that people could leave
the plant for one week,

392
00:31:24,970 --> 00:31:29,209
still got paid, and could
learn more skills during that time.

393
00:31:29,431 --> 00:31:34,881
The first 20 years at Opel
were like working away by yourself,

394
00:31:35,105 --> 00:31:37,154
not positive,
not negative,

395
00:31:37,378 --> 00:31:41,676
and once in a while we even got
a wage increase, and that wasn't bad.

396
00:31:41,941 --> 00:31:45,024
But, after 20 years, when the
pressure steadily increased,

397
00:31:45,245 --> 00:31:51,394
I took part in an "educational leave",
and I was happy that every year

398
00:31:51,605 --> 00:31:55,659
I was able to get out of there for 5 days,
and the employer had to pay for it.

399
00:31:56,527 --> 00:32:02,097
My first "educational leave" was with
IG Metall, and I said I'll never go again.

400
00:32:02,922 --> 00:32:07,305
Then the colleagues persuaded me
to go once again.

401
00:32:07,527 --> 00:32:10,602
We will go with
FESCH [an association].

402
00:32:10,838 --> 00:32:13,150
I did not know
what that was.

403
00:32:13,386 --> 00:32:15,731
But I said, okay
I will go with you.

404
00:32:15,935 --> 00:32:18,430
It was as if you
enter the normal world.

405
00:32:18,646 --> 00:32:20,878
There was no pressure during
the educational leave.

406
00:32:21,085 --> 00:32:22,620
It was
always great.

407
00:32:22,788 --> 00:32:28,175
Through those educational leaves
you got more self-confidence.

408
00:32:28,363 --> 00:32:31,300
And every year that built
you up a bit again.

409
00:32:31,479 --> 00:32:36,159
When the political tails off a bit
through private life,

410
00:32:36,367 --> 00:32:39,515
I am looking forward every year
to the educational leave

411
00:32:39,718 --> 00:32:42,608
because I see
everyone here again.

412
00:32:42,760 --> 00:32:44,937
Before, I liked it
even more

413
00:32:45,171 --> 00:32:48,817
because there were also people
from other companies.

414
00:32:48,989 --> 00:32:51,629
That was even nicer
and even more interesting.

415
00:32:51,812 --> 00:32:57,321
You learned a bit more, you could
look outside your own box.

416
00:32:57,869 --> 00:33:00,905
So sometimes you would say: "Oh,
that is the same in our workplace!"

417
00:33:01,102 --> 00:33:02,897
Or: "What have they done
against that?"

418
00:33:03,101 --> 00:33:07,140
And then you tried to be braver
in the plant and open your mouth

419
00:33:07,359 --> 00:33:09,494
and to change
something.

420
00:33:09,671 --> 00:33:14,210
The people from GoG then
went to France together.

421
00:33:14,438 --> 00:33:19,007
We visited companies,
like Alstom, for instance,

422
00:33:19,226 --> 00:33:20,804
that were
occupied.

423
00:33:21,016 --> 00:33:28,218
My idea was that the group from Bochum
learns about experiences.

424
00:33:28,399 --> 00:33:33,726
For instance, when we visited Alstom,
I think it was 1987,

425
00:33:33,922 --> 00:33:38,382
the whole plant was occupied and
was organized by the workers themselves

426
00:33:38,570 --> 00:33:40,296
for one
or two weeks.

427
00:33:40,469 --> 00:33:43,320
So it was about learning from
an experience that went beyond

428
00:33:43,516 --> 00:33:45,608
the daily horizon
in Bochum.

429
00:33:45,797 --> 00:33:50,797
That was one aspect of
the things I initiated.

430
00:33:51,016 --> 00:33:54,953
The second part was to see
other worlds through these visits.

431
00:33:55,117 --> 00:33:59,984
For instance, there was a movement of "sans
papiers" in France at the time,

432
00:34:00,188 --> 00:34:01,843
of people
without papers.

433
00:34:02,055 --> 00:34:04,047
So we went into
such dormitories

434
00:34:04,235 --> 00:34:08,015
to meet African migrants,
and suddenly there were discussions

435
00:34:08,142 --> 00:34:11,975
with similar people who existed in Bochum, too,
but they did not know them there.

436
00:34:12,132 --> 00:34:15,257
For sure, that changed the colleagues
who took part in them.

437
00:34:15,413 --> 00:34:21,732
We could see how much it meant
to them, even to go to the Philippines

438
00:34:21,928 --> 00:34:25,908
to meet an armed
liberation group!

439
00:34:26,154 --> 00:34:31,420
That's the fundamental difference between
them and the classical union activity, where,

440
00:34:31,598 --> 00:34:34,606
the bureaucracy,
the top union leaders

441
00:34:34,762 --> 00:34:37,772
get a first class ticket and fly
to somewhere in America

442
00:34:37,941 --> 00:34:42,818
and meet at conferences, but the
workers have nothing to do with that.

443
00:34:45,605 --> 00:34:50,448
In 1993, the first "Paper to Safeguard the
Local Plant" was pushed through in Bochum.

444
00:34:51,479 --> 00:34:55,097
In that Paper the workforce
pledged a wage sacrifice

445
00:34:55,645 --> 00:34:59,238
and to increase productivity
by 30% in the next 3 years.

446
00:34:59,625 --> 00:35:01,605
So we heard some people
from the works council.

447
00:35:01,796 --> 00:35:03,589
Let's hear others
who criticize the Paper.

448
00:35:03,855 --> 00:35:07,567
Yes, for sure, the Paper says:
"productivity increase."

449
00:35:07,735 --> 00:35:13,481
"Productivity increase" means to either
produce more with the same team

450
00:35:13,673 --> 00:35:17,972
or to produce the same amount
but with a reduced team.

451
00:35:18,167 --> 00:35:23,159
That means for this region
less jobs, that is a fact!

452
00:35:23,352 --> 00:35:27,808
And look at how many people are
 unemployed outside.

453
00:35:28,012 --> 00:35:30,847
Socially, we can no longer
accept that.

