Call to action!
UAW members rally from coast to coast
Members of the UAW were joined by other union and community supporters in rallies from coast to coast to urge Congress to approve the emergency bridge loan. Here are snapshots of four of them:
California
‘We need to manufacture’
From one end of California to the other, UAW members and allies from other unions and the community rallied on Dec. 6 to show their support for bridge loans from the government for the domestic auto industry.
“We can’t be a society of flipping burgers and selling things in stores,” said David Onstad, UAW Local 179 president as he joined more than 200 union members, their families and local elected officials outside of the Los Angeles office of Sen. Barbara Boxer. “We need to manufacture. To me it’s an issue of national interest and national security.”
Local 179 represents members in the defense electronics/aerospace industry.
Francisco Estrada, also a Local 179 member, said the collapse of the domestic auto industry would be devastating on families across the nation. “If the Big Three go down, we all go down.”
Many supporters came from unions affiliated with the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, including Teamsters, UFCW, OPEIU, and nurses and state employees. They joined UAW members from across southern California who marched and waved signs, as drivers in passing cars honked their horns.
At the same time in northern California, more than 100 union members and supporters rallied outside of the offices of Sen. Diane Feinstein in downtown San Francisco. Members of the Operating Engineers, Steamfitters and Plumbers unions joined with the UAW and OPEIU and UAW retirees calling on the senator to support a bridge loan.
“We need to let them [Congress] know that we really need the help,” said Linda Wheeler, a forklift driver at NUMMI with 24 years of seniority and a member of UAW Local 2244. “If they let the auto industry go, there will be a lot of people out of work.”
NUMMI – New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. – is a joint venture between General Motors and Toyota. Local 2244 members produce cars for both companies at the plant in Fremont.
Donna Silva, a cafeteria worker in the NUMMI cafeteria and member of UAW Local 76, reinforced the connection between auto assembly jobs to supplier and support jobs. “If they’re out of jobs, we’re out of jobs,” she said.
Jim Wells, director of UAW Region 5, expanded on that. “We’re not just rallying for autoworkers, but for all working families and communities across the country. A collapse of the domestic auto industry would impact workers well beyond the automotive sector. Educators, health care workers, public employees, retailers, small businesses, tax revenues for vital social services and others would all be threatened.”
Tennessee
‘Help us on Main Street’
More than 300 members of the UAW and other unions and community groups rallied Dec. 8 at the offices of Sens. Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker in Nashville.
Two busloads from UAW Local 1853 in Spring Hill joined UAW Region 8 Director Gary Casteel, who noted that, “Sens. Corker and Alexander voted for the Wall Street bailout but seem reluctant to help us on Main Street.
“Other senators with auto industry jobs have spoken out in support of the bridge loan, recognizing the consequences for their states if the auto manufacturing industry does not get help.”
The Economic Policy Institute estimates that Tennessee could lose 29,400 jobs if GM were to go out of business, and 106,400 with a total industry shutdown.
New York
It’s ‘giving the middle class a bridge loan’
It was cold and windy on New York City’s West Side, but Brian Schneck found warmth among the 350 supporters who rallied there Dec. 8 calling on Congress to help the troubled domestic auto industry.
“The workers really came out to put a face on what is happening in the industry,” said Schneck, president of UAW Local 259 in New York, which represents about 1,700 car technicians and salespeople and about 3,000 retirees.
Local 259, which also represents parts and utility workers in the greater New York dealerships, joined other unionists, community leaders, politicians and grassroots supporters who rallied at West 55th Street and 11th Avenue in front of dealerships. “There are a lot of dealerships out here, and these businesses represent a lot of jobs,” said Schneck. “That’s what this about, the people behind the jobs.”
Schneck joined the UAW in 1993, when he and co-workers voted for a union at ABC Motors, a Chrysler dealership. A passionate unionist, Schneck has appeared in recent months on radio, television and Internet-based shows talking about how the auto crisis affects the New York region.
In metropolitan New York, about 60,000 workers have auto-related jobs. “If the industry collapses, New Yorkers will see 144,000 jobs throughout the state lost,” said UAW Region 9A Director Bob Madore. “If you think the economy is tough now, imagine what will happen if Congress doesn’t step in and we see 3 million jobs vanish in this country. Add to that the possible loss of pensions and health care for millions of retirees and it would be devastating,” Madore said.
The toughest challenge, Schneck said, is getting people to look beyond windshields and hoods. “It’s hard watching all the hard-fought gains the UAW and all of labor have achieved, being targeted by anti-union media and elected officials as if no working person deserves to be in the middle class.”
“Congress is not just giving a bridge loan to these companies; it’s giving the middle class a bridge loan. We’re already in a recession, and if the car companies go under, we could lose some 3 million jobs in this country and that would put us in a depression,” said Schneck.
“It’s rough out here, but it helps if people understand we are real people who get up every day and go to work just like them.
“When we get paid, our wages are spent at places like the grocery store, the cleaners and the hardware store. When we lose our jobs, it stops the flow.
“I just hope my friends and neighbors don’t have to experience for themselves what happens when money stops flowing in the community.”
Missouri
‘This is about real folk’
The nation’s working families and UAW members are taking a stand to end the bloodletting in middle-class America.
Among them are members of UAW Locals 31, 249 and 710 and supporters, who made their way to Republican Rep. Sam Graves’ office in Liberty to rally Graves’ vote for the emergency bridge loan to save the auto industry.
“This isn’t about the three executives at that table in Washington,” said Local 710 President Randy Bland. “This is about real folk – the parts suppliers, coffeehouses, dry cleaners, grocery stores and barber shops that support Sam Graves’ salary.
“This is about everyday working people. This is about us,” said Bland, whose amalgamated local represents workers at more than 24 facilities, many auto related.
The three locals combined represent nearly 8,000 members at Ford (Local 249), General Motors (Local 31), and parts suppliers and other facilities tied to the auto industry (Local 710).
More than 55,000 auto-related jobs in Missouri are at risk, at a cost of nearly $2 billion in wages.
For Jeff Wright, president of UAW Local 249 at Ford’s Kansas City Assembly, working with his brother and sister locals is business as usual.
“This solidarity isn’t just for show. It’s for the benefit of our livelihood, and right now, we’re in the fight of our lives,” said Wright. “There are at least 98,000 other jobs that are also going to be hit. Not counting the dance teacher or the music teacher or the gas station attendant or the local store. It’s not just a UAW thing. It’s to everyone’s benefit to get a good outcome on this manufacturing crisis.”
Jim Wells, director of UAW Region 5, which represents the Kansas City area, echoed that. “What we negotiate at the table, the rest of America benefits from at the water cooler. The loss of the automotive industry is not just a devastation to our members. This is bigger than the UAW and requires a national solution.
“There will be plenty of wreckage that follows if the U.S. auto industry fails. The same people against helping the industry are the same people who don’t understand its importance, its reach, its influence and its impact.”
