Wildcat strike at Ford 1973
Wildcat strike at Ford refers to the stoppage of work by mostly Turkish workers at the Cologne plant of the car manufacturer Ford in August 1973. It was a wildcat strike that was associated with an occupation of the factory . At the same time, it was the first major industrial action in the Federal Republic of Germany that was mainly carried out by migrant workers . It ended in defeat for the strikers. The fact that the works council and IG Metall rejected the strike and the strikers did not succeed in getting large parts of the German workforce on their side played a significant role .
prehistory
Turkish workers have been employed by Ford in Cologne since the recruitment agreement between the Federal Republic of Germany and Turkey in 1961 and in 1973 made up a third (12,000) of the total workforce. The reason for the stoppage of work was the immediate dismissal of 300 Turkish workers by HR director Horst Bergemann in August that year, which was not withdrawn even after negotiations. As in previous years, those affected came back late from their four-week annual vacation . Such delays were related to the long journey to Turkey, which generally had to be made by car and was difficult to plan. In previous years it was of course always possible to make up for lost work by additional shifts; this was no longer permitted. The situation became particularly explosive with the announcement that the jobs of the laid-off workers would no longer be filled, but that the work would be distributed among the 35,000 remaining employees, as this also meant an additional workload for the German workforce.
The group of Turkish workers was in a special situation at the plant: almost without exception, they were among the unskilled workers in final assembly and thus among the lowest wage groups . At the same time, they were hardly represented in the 47-member works council. Four Turkish works council members worked as interpreters at the plant and therefore enjoyed little trust. The only Turkish council representatives from the group of workers had the council, which was dominated by the IG Metall, the exemption is denied.
strike
On Friday, August 24th, 400 Turkish late-shift workers demonstrated on the factory premises for the reinstatement of the laid-off colleagues. As a result, the entire late shift, around 8,000 German and Turkish workers, stopped working. Additional demands were now made on the management: one mark more hourly wages, reduction of the line speed, extension of the annual vacation to six weeks, elimination of the lower wage groups, a thirteenth monthly salary and waiver of disciplinary measures because of the strike.
On Monday, August 27, the early shift with 12,000 workers joined the strike and marched across the factory premises to demonstrate. In the meantime, the works council negotiated with management, but at the same time urged the strikers to abide by the peace obligation and to resume work. Since numerous strikers mistrusted the works council, they instead chose a strike committee with two spokesmen: Baha Targün and Dieter Heinert, the former close to the KPD (AO) and the latter member of the Cologne Anarcho Syndicate and member of the Black Cross / Red Aid. IG Metall did not support the wildcat strike and called for work to be resumed. The management tried to enforce a lockout and called the police for help to prevent further access to the factory premises, but initially unsuccessfully. Mostly Turkish workers stayed at the plant, stayed in the upholstered warehouse and gathered in the final assembly hall.
On Wednesday, August 29th, the management made a compromise offer: "Review" the layoffs, inflation allowance of 200 DM for each employee. The workers rejected the offer in a vote by a large majority. In the afternoon of that day there were fights for the first time: Individual strikers were threatened by a "gang of thugs". In the meantime, public opinion had also grown ominously. The BILD newspaper that day wrote about communists who had sneaked into the factory premises; the works council chairman Ernst Lück said in the Cologne tabloid Express that the radicals from the university had moved their playground to Ford.
When another demonstration of 2,000 strikers formed the next day, they encountered a "counter-demonstration", some of which was equipped with clubs and knuckles. It consisted of foremen and foremen, security personnel, strikers brought in from Belgium, plainclothes police and Ford executives. The strikers' resistance was violently broken, the strike leaders hunted down and finally handed over to the uniformed police. Targün was later deported to Turkey.
The Interior Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia , Willi Weyer (FDP), placed Ford under surveillance by the criminal police and the protection of the constitution . Police protection enabled those willing to work to return to work. 27 people accused of being " ringleaders " were arrested, well over 100 workers were given notice without notice, and around 600 others left of their own accord after some pressure from the employer. The works council could have objected to the dismissals under the Works Constitution Act, but there is no known case in which an objection was lodged.
be right
BILD commented on the end of the strike with ethnicizing headlines: "German workers are fighting Ford free." But the union also distanced itself very sharply from the strike, the main board of IG Metall spoke of "extremists from all over Germany" and specifically strengthened the works council and his actions against the wildcat strike. On the other hand, the then authorized representative of the local administration of IG Metall Cologne, Günter Tolusch, understood the strike and tried to mediate, which led to sharp arguments with the Ford works council and ultimately to Tolusch's dismissal.
The federal government and associations warned against the "politicization" of foreign workers. Federal Chancellor Willy Brandt called on the strikers to “return to the arms of the union”.
effect
The strike at Ford was one of the most important in the wave of wildcat strikes in 1973. It was preceded by strikes similar to those at Kolbenschmidt Pierburg in Neuss , at Opel in Bochum and at Gutehoffnungshütte in Oberhausen , followed by strikes similar to those at Hella in Lippstadt .
In 1982 the WDR television film This work stoppage was not planned by Thomas Giefer , Yüksel Uğurlu and Karl Baumgartner .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Wolfgang Kraushaar : From the protest chronicle . In: Hamburg Institute for Social Research (Ed.): Mittelweg 36 , July 15, 2004
- ^ Serhat Karakayali: Lotta Continua in Frankfurt, Turk Terror in Cologne. Migrant struggles in the history of the Federal Republic . In: Bernd Hüttner, Gottfried Oy, Norbert Schepers (eds.): Forward and forget a lot. Contributions to the history and historiography of new social movements . AG SPAK books, Bremen 2005, ISBN 3-930830-59-0 . Online pre-publication ( memento of the original dated February 9, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Klaus Peter Wittemann: Ford Action. On the relationship between industrial sociology and IG Metall in the sixties. Schüren, Marburg 1994, p. 231.
literature
- Workers' struggle group, Ford factory cell: Strike at Ford Cologne, Friday 24th - Thursday 30th August 1973 , Rosa Luxemburg Verlag Cologne, 1973, http://ford73.blogsport.de/stoffen-texte/
- Jörg Huwer, “Gastarbeiter” on strike - The stoppage of work at Ford Cologne in August 1973 , edition DOMiD, Cologne, 2013, http://www.migrationsmuseum.de/de/news/buchver%C3%B6ffigteung-und-start-der -edition-domid
- Günter Hinken: From “guest worker” from Turkey to a creative actor. Co-determination and integration of migrant workers at Ford in Cologne . In: Jan Motte, Rainer Ohliger (ed.): History and memory of the immigration society. Migration between historical reconstruction and the politics of memory . Klartext Verlag, Essen 2004, pp. 251–258.
- Karin Hunn: Uprising of the "economic coolies". A look back at the “Turkish strike” at Ford. In: iz3w (leaves of the information center 3rd world). No. 264, October 2002, pp. 16-19. ISSN 1614-0095
- Serhat Karakayali: Lotta Continua in Frankfurt, Turkish terror in Cologne. Migrant struggles in the history of the Federal Republic . In: Bernd Hüttner , Gottfried Oy, Norbert Schepers (eds.): Forward and forget a lot. Contributions to the history and historiography of new social movements . AG SPAK books, Bremen 2005, ISBN 3-930830-59-0 ( online pre-publication ).
- Wolfgang Kraushaar : From the protest chronicle . In: Mittelweg 36 , July 15, 2004