454
00:35:31,027 --> 00:35:35,155
That we just look on as jobs
continue to be cut in our plant.

455
00:35:35,585 --> 00:35:39,108
We are organized, we have the chance
to fight against this.

456
00:35:39,329 --> 00:35:41,180
Who helps those
people outside?

457
00:35:41,420 --> 00:35:43,138
Power relations are
just like that.

458
00:35:43,329 --> 00:35:45,106
They have
the power.

459
00:35:45,313 --> 00:35:47,826
We have to try to soften down
what they force upon us

460
00:35:48,020 --> 00:35:51,732
as much as possible,
for the colleagues and for us,

461
00:35:51,874 --> 00:35:54,018
so that we can
live with it.

462
00:35:54,134 --> 00:35:57,744
I would have preferred
to go to the streets.

463
00:35:57,899 --> 00:36:00,739
Even if I would have gotten
just 60 percent,

464
00:36:00,921 --> 00:36:02,514
the normal Christmas money,

465
00:36:02,637 --> 00:36:05,770
and the Paper would be off the table,
that would have been the better solution.

466
00:36:05,957 --> 00:36:07,480
What would you
have gained?

467
00:36:08,474 --> 00:36:14,567
...my personality?! I don't
really know how else to express it.

468
00:36:15,359 --> 00:36:19,497
I would have shown that we can go to the
streets and also accomplish something,

469
00:36:19,649 --> 00:36:21,675
and that we don't
always give in.

470
00:36:21,990 --> 00:36:26,801
I don't want to discount the performance
of the works council from Bochum.

471
00:36:27,006 --> 00:36:33,980
I also believe my colleague, that the
works councillors fought like lions,

472
00:36:34,169 --> 00:36:36,324
but only at the
negotiation table!

473
00:36:36,544 --> 00:36:42,040
Just the fact that the Bochum workforce
announced that they would strike if necessary,

474
00:36:42,267 --> 00:36:45,186
or would down
their tools,

475
00:36:45,524 --> 00:36:50,100
resulted in improvements
in certain parts oft the Paper.

476
00:36:50,315 --> 00:36:51,534
So management
made concessions

477
00:36:51,744 --> 00:36:54,869
although the struggle
never really started.

478
00:36:55,051 --> 00:36:59,582
I think there was a situation 3 weeks ago
when the workforce was prepared

479
00:36:59,762 --> 00:37:01,829
to fight against
this paper.

480
00:37:02,231 --> 00:37:06,160
But how do you feel now that this will
be presented to the public in two days?

481
00:37:06,873 --> 00:37:11,550
For me, the key point is, yes,

482
00:37:11,758 --> 00:37:17,652
the connection of the Christmas
money to the sickness rate,

483
00:37:17,854 --> 00:37:24,354
but more worrying is that according to
the Paper the works council is compelled

484
00:37:24,544 --> 00:37:27,933
to collaborate in
increasing productivity.

485
00:37:28,207 --> 00:37:29,659
Could you explain
that?

486
00:37:29,970 --> 00:37:35,040
Yes, according to the Paper
work teams should be formed

487
00:37:35,175 --> 00:37:38,645
with the task to produce a
30% productivity increase

488
00:37:38,802 --> 00:37:40,494
in the next 3 years.

489
00:37:40,700 --> 00:37:46,392
For me that's alarming because in this
way we support the employers' propaganda

490
00:37:46,567 --> 00:37:52,613
that the workforce and the working
population would be only cost factors,

491
00:37:52,778 --> 00:37:58,459
and that the costs of the employees and
the collective bargaining of the unions

492
00:37:58,679 --> 00:38:00,477
would be responsible
for the crisis,

493
00:38:00,680 --> 00:38:03,559
and that through sacrificing a part
of the wage or other social benefits

494
00:38:03,737 --> 00:38:06,604
we would be able to get out of the crisis
together with the employers.

495
00:38:06,784 --> 00:38:08,932
That is
nonsense.

496
00:38:09,410 --> 00:38:11,615
Between 1993 and 2010,

497
00:38:11,954 --> 00:38:16,570
the workforce in Bochum
was reduced from 20,000 to 5,000

498
00:38:16,819 --> 00:38:20,398
Despite the fact that it agreed
to Saturday working hours,

499
00:38:20,862 --> 00:38:26,186
night shifts,
and wage cuts.

500
00:38:27,635 --> 00:38:31,416
However, many attacks were
also successfully warded off.

501
00:38:31,872 --> 00:38:37,761
For instance, when the exhaust pipe
production was going to be outsourced.

502
00:38:38,284 --> 00:38:43,693
There was a heated debate
over 2 or 3 weeks

503
00:38:43,893 --> 00:38:46,587
about what
we can do.

504
00:38:50,393 --> 00:38:57,206
Then we heard that the decisive meeting
was going to happen very soon

505
00:38:57,409 --> 00:39:00,532
between management
and the works council.

506
00:39:00,901 --> 00:39:03,307
Someone had
informed us about that.

507
00:39:03,503 --> 00:39:09,018
Then we decided that we will
go and "visit" that meeting.

508
00:39:09,206 --> 00:39:12,043
It took place
in the D1 building.

509
00:39:14,128 --> 00:39:17,534
We managed to persuade
nearly 100 people to come.

510
00:39:17,745 --> 00:39:21,963
Back then, the exhaust pipe
production was really big.

511
00:39:22,752 --> 00:39:27,002
Nearly 100 people in their working clothes,
directly coming from work,

512
00:39:27,198 --> 00:39:30,581
walked into
the D1 building.

513
00:39:30,815 --> 00:39:34,033
We opened the door,
and they all sat there.

514
00:39:34,237 --> 00:39:39,182
Chairman Breuer,
the managers...

515
00:39:39,455 --> 00:39:43,205
... cookies and coffee
on the table and so on.

516
00:39:46,229 --> 00:39:51,518
Only later I noticed
the white carpet

517
00:39:51,709 --> 00:39:56,612
that was 3 cm thick
and covered the whole floor.

