This BS/FS-Steelworkers' matchup has the earmarks of a combined Don King
/ Bill Gates production, with labor vying as a quintessential-1990s contender
rather than a chronically slaphappy street-picket pug. That became apparent
on July 12 and 13, when the two-year anniversary of the strike was commemorated
with an "International Day of Action and Outrage" led by the 20-million-member
International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers'
unions (ICEM), of which the USWA is an affiliate. A pioneer of international
electronic networking between unions, the ICEM has initiated a "cyberdemo
technique" against the long global reach of Tokyo-based Bridgestone,
utilizing the unique strength of the World Wide Web to set up "hot
links" between web sites.
Where multinational employers in recent years have been able to transmit
marching orders to their global subsidiaries in nanoseconds, shifting production
to low-wage countries, reneging on contracts and permanently replacing workers,
labor has taken a thrashing. Transborder worker strategy and organizing
suffered previously because it was attempted on location -- real sites,
that is to say, as opposed to virtual ones -- and was met with stringent
national ordinances and the invariable goon squads. While USWA continues
to implement the traditional tactics of marches, demonstrations, leafletting
and TV spots against Bridgestone, ICEM's innovative Cyber-Campaign could
well become a worldwide counterforce model for workers and unions.
The ICEM effort points a way toward ending all the past whining about how
capital is mobile and labor is not. I don't mean to be dismissive of that
truism: Capital all along has had "information," and labor but
one mainstay -- bodies. But if the techniques actuated by ICEM this month
become standard operating procedure for labor, as they should, we will have
witnessed a sea change in equivalency in the confrontation with corporate
roguery. Virtual warfare on the cyber picket lines, if you will, though
the consequences for working people exist in real time and are crucial.
ICEM's web site (http://www.icem.org/) features "company network"
pages about Bridgestone and provides readers direct links to the e-mail
addresses of top Bridgestone executives. The addresses of Bridgestone's
international subsidiaries are included, and readers in the U.S. can avail
themselves of three toll-free phone numbers for registering complaints.
Organizing the consumer boycott of the company's products at retail outlets
continues, and is now augmented by ICEM's new link to Bridgestone's own
web site listing of its stocklists, which are broken down into individual
countries and the specific manufactures produced in each of them. This target-specific
information is invaluable for consumers as Bridgestone workers engage in
other lingering disputes with the company in South Africa, Canada and Brazil.
A significant recent victory in the boycott campaign benefited purchasers
of GM's Saturn cars. The GM management, which makes joint decisions with
the USWA-affiiliated United Auto Workers on "sourcing" and purchasing,
is offering Saturn buyers free replacement of Bridgestone/Firestone tires
with other brands.
The symbol of the boycott is a black flag, an idea taken from auto racing,
where a black flag means immediate disqualification for serious rules violations.
ICEM's web pages include a scanned black flag logo that can be electronically
clipped and sent to Bridgestone and its business partners. The union's pages
also lists Bridgestone shareholders by name, notably banks and others that
have major holdings in the company, and the site provides links to these
investors' own global networks on the Web.
An edifying example of the combination of field organizing and cyber picketing
is the USWA's physical presence at selected races on the Indy Car circuit
(where BS/FS hopes to build a base of American customers), complemented
by ICEM's electronic targeting of racing car enthusiasts. ICEM's web pages
furnish links to pages dealing with the Indy Car circuit, among them Firestone
Racing, Firestone companies that advertise their involvement in Firestone's
racing program, and even the home pages of drivers.
Let's duly note, shall we, that Bridgestone's consolidated net earnings
after taxes for 1995 were up almost 70 percent over the previous year, and
earnings for 1996 are estimated by the company to rise another 28.7 percent.
Its workforce, Bridgestone admits, is the most productive in the industry.
ICEM's Jim Catterson informs me that the union's Bridgestone pages have
averaged 1,000 hits per week since June. Here's to the placard and the bullhorn,
and their new cousins the computer and the modem, hot-linked where the rubber
meets the road.