Fremont NUMMI's big battle

I've been trying to follow the story of the NUMMI plant worker's fightback against Toyota's planned closure. An article describing it is here: http://www.peoplesworld.org/labor-campaigns-vs-nummi-closure/

Not covered in the story is the Jan 24th meeting that has been making the internet rounds - for instance, here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UICPuHDD0GM

The way this meeting has been painted is union leadership betraying membership. But that's just wrong. The guy who makes the linked videos is a good guy, but he got it wrong here.

First of all, the UAW leaders have fought the plant closure from the beginning right down the line. At that moment it seemed lost and they had to try to get the best deal possible --- but since then labor has rallied to them and they've renewed the fight. Attacking them in their moment of uncertainty, that nervous moment when they look defeat straight in the face, is just cruel. It's something management would do to get a better deal on severance.

And in fact, union supporters who publish a sheet called Mother Muckraker made exactly that accusation. They noted that a blitz of anti-union agitation preceded the Jan 24 meeting, which itself was held not at the usual union meeting time, but forced in as an alternative/special meeting, with news media invited (?). They noted that the invitations to the events themselves promised a violent outcome ("the 'powder keg' is ready to ignite").

They further questioned who the white haired heckler who kept interrupting Contreras was. As far as anyone knew, he didn't even work at NUMMI. They figured he was a hired heckler. His cameraman (and why were there so many cameras?) was inciting violence, shouting "F--- him up!! F--- him up!!! Beat his a--!!!"

"Put that s--- on Youtube!!!" screams the white haired heckler. Sure enough, multiple recordings are soon up on Youtube.

As the Mother Muckraker sheet says, its an obvious set up to discredit the union as thugs, just as has been done time and time again against unions, at town hall meetings, etc. The goal is to destroy the union's solidarity, make it look bad, try to defeat their fight back, and get to give the workers as small a severance package as possible.

Nobody should fall for the staged theatrics.