518
00:39:57,315 --> 00:40:02,244
We had decided earlier, that we
will not start a big discussion

519
00:40:02,409 --> 00:40:04,713
but that we will
give an ultimatum

520
00:40:04,909 --> 00:40:08,916
until when the outsourcing plans
have to be off the table.

521
00:40:10,268 --> 00:40:15,126
So we presented our issues,
and they all dutifully nodded and nodded.

522
00:40:16,237 --> 00:40:23,018
Then we left the room, and from
the corner of my eye I noticed

523
00:40:23,213 --> 00:40:28,096
several colleagues who,
before they left the room,

524
00:40:28,307 --> 00:40:33,229
stamped and wiped off their heavy
working boots on the white carpet.

525
00:40:33,432 --> 00:40:39,721
And I thought to myself:
"Oh, wow!"... That gave me a kick.

526
00:40:41,479 --> 00:40:47,971
In the end, it was relatively successful,
I cannot remember the exact result, though.

527
00:40:48,198 --> 00:40:53,705
But it is one of those things I will never
forget, the preparation,

528
00:40:53,908 --> 00:40:58,366
the implementation, and how
relatively disciplined it was,

529
00:40:58,580 --> 00:41:04,549
except that stamping and
brushing off on the carpet.

530
00:41:04,784 --> 00:41:08,112
It was a really
good thing.

531
00:41:09,200 --> 00:41:15,760
I still remember in one year
in the 1990s we counted,

532
00:41:15,955 --> 00:41:22,819
we organized 11 actions,
bigger ones or smaller ones.

533
00:41:24,095 --> 00:41:31,127
We went in front of the D1 building,
maybe just with 200 or 150 people,

534
00:41:31,336 --> 00:41:33,135
that did
not matter.

535
00:41:33,345 --> 00:41:37,156
Sometimes we managed to make
someone come down who told us:

536
00:41:37,328 --> 00:41:39,914
"Come on, go back
to work quickly!"

537
00:41:40,101 --> 00:41:44,797
But in that moment the people were on
the lawn demanding: "We want this and that!"

538
00:41:45,720 --> 00:41:48,821
In the 1990s, as
the companies began

539
00:41:49,055 --> 00:41:52,727
to play off the production plants in
different locations against each other,

540
00:41:53,351 --> 00:41:57,564
the GoGs' operating field expanded.

541
00:41:57,857 --> 00:42:01,806
Then charts appeared
at the assembly lines

542
00:42:02,003 --> 00:42:08,030
where you could see: 100% wage
at Opel-GM, and for the same work,

543
00:42:08,236 --> 00:42:11,413
you got someone
in England for 78%,

544
00:42:11,601 --> 00:42:17,483
in Spain for 67% ... it went down
to 12% in the plant in Mexico.

545
00:42:18,789 --> 00:42:21,460
I think, we have to
approach the problem

546
00:42:21,631 --> 00:42:25,850
that we don't allow
to be forced into this spiral

547
00:42:26,044 --> 00:42:29,686
of competition against workforces of
other auto plants or other locations,

548
00:42:29,873 --> 00:42:33,391
like Rüsselsheim or Antwerp, and be
played off against each other.

549
00:42:33,574 --> 00:42:36,740
Instead, we have to reach
a point some time

550
00:42:36,941 --> 00:42:40,264
where the policy of the works council,
the so-called "location policy,"

551
00:42:40,457 --> 00:42:43,616
gets dominated by central
unionist demands,

552
00:42:43,801 --> 00:42:47,654
and we, together with our union,
proceed together,

553
00:42:47,855 --> 00:42:51,990
with the VW workforce, with the Ford
workforce, and with other workforces,

554
00:42:52,184 --> 00:42:57,379
ultimately, not just here in Germany
but world-wide,

555
00:42:57,582 --> 00:43:00,382
in Antwerp, in England,
and in Spain.

556
00:43:09,428 --> 00:43:13,783
In the 1990s, GoG began
to organize trips to GM-plants elsewhere

557
00:43:13,959 --> 00:43:16,204
through it's own
initiative.

558
00:43:18,344 --> 00:43:21,693
In 1993, they went
to Zaragoza (Spain).

559
00:43:25,624 --> 00:43:29,688
Inside the unions, we needed to
make sure that egoistic ideas of

560
00:43:29,865 --> 00:43:33,771
national protection, trying to
keep the plants in one's own country

561
00:43:33,947 --> 00:43:36,363
were left behind.

562
00:43:36,556 --> 00:43:41,030
When dealing with multinational companies,
we need to start forging alliances

563
00:43:41,227 --> 00:43:43,212
as soon as possible
and as much as possible,

564
00:43:43,399 --> 00:43:47,790
also with the other nationalities,
in order to coordinate common strategies,

565
00:43:47,970 --> 00:43:50,304
in order to
stay in contact.

566
00:43:50,470 --> 00:43:53,281
What do they try in your plant,
what do they try in our plant?

567
00:43:53,462 --> 00:43:55,366
We need to mutually
share that.

568
00:43:58,003 --> 00:44:02,999
In 1995, GoG colleagues
went to Liverpool.

569
00:44:03,312 --> 00:44:10,750
I am keen to know,
how in England, in contrast to us,

570
00:44:10,961 --> 00:44:15,546
things are produced,
how the workforce is composed,

571
00:44:15,742 --> 00:44:20,859
what kind of political aims
the union is following,

572
00:44:21,070 --> 00:44:24,811
and how the union is rooted
in the plant,

573
00:44:25,024 --> 00:44:29,219
whether they are more ready
to fight than in our plant,

574
00:44:29,399 --> 00:44:33,899
or whether the workforce is also
relying on social partnership

575
00:44:34,086 --> 00:44:38,484
like in our plant, where it is more and
more like that, unfortunately.

576
00:44:52,035 --> 00:44:55,312
An important question concerned
the absence of employees

577
00:44:55,505 --> 00:44:57,758
because of sickness
or other reasons,

578
00:44:57,959 --> 00:45:01,474
because, at that time in Germany, employers
and the media had started a campaign

579
00:45:01,673 --> 00:45:04,188
against those who "skip work"
(so-called "Blaumacher").

