from the readers
An open letter to President Obama
Dear President Obama,
Let me begin by saying I was an ardent supporter in the primary and general election. As a labor communicator I wrote numerous articles for print and Web publications encouraging the middle class to consider voting for you.
I was very proud when you took the oath of office, as I was looking forward to “change” in Washington.
However, Mr. President, as a UAW General Motors retiree I’m very disappointed in the way your administration has treated the auto industry compared with the banking industry.
On bonuses for AIG executives who helped create the mess we are in, your administration stated they had “a contract and legally it couldn't be broken.” I guess contracts for middle-class workers are less important.
All the “kind words” about how the workers were not at fault do nothing to lessen the fear of losing my pension. I played by the rules and worked hard. I was hired in at a GM plant that became part of Delphi. My co-workers and I did what we could to make the company work. When Delphi filed bankruptcy, we worried about our future and our pension until the deal was worked out for GM to take us back.
After being forced into retirement, I was fortunate to get a job as an elementary schoolteacher. My son works for a third-tier automotive supplier and doesn't make enough to support his family of four, so I help them out. A disruption to my pension would place me in a position of choosing between covering my bills and helping my son's family.
The public continually comments about UAW members being overpaid when many are like my son and earn far less than what is considered a living wage. Instead of speaking up to set the record straight on the plight of auto-workers, you seem to be joining the talking heads and getting in line to kick us.
I must confess, Mr. President, my “hope” has been replaced by despair. I really thought you would be more sensitive to the plight of middle-class Americans than this. After reading both your books, I swelled with pride to know that I had supported you, and now I am left wondering what happened to your ideas and promises.
I still support you, Mr. President, but my support is no longer automatic. When you take a double-standard approach to Main Street and Wall Street, it makes it hard to see where the change is.
Before you make the decision to push GM into bankruptcy, I want you to realize it isn't executives with million-dollar bank accounts who will feel the impact, but working-class Americans who get by pension check to pension check and see their livelihood hanging in the balance.
John T. Davis
UAW Local 2195 retiree
Ardmore, Tenn.
(Editor’s note: Brother Davis sent this letter to the president in March and encourages all UAW members to contact the White House at (202) 456-1414; www.whitehouse.gov/contact, or 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20500.)
Double standard
I don't know General Motors’ CEO Rick Wagoner, and the same applies to our 44th president, Barack Obama.
But I do know one thing: No other CEO has been made to resign in order to get government money for their company and workers.
It's hard for me to believe that Wagoner is the only CEO who deserves a pink slip.
Don Corn
UAW Local 737 retiree
Nashville, Tenn.
Don’t sell out America
Corporations don’t rule the world. It’s the financial markets that play the tune to which corporations march.
Corporate welfare and short-term greed by banking, insurance, communication, pharmaceutical, energy and arms manufacturing are a result of lobbyists successfully influencing most of our elected officials.
Unaccountability of U.S. funds is depleting our nation’s treasury.
How long will it take to stop right-wingers with their war on the middle class using stagnant wages, massive job losses, eroding health benefits and disappearing pensions, thus leading us into a feudalistic society?
While the anti-union fanatics continue to dissolve workers’ rights, they manage to set themselves up with unwarranted, lavish pensions, including stock options and huge severance packages.
The “me” rather than “we” attitude only keeps us divided.
Standing together as one, we should somehow demonstrate peacefully to stop these elitists from selling out. Changes must be made for future generations.
John Sanchez
UAW Local 600 retiree
Traverse City, Mich.
UAW stands for all workers
Washington’s neglect toward autoworkers could be the wake-up call for union labor because this isn't about money to save companies. It’s about busting the unions.
Even if the union members worked for free, that wouldn't save the corporations.
Detroit's problems aren't on the factory floor but up in the exec-utive suites where they get $10,000 an hour and the CEOs have proved to be incompetent.
Yes, auto-workers make a good living, but isn't that what we want for the families of our country?
Yes, we are union members and wear our UAW shirts and jackets, but what the UAW also stands for is United American Workers. We stand for all workers.
I listen to this senator from Tennessee, Bob Corker, who says how he’s a union member. Well, I know of no union member who would like to see workers work for nothing. It's union workers who built up the middle class and moved this country forward.
William R. “Red” Davis
UAW Local 140 retiree
Dearborn Heights, Mich.
Fight, educate, organize
Unions entered the 1930s with declining membership and large areas of unorganized workers. When faced with catastrophic times, our union leaders chose to stand and fight.
They organized and educated workers about unions, and it worked with the highest numbers of unionized U.S. workers in the years that followed.
Now we must make that same decision: Do we tuck and run or stand and fight, educate and organize? We must look to our past. We must stand with other unions in a way never before seen in this country, and bring all workers into the ranks standing in unity.
Kevin D. Barnett
UAW Local 3520
Troutman, N.C.
March of Dimes story inspiring
That was a great March of Dimes story in Solidarity (March-April 2009). I commend all involved in the process for the success and quality of life that Brother Walk now enjoys. I can appreciate this as I donated a kidney to my uncle (James “Buck” E. Sibole) on July 24, 2001, his birthday. Uncle Buck and I were UAW Local 1590 workers at GM’s Martinsburg (W.Va.) facility. My uncle later retired, and I did the same in 2006. He continues to have a great quality of life, hunting, fishing and working in his shop at home.
Charles L. Hopkins Sr.
UAW Local 1590 retiree
Martinsburg, W.Va.
Clarification on ‘Oriental’
In the March-April issue a photo caption about the Black Lake Family Scholarship Program used the term “Oriental.” I’ve been told that people who live in Asia consider that term demeaning. Perhaps Solidarity would best research that word before using it again.
Jim Bunkofske
UAW Local 1340 retiree
Cedar Falls, Iowa
(Editor’s note: According to the AP Stylebook, which we use as our guide in Solidarity, Asian is preferred when referring to the people of Far East nations and islands or someone of this ethnicity. Orient and/or Oriental are acceptable when referring to the actual nations and islands (The Orient). It’s also correct to use these terms when referring to an Oriental rug, Oriental cuisine and, in the example you cited, Oriental architecture.)
