Daily Worker special: Workers invoke eminent domain to keep plant open

TAUNTON, Mass. (PAI) - "Eminent domain," the governmental power to take private property, with appropriate compensation, for public use, has been used over the years for economic development, urban renewal and other reasons. 

Now, for the first time ever, it may be used at the behest of a union, United Electrical Workers Local 204, to keep a factory running and workers on their jobs. 

That scene has unfolded in Taunton, Mass., where a profitable foreign-owned company, Esterline, wants to shut its Haskon Aerospace plant. There, 100 workers make specialized silicone rubber seals and gaskets for military and civilian airplanes. 

Esterline, which earned $120 million last year, wants to close the profitable plant, auction off its machines and move its operations to non-union factories in California and Mexico. The company's scheme mobilized the local, which represents the employees at the Haskon plant. Speaking of Esterline, "They'd rather scrap the equipment than allow us to stay in business," Local 204 President Scott Marques told one reporter. 

The conglomerate first offered the right of first refusal on buying the plant to the workers, but then - when they and the union accepted - it reneged on the deal.  That's because Local 204 pointed out that Massachusetts law requires any employer closing up shop to pay for three months' medical care for each worker. 

Esterline then said it would cut the agreed-upon severance package for each worker by $143,000. The union termed that "regressive bargaining" and filed labor law breaking charges with the National Labor Relations Board. 

The charges didn't stop Esterline from going ahead, so the workers enlisted Massachusetts Democratic Rep. Barney Frank and Democratic Sen. John Kerry. Their letters and campaign against the closure fell on deaf ears at Esterline headquarters. 

So now UE, an independent union whose Chicago local gained national attention for a sit-in at a "green windows" plant whose owner was forced to close when a big bank that got bailout money pulled the plug, is taking another drastic step. It's asking Taunton to use "eminent domain" powers to seize the plant and its equipment, before Esterline spirits all the jobs away.  Taunton's attorney is analyzing if the town can use eminent domain to seize the plant and the equipment, thus saving the machines and the jobs.  Taunton's council asked Esterline to delay its final plans until the attorney reports his findings. There's been no response from the firm.

Workers invoke eminent domain to keep plant open.

What do you think of this?

Should workers be thinking in terms of taking over the more than 3,700 closed mines, mills and factories in this country and producing what society needs?

What does Karl Marx have to say about the "ownership" question?

Phil Raymond, the primary organizer of auto workers in Michigan told a group of Oldsmobile workers in Lansing, Michigan in 1971: 

"In the 1930's we fought to build the unions in order for workers to get better pay and working conditions; your struggle will be to become the owners of these plants and the auto industry. Wyndham Mortimer signed the first union contract for the UAW with General Motors. Since 1948 the UAW and other unions have been moving backwards instead of forward."

A few years ago that Oldsmobile plant was leveled to the ground by General Motors leaving workers without a future.

Suggested reading: 

The Communist Party and the Auto Workers Unions 

Illinois University Press 

[Note: You can find this book used online very cheap or ask your library to obtain it through inter-library loan.] 

Communist Party USA leader Gus Hall called for using the power of eminent domain to save jobs.

Suggested reading:

Working Class USA by Gus Hall