580
00:45:09,103 --> 00:45:13,749
It is interesting, what you said about
having similar problems in Bochum.

581
00:45:13,933 --> 00:45:17,726
Because the company tells us that we
have had the highest rate of absenteeism,

582
00:45:17,949 --> 00:45:20,898
and Bochum wouldn't
have any problems with that.

583
00:45:21,098 --> 00:45:26,718
They say, your rate of absenteeism
was 3 or 4 % at the most.

584
00:45:28,832 --> 00:45:35,830
We hoped to be able to
establish a network

585
00:45:36,064 --> 00:45:41,132
of GM-colleagues
in the whole of Europe.

586
00:45:41,400 --> 00:45:44,579
Today, we all know that
it did not work out like that.

587
00:45:45,494 --> 00:45:48,798
Otherwise, we would be
at a completely different point.

588
00:45:50,398 --> 00:45:52,397
But it did
not happen.

589
00:45:52,590 --> 00:45:58,398
It failed, but nevertheless, that was the
plan and that's what we were working at.

590
00:46:00,430 --> 00:46:03,643
In 2000, the Plant No. 2 in Bochum
was going to be outsourced.

591
00:46:03,822 --> 00:46:06,036
This was about
3,000 jobs.

592
00:46:06,714 --> 00:46:09,715
The workers achieved that the
colleagues had to be employed

593
00:46:09,901 --> 00:46:12,712
under the same conditions
as the core workforce.

594
00:46:14,072 --> 00:46:17,767
Plant No. 2 was going
to be outsourced back then.

595
00:46:17,986 --> 00:46:23,451
and, basically, that is
what happened.

596
00:46:23,674 --> 00:46:30,537
And the issue had already been
settled with IG Metall.

597
00:46:30,772 --> 00:46:34,662
There was a provision safeguarding
the existing standards for 5 years.

598
00:46:34,850 --> 00:46:39,693
And, after that, everything would have
been possible regarding the workforce.

599
00:46:43,709 --> 00:46:48,943
The mood was simply,
we cannot put up with that.

600
00:46:49,889 --> 00:46:54,811
If a whole plant, like Plant No. 2 in
Bochum-Langendreer,

601
00:46:55,022 --> 00:46:59,232
if it is outsourced
like that,

602
00:46:59,436 --> 00:47:01,522
then that is not
their final move.

603
00:47:01,733 --> 00:47:05,420
Then one department
after the other will follow,

604
00:47:05,616 --> 00:47:09,912
and at some point
the workforce will be very divided,

605
00:47:10,115 --> 00:47:14,022
and people will work
for 20 different companies.

606
00:47:15,624 --> 00:47:20,717
The mood was: one company,
one workforce.

607
00:47:21,655 --> 00:47:29,654
And then there was the gathering
in Plant No. 1 for all 3 plants.

608
00:47:30,608 --> 00:47:36,968
Everyone came together
at 2 p.m. in Plant No. 1.

609
00:47:37,858 --> 00:47:40,764
10,000 people
were there.

610
00:47:41,960 --> 00:47:47,670
You have to imagine, the gathering
that took place outside,

611
00:47:47,850 --> 00:47:52,272
between two big factory buildings,
between D3 and D4.

612
00:47:53,178 --> 00:47:57,514
A provisional speaker's stage
was built.

613
00:47:57,764 --> 00:48:00,561
There was a truck with
a load bed

614
00:48:00,780 --> 00:48:04,428
that was placed sideways
between the two factory halls.

615
00:48:07,007 --> 00:48:14,956
We from GoG, Roland, Uwe, me, we were
prepared, we went up stage

616
00:48:15,152 --> 00:48:19,142
and gave
our speeches.

617
00:48:20,587 --> 00:48:24,014
It was a
great feeling!

618
00:48:24,186 --> 00:48:28,514
You stood up there on the truck
and, just imagine,

619
00:48:28,693 --> 00:48:30,850
there was this corridor
between two halls,

620
00:48:31,022 --> 00:48:33,989
and you see heads, heads,
and more heads,

621
00:48:34,186 --> 00:48:38,037
with no end, a mass of people
as far as you could see.

622
00:48:38,217 --> 00:48:40,772
Along the whole
corridor: people!

623
00:48:42,464 --> 00:48:45,003
... all the way
to the plant gate.

624
00:48:48,147 --> 00:48:54,037
I had to swallow first and then thought:
Man, that is great!

625
00:48:54,249 --> 00:48:57,339
That we managed to organize
something like that,

626
00:48:57,514 --> 00:49:00,147
and the whole workforce
took part!

627
00:49:00,303 --> 00:49:05,106
That was a good
feeling for me.

628
00:49:05,974 --> 00:49:12,428
And you realized, okay, there is
solidarity among the whole workforce.

629
00:49:12,622 --> 00:49:16,223
I just thought
that was great.

630
00:49:22,190 --> 00:49:28,394
In October 2004, the news spread that
4,000 people were going to be dismissed.

631
00:49:33,055 --> 00:49:36,743
One of the most important wildcat strikes
in Germany's postwar history began.

632
00:49:36,808 --> 00:49:40,832
I brought pork sausage and bread rolls,
in solidarity with Opel.

633
00:49:45,082 --> 00:49:47,808
[Minister of Economy, SPD]
I understand it, but I still think

634
00:49:47,988 --> 00:49:49,745
it is wrong
what happens there.

635
00:49:49,933 --> 00:49:53,223
It has to be said clearly
what is right and what is wrong.

636
00:49:53,614 --> 00:49:59,787
The people could remember
the successful experience of 2000.

637
00:49:59,998 --> 00:50:03,452
It was also an experience
of dignity and of relative power

638
00:50:03,670 --> 00:50:05,185
that they
still remembered.

639
00:50:05,420 --> 00:50:10,061
In 2004, they faced the next
massive threat of job cuts.

