Retiree: All workers benefit from UAW
Olivia Fowlkes recalled a speech she heard at a UAW meeting long ago, words that still ring true: “Labor is the only thing holding this country together. If labor goes away, then it will be just the rich and the poor, no middle class.”
So the Chrysler retiree didn’t sit quietly during the congressional debates while union opponents questioned whether UAW members have sacrificed enough.
“Yes, they have,” she said, and what’s more, critics just don’t understand how all workers have benefited from the hard work of UAW members.
“While we were fighting for labor, we also fought for people in the community, like for a higher minimum wage for all,” said the 76-year-old grandmother from Detroit.
Fowlkes worked at Chrysler Truck in Warren from 1973 to 1998. In 1975 she became the first woman elected chief steward at UAW Local 140. She is currently Local 140’s retiree chair.
“We worked hard for that money we earned on the line,” she said. “The majority of people in the plant go in to work to do a good job, to get good pay so they can help their families. And they spend that money in their communities.”
She says those who worked hard for years contributed to their communities and now deserve the pensions and health care benefits they receive. They’re not luxuries, they’re the right thing to do when it comes to taking care of workers who have paid their dues.
Fowlkes also said the way Congress treated U.S. automakers and the UAW in the Capitol Hill hearings, compared with how they treated Wall Street when they asked for a bailout, was hypocritical.
“There are some people trying to wipe out the unions,” she said. “That’s why union opponents in Congress fought the loans. But that’s wrong – and I say that not only because I’m getting a pension check.
“Don’t down the union. We’ve been fighting for wage increases for all workers, fighting to help our kids. Congress didn’t do this to the banking industry. And their billions are gone.”
Joan Silvi
