Publishing date: May 11, 2021 • 4 hours ago • 2 minute read • This handout image released by General Motors on January 8, 2021, shows GM s new logo. - The venerable automaker General Motors wants to change its image to highlight its efforts in electric vehicles, starting with its logo. The new symbol builds on a strong heritage while adding a more modern and dynamic touch to GM s traditional blue square, the group said in a release on January 8, 2021. Photo by Image courtesy fo General Motors /AFP via Getty Images
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MEXICO CITY Mexican authorities on Tuesday ordered the General Motors Co union in the city of Silao to repeat a worker vote following pressure from U.S. lawmakers for the automaker to address alleged abuses that could potentially violate a new trade deal.
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General Motors is facing questions over alleged labor rights violations at its production facility in Silao, Mexico. It was reported that a recent worker vote at the plant had been tampered with.
According to a post from
Reuters, three U.S. lawmakers, including Bill Pascrell, Dan Kildee, and Earl Blumenaur, sent a letter to General Motors CEO Mary Barra discussing the potential violations. In the letter, the three House Democrats say that General Motors “has a responsibility to speak out against violations of labor and human rights abuses at the Silao GM plant,” adding that GM should ensure that workers in Mexico are not the targets of threats or retaliation.
Amazonians United: A new trap for workers
Last month, the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) lost its unionization vote at the Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama by a more than two-to-one margin. The RWDSU, which relied on the backing of the Biden administration, Democratic members of Congress and even right-wing Republican Senator Marco Rubio, was incapable of generating any significant support from workers.
As the
World Socialist Web Site has explained in a numberofarticles analyzing the RWDSU union drive, from the outset the effort was a top-down operation, an initiative of the Democratic Party and AFL-CIO, rather than an expression of workers’ opposition from below. The Democrats have made a calculated decision that the unions, having proven themselves reliable caretakers of corporate interests, must be provided further institutional support, so they may better serve as a brake on the class struggle and keep it from developing in a more radical, social