640
00:50:10,264 --> 00:50:14,295
And, again, the general works council
started negotiating

641
00:50:14,422 --> 00:50:18,539
while the workforce,
through the shop stewards,

642
00:50:18,818 --> 00:50:21,349
said that
it did not agree.

643
00:50:21,486 --> 00:50:25,404
Out of 10,000 jobs, suddenly 4,000
jobs were subject to negotiation,

644
00:50:25,615 --> 00:50:27,260
40% of the workforce.

645
00:50:27,611 --> 00:50:29,767
At first, that
was a shock!

646
00:50:29,823 --> 00:50:34,135
Many colleagues said openly,
it doesn't work that way,

647
00:50:34,303 --> 00:50:37,879
we have to
walk out once again.

648
00:50:38,386 --> 00:50:40,977
Yesterday, during the "info hours",
it was announced

649
00:50:41,140 --> 00:50:43,508
that 500 people will
have to leave next year.

650
00:50:43,671 --> 00:50:46,540
Today, it was suddenly about
3,000 in Bochum next year.

651
00:50:46,695 --> 00:50:49,028
That's every
third job.

652
00:50:49,194 --> 00:50:51,710
That is brutal,
that is more than brutal.

653
00:50:51,890 --> 00:50:54,209
We just can't
put up with that.

654
00:50:54,631 --> 00:50:59,228
We wanted to keep what we had,
because we thought

655
00:50:59,405 --> 00:51:02,756
that we had sacrificed
enough in all these years.

656
00:51:02,963 --> 00:51:06,451
I cannot remember how many
factory agreements were finalized,

657
00:51:06,643 --> 00:51:10,139
each with agreed sacrifices,
and each time with promises that

658
00:51:10,320 --> 00:51:12,620
if you sacrifice
then it will get better.

659
00:51:12,738 --> 00:51:14,633
What happened was
the exact opposite,

660
00:51:14,828 --> 00:51:17,835
except the sacrifice
was legally committed.

661
00:51:17,972 --> 00:51:21,527
I think, most colleagues said:
Enough is enough!

662
00:51:21,820 --> 00:51:23,762
The ballot at that time
was clear:

663
00:51:23,963 --> 00:51:25,798
All shop stewards from
the Final Assembly

664
00:51:25,987 --> 00:51:28,735
have unanimously
supported this action.

665
00:51:28,925 --> 00:51:31,228
And that is exactly how we
have to approach things here.

666
00:51:31,401 --> 00:51:33,830
We decide how this goes on,
for how long,

667
00:51:34,042 --> 00:51:35,715
and what our
aims are.

668
00:51:40,314 --> 00:51:43,295
We occupied the gates
with fork lifts

669
00:51:43,733 --> 00:51:46,840
so that no truck could
enter or leave.

670
00:51:47,101 --> 00:51:49,752
Around the clock,
we were in the plant,

671
00:51:50,611 --> 00:51:55,603
all shifts, and we took turns
as one shift received the other.

672
00:51:55,811 --> 00:51:59,452
We swapped, and then
the others went home.

673
00:52:00,030 --> 00:52:03,816
We arranged an information round
every few hours

674
00:52:03,997 --> 00:52:07,690
where the latest news from
the media was given

675
00:52:07,886 --> 00:52:10,043
and the latest news from
those who were negotiating,

676
00:52:10,215 --> 00:52:12,595
that is, the works councillors
in the negotiating commission.

677
00:52:12,801 --> 00:52:15,690
Then there was always
a debate on the cart.

678
00:52:15,891 --> 00:52:20,188
After a works councillor updated us,
someone from the workforce went up

679
00:52:20,689 --> 00:52:25,167
and said: "Well, that is
not enough for us!"

680
00:52:25,778 --> 00:52:30,100
In the evening news
it was said that

681
00:52:30,288 --> 00:52:37,472
in Bochum a workforce went on strike
without any control of the unions.

682
00:53:27,679 --> 00:53:32,052
Day 5: The tone got rougher. A management
flyer asked the early shift

683
00:53:32,263 --> 00:53:34,802
to return to work
by Monday.

684
00:53:35,094 --> 00:53:38,022
On the weekend, the Opel
executive board had declared

685
00:53:38,250 --> 00:53:40,632
it could also close
the plant in Bochum altogether.

686
00:53:40,819 --> 00:53:42,898
Everyone anxiously awaited
how the early shift

687
00:53:43,077 --> 00:53:45,077
will vote on continuing
the strike on Monday.

688
00:53:45,275 --> 00:53:46,517
Have you
heard that?

689
00:53:46,759 --> 00:53:47,774
No!

690
00:53:47,979 --> 00:53:49,649
They stand up
united!

691
00:53:51,512 --> 00:53:54,496
Production will still
not start today.

692
00:53:56,691 --> 00:54:01,065
What is taken to the negotiations
in R�sselsheim today is that

693
00:54:01,262 --> 00:54:05,831
we still insist that the compulsory
redundancies are withdrawn

694
00:54:06,028 --> 00:54:09,193
and that the colleagues here
in Bochum will have a future.

695
00:54:11,715 --> 00:54:15,340
We continued the strike
until Wednesday.

696
00:54:15,576 --> 00:54:21,003
On Tuesday, the union called for
an international day of action

697
00:54:21,216 --> 00:54:24,052
in those countries
where Opel-GM has plants.

698
00:54:24,761 --> 00:54:29,378
It was the usual game: The political class
met there, the church, priests and whoever.

699
00:54:29,550 --> 00:54:35,020
In Bochum, a long procession was organized
from the Opel plant to the theater.

700
00:54:35,230 --> 00:54:39,401
And there they ranted against
what the employers were doing.

701
00:54:39,634 --> 00:54:43,019
But none of those people
supported the strike.

702
00:54:43,221 --> 00:54:47,469
Starting with the Chief Minister
Steinbrück of Northrhine-Westphalia,

703
00:54:47,679 --> 00:54:53,304
the Minister of Labor Schartau, the Mayor,
what's her name again? Ottilie...

704
00:54:53,521 --> 00:54:55,677
... all of them were
against the strike.

705
00:54:55,873 --> 00:55:02,506
That was also a good thing,
because that was one of the few moments

706
00:55:02,739 --> 00:55:04,624
where workers
organized themselves

707
00:55:04,813 --> 00:55:06,935
and also led a strike,
a walkout,

708
00:55:07,141 --> 00:55:09,381
formulated demands
against the unions,

709
00:55:09,571 --> 00:55:11,256
against the
works council,

710
00:55:11,470 --> 00:55:16,172
and against the political class
and the large part of the political public.

711
00:55:16,886 --> 00:55:19,818
It was already crumbling, and we
need to be honest about that.

712
00:55:20,026 --> 00:55:23,537
After 3 or 4 days,
the first voices could be heard:

713
00:55:23,752 --> 00:55:25,749
"Who will pay us
for that?"

714
00:55:27,069 --> 00:55:31,455
IG Metall? You couldn't hope that
they give us strike pay.

715
00:55:31,573 --> 00:55:33,975
Nothing is
coming from them.

716
00:55:34,770 --> 00:55:41,143
Then, on the sixth day,
the decision was made:

717
00:55:41,330 --> 00:55:44,747
We cannot cancel
the strike just like that!

718
00:55:44,932 --> 00:55:49,764
Because there was still a part of the
workforce that said we need to continue.

719
00:55:49,955 --> 00:55:51,998
We need to keep it up
for some more days.

720
00:55:52,189 --> 00:55:56,842
Because, through our strike in Bochum,
production in plants elsewhere

721
00:55:57,033 --> 00:55:59,045
had come
to a standstill.

722
00:55:59,237 --> 00:56:03,646
At the time, Bochum was a "component plant"
that supplied other plants.

723
00:56:03,830 --> 00:56:10,452
R�sselsheim got parts from Bochum,
Antwerp, Ellesmere Port in Liverpool

724
00:56:10,631 --> 00:56:13,967
were supplied
from Bochum.

725
00:56:14,154 --> 00:56:17,857
Through our strike,
they had to stop working.

726
00:56:18,044 --> 00:56:19,762
They had to send
people home.

727
00:56:20,669 --> 00:56:23,740
Of course, that was giving us
more fighting power,

728
00:56:23,910 --> 00:56:26,623
knowing that the longer
we manage to hang on

729
00:56:26,800 --> 00:56:31,888
the more we step on GM's feet
because we disrupt their creation of value.

730
00:56:32,074 --> 00:56:36,310
They had tried a bit to
increase their stocks in 2004,

731
00:56:36,503 --> 00:56:39,989
and they did not need to close
down whole plants.

732
00:56:40,160 --> 00:56:44,808
(We have to reduce those 6 days
by 2 as that was a weekend.)

733
00:56:45,015 --> 00:56:49,889
Still, it was clear to us, that if we
strike for one or two weeks

734
00:56:50,081 --> 00:56:54,590
some, back then, still had a vision
of 3 weeks and more

735
00:56:54,800 --> 00:56:58,553
then we can put
enormous pressure on GM

736
00:56:58,667 --> 00:57:01,092
in order to push through
our demands.

737
00:57:03,269 --> 00:57:04,792
But that's not
what happened.

738
00:57:05,433 --> 00:57:08,084
The works council
organized a ballot.

739
00:57:09,953 --> 00:57:13,800
In the "Ruhr Congress", at 11 a.m., the
workforces of all 3 plants come together.

740
00:57:14,018 --> 00:57:15,682
The employees
are anxious.

741
00:57:15,885 --> 00:57:18,339
For the first time in the
history of the plants in Bochum

742
00:57:18,523 --> 00:57:22,472
they are asked to vote on the end
or continuation of a wildcat strike.

743
00:57:24,105 --> 00:57:27,542
Obviously, the works council is also
not sure what the majority wants.

744
00:57:27,739 --> 00:57:30,331
That's why it does not allow
an open debate.

745
00:57:30,496 --> 00:57:34,846
It forces the staff to decide
between negotiations or strike.

746
00:57:35,064 --> 00:57:36,524
The question
reads:

747
00:57:36,775 --> 00:57:40,502
"Shall the works council continue
to negotiate with the management

748
00:57:40,838 --> 00:57:43,533
and work be resumed?
Yes or no?"

749
00:57:44,611 --> 00:57:46,712
The tactics of the
works council work:

750
00:57:46,910 --> 00:57:50,533
4,600 Opel workers want
to return to work, 1,700 don't.

751
00:57:50,720 --> 00:57:52,985
What's left is a
bad aftertaste.

752
00:57:53,277 --> 00:57:57,628
Now Antwerp stands still,
R�sselsheim cannot produce anymore,

753
00:57:57,775 --> 00:58:04,783
so we are leading 2:0, and now
the best players are taken off the field.

754
00:58:05,346 --> 00:58:08,524
After the ballot, you sat
there in the hall

755
00:58:08,742 --> 00:58:11,523
thinking: "My gosh,
what a load of shit!"

756
00:58:11,695 --> 00:58:14,302
We brought the whole
of Europe to a standstill,

757
00:58:14,484 --> 00:58:18,240
and the workforce votes
and goes back to work?!

758
00:58:18,375 --> 00:58:21,803
Usually, there are always
microphones on the floor in the hall

759
00:58:21,983 --> 00:58:24,413
so that colleagues can leave
their seats and go there

760
00:58:24,600 --> 00:58:26,532
to ask questions
and join the discussion.

761
00:58:26,688 --> 00:58:28,209
But there
were none there.

762
00:58:28,451 --> 00:58:32,513
There was only the microphone on the
stage where the works councilors sat,

763
00:58:32,725 --> 00:58:37,084
and later the way up there was cordoned
off by the plants' security guards.

764
00:58:37,748 --> 00:58:42,225
The right question would have been:
Do you want to continue the strike

765
00:58:42,428 --> 00:58:46,498
to put pressure on the negotiations,
or do you want to stop?

766
00:58:46,677 --> 00:58:48,576
That would have been
the right question.

767
00:58:48,740 --> 00:58:50,490
But it was asked
in this other way.

768
00:58:50,646 --> 00:58:54,646
My critique is that, at that
moment when it happened,

769
00:58:54,811 --> 00:59:00,670
GoG and other groups that
wanted to continue the strike

770
00:59:00,842 --> 00:59:03,092
were not capable
of intervening.

771
00:59:03,298 --> 00:59:06,884
Maybe they were surprised
or did not have the guts,

772
00:59:07,108 --> 00:59:11,063
but it would have
been the right thing

773
00:59:11,310 --> 00:59:14,498
in a situation where they say
it is forbidden to discuss

774
00:59:14,694 --> 00:59:18,748
to just ignore that
and to offensively say:

775
00:59:18,951 --> 00:59:22,099
In this situation, we don't
accept this ballot question.

776
00:59:22,287 --> 00:59:25,506
It was only afterwards
that it was criticized.

777
00:59:25,678 --> 00:59:31,253
I think, that was one of the
weaknesses in that situation.

778
00:59:31,561 --> 00:59:35,592
And that is important
also for other conflicts.

779
00:59:35,818 --> 00:59:38,974
There are always these situations,
for instance, during strike movements,

780
00:59:39,155 --> 00:59:41,654
where it is important to
intervene immediately,

781
00:59:41,857 --> 00:59:43,013
also in
the assembly,

782
00:59:43,232 --> 00:59:45,638
and where you have to
break certain rules, of course.

783
00:59:45,840 --> 00:59:47,981
For instance, when someone says
you cannot speak now.

784
00:59:48,134 --> 00:59:51,007
There are situations where
the door has to be kicked in.

785
00:59:51,281 --> 00:59:54,717
Would it have been possible
to prevent the job cuts

786
00:59:54,842 --> 00:59:59,445
if we had been able to continue
the strike for a few more days?

787
01:00:00,635 --> 01:00:02,443
We don't know.

788
01:00:02,902 --> 01:00:11,362
But, I think, we could have demanded
concessions from GM, for sure.

789
01:00:11,631 --> 01:00:14,799
If the whole of Europe
cannot produce anymore

790
01:00:14,986 --> 01:00:18,112
then even for a company like GM
things become very expensive.

791
01:00:18,529 --> 01:00:21,342
I would have expected
a lot more solidarity.

792
01:00:21,521 --> 01:00:26,376
I know a lot of groups,
at Mercedes and elsewhere,

793
01:00:26,561 --> 01:00:30,576
who are involved in
similar activities as GoG,

794
01:00:30,756 --> 01:00:33,576
and I would have expected
more from those groups.

795
01:00:33,772 --> 01:00:35,818
Why did that
not happen?

796
01:00:36,060 --> 01:00:41,445
For me, one point is that
something was missing.

797
01:00:41,665 --> 01:00:46,641
A structure that would have said
we don't just go to Bochum,

798
01:00:46,875 --> 01:00:49,422
like, for instance, those
from Opel in Rüsselsheim,

799
01:00:49,625 --> 01:00:54,031
but we organize a solidarity action in
Rüsselheim itself or something like that.

800
01:00:54,238 --> 01:01:00,433
That is part of the weakness
of some groups,

801
01:01:00,616 --> 01:01:03,420
that in the course of their activity
in the works councils

802
01:01:03,592 --> 01:01:09,475
they transform themselves from an active
collective with roots in the workforce

803
01:01:09,639 --> 01:01:11,916
into mere works
council groups.

804
01:01:12,150 --> 01:01:19,413
And with that transformation the
readiness to fight gets lost.

805
01:01:24,003 --> 01:01:27,990
IG Metall would have had the structures
and possibilities to make sure

806
01:01:28,129 --> 01:01:33,109
that the strike gets extended
to other plants.

807
01:01:34,550 --> 01:01:38,659
Why didn't the union
do that?

808
01:01:39,074 --> 01:01:43,644
The unions do their part by
thinking in a national framework.

809
01:01:43,992 --> 01:01:48,183
When holding soapbox speeches they
might preach internationalism

810
01:01:48,331 --> 01:01:52,814
but otherwise they focus on the
competitiveness of the German economy.

811
01:01:52,991 --> 01:01:58,089
Instead, it would have been possible
to organize the colleagues

812
01:01:58,282 --> 01:02:02,123
internationally, that is,
in the whole of Europe,

813
01:02:02,321 --> 01:02:06,895
in order to call for a strike against
the company in the whole of Europe.

814
01:02:07,063 --> 01:02:09,392
Something like that
would be conceivable.

815
01:02:09,490 --> 01:02:11,949
After all, IG Metall is in the
International Metalworkers' Federation

816
01:02:12,147 --> 01:02:14,847
and the strongest force in the
European Metalworkers' Federation,

817
01:02:15,069 --> 01:02:16,230
and "possibly"

818
01:02:16,429 --> 01:02:19,636
I say "possibly" because ideologically
it cannot and doesn't want to

819
01:02:19,844 --> 01:02:22,761
it would have the organizational power
to organize something like that.

820
01:02:22,940 --> 01:02:25,167
And many people dream
about that and think

821
01:02:25,315 --> 01:02:27,420
that a union exists
in order to do that.

822
01:02:27,699 --> 01:02:31,112
Basically, that is the
sense and purpose of it,

823
01:02:31,270 --> 01:02:35,261
if you have such a committee and you
have the possibilities,

824
01:02:35,433 --> 01:02:38,019
and everything is
already in place,

825
01:02:38,191 --> 01:02:40,585
interpreters
and everything.

826
01:02:40,832 --> 01:02:44,379
In reality, that is completely
beyond the horizon

827
01:02:44,543 --> 01:02:47,680
of how IG Metall
understands union activity.

828
01:02:48,063 --> 01:02:51,064
You meet at conferences,
in committees,

829
01:02:51,246 --> 01:02:54,479
and you claim that one
should act in solidarity

830
01:02:54,664 --> 01:02:57,448
between the different countries
and companies.

831
01:02:57,618 --> 01:03:02,877
But, in reality, the majority of the
works councils follows the slogan:

832
01:03:03,057 --> 01:03:05,953
"The shirt is closer to me
than the skirt!"

833
01:03:06,129 --> 01:03:11,714
And in every plant, when it is about
producing engines, for instance,

834
01:03:11,898 --> 01:03:14,998
they try to get as much as
possible for their plant.

835
01:03:15,336 --> 01:03:18,500
People sat together there who
watched each other suspiciously

836
01:03:18,672 --> 01:03:21,400
to see who gets what kind of
investment and who doesn't.

837
01:03:21,861 --> 01:03:26,781
Therefore, such a dynamic can only
come from a different type of union.

838
01:03:26,914 --> 01:03:30,037
One that starts by saying that
the foundation of the union movement,

839
01:03:30,192 --> 01:03:32,521
one that also has an idea
of a different world,

840
01:03:32,662 --> 01:03:36,333
is that the colleagues themselves
start mobilising.

841
01:03:36,507 --> 01:03:39,740
In our book, we called
that "self-empowerment."

842
01:03:39,912 --> 01:03:43,662
And then the others, who are
affected, do the same,

843
01:03:43,849 --> 01:03:45,060
like solidarity
strikes.

844
01:03:45,232 --> 01:03:48,302
In that case, within 2 weeks the
balance of power in Europe

845
01:03:48,467 --> 01:03:52,240
would have changed so that
GM would have had problems

846
01:03:52,396 --> 01:03:54,795
if it had made
no concessions.

847
01:03:54,959 --> 01:04:02,896
The point is, that many people who have
different ideas about union activity,

848
01:04:05,967 --> 01:04:08,281
then take
an approach,

849
01:04:08,442 --> 01:04:10,810
in the form of a leaflet
or whatever,

850
01:04:11,028 --> 01:04:16,128
by pulling their shirt open and saying:
"Here I stand and I have no other choice!"

851
01:04:17,402 --> 01:04:20,615
And that they say:
"But now IG Metall should..."

852
01:04:20,809 --> 01:04:23,146
... that's what Wolfgang
always says, too.

853
01:04:23,309 --> 01:04:27,660
In reality, we know, unfortunately,
that it is the actual function

854
01:04:27,856 --> 01:04:32,186
of IG Metall
to be the way it is!

855
01:04:34,215 --> 01:04:37,262
That is disillusioning,
sometimes

856
01:04:38,854 --> 01:04:42,827
and could lead
to paralysis!

857
01:04:43,488 --> 01:04:50,009
The board of the IG Metall made an
agreement with General Motors

858
01:04:50,181 --> 01:04:57,899
to sacrifice Opel in Bochum
so that the rest of the German plants

859
01:04:58,103 --> 01:05:00,914
will continue to get
production orders.

860
01:05:01,063 --> 01:05:03,181
And that's what happened.

861
01:05:03,353 --> 01:05:11,756
A "social collective agreement" was signed
that practically sealed the plant closure.

862
01:05:12,205 --> 01:05:20,423
At that time, 3,000 to 3,500 people
were still employed at Opel in Bochum.

863
01:05:20,602 --> 01:05:22,946
That was the workforce
that was still left.

864
01:05:23,102 --> 01:05:28,651
Basically, you can say that
with the help of the IG Metall board

865
01:05:28,866 --> 01:05:32,773
the plant was
successfully wiped out.

866
01:05:35,414 --> 01:05:40,313
Despite the structural disadvantage
to be represented by a union

867
01:05:40,586 --> 01:05:44,453
which is doing the
business of the company,

868
01:05:45,233 --> 01:05:50,333
through the strike the workforce
managed to win some money, at least.

869
01:05:51,348 --> 01:05:53,907
A lot
of money.

870
01:05:54,473 --> 01:05:56,243
Opel-GM had to pay
the highest compensations

871
01:05:56,383 --> 01:06:02,204
ever paid by a
German industrial company.

872
01:06:05,392 --> 01:06:09,621
Sometimes, people aren't active
because they know

873
01:06:09,878 --> 01:06:13,082
it wouldn't lead
anywhere anyhow.

874
01:06:13,270 --> 01:06:16,972
Because they think they are powerless
against the bureaucracy

875
01:06:17,168 --> 01:06:20,378
and the existing
power structures.

876
01:06:23,332 --> 01:06:25,746
"As a 'little man' you
have no say,

877
01:06:25,934 --> 01:06:29,097
and they do what
they want anyway."

878
01:06:29,269 --> 01:06:36,722
So it is necessary to create opportunities
for them to realize that they are capable,

879
01:06:36,878 --> 01:06:42,716
to tell them: "It is possible,
you just have to move your ass!

880
01:06:42,989 --> 01:06:45,213
Come here, come here,
go there,

881
01:06:45,447 --> 01:06:53,184
and we discuss and find ways and
possibilities to make it work!"

882
01:07:08,215 --> 01:07:15,208
"For a unified class struggle
union movement"

883
01:08:01,188 --> 01:08:04,955
We are screwed! We are screwed!
We are screwed!

884
01:08:05,251 --> 01:08:08,444
What have the Americans done?
What have we done?

885
01:08:08,694 --> 01:08:10,572
We closed the door
in front of us!

886
01:08:10,861 --> 01:08:12,095
Yes, that's what
happened!

887
01:08:12,462 --> 01:08:13,501
But we are
still here?

888
01:08:13,814 --> 01:08:16,822
We are still here? For how long?
Until 2016, and then?

889
01:08:17,017 --> 01:08:18,484
What shall
I do then?

890
01:08:18,900 --> 01:08:20,367
What shall
I do then?

891
01:08:21,088 --> 01:08:23,267
I built a house
and all that!

892
01:08:23,462 --> 01:08:25,102
What am I supposed
to do then?

893
01:08:25,259 --> 01:08:27,181
You talk
shit here!