BY JOHN SARGE
WARREN, Michigan - In this industrial city just north of Detroit, 2,800 members of United Auto Workers Local 909 walked out of the General Motors Powertrain plant at 12:01 a.m., July 23. This is the sixth strike at GM so far this year. Just days before, auto workers at an assembly plant in nearby Pontiac ended their 87-day work stoppage after approving a new contract.

As in the other strikes against the world's largest auto maker, the issue is "manpower," said Jackie Kelly, the union local's recording secretary. "I have 22 years seniority, 200 hours of vacation that I can't take because there are no workers to replace me." She explained that the plant, which builds transmissions and wheels, hasn't hired any workers since 1985, except for people transferring in after being forced out of other GM facilities.

"They have even tried to make people come back into work with casts on their arms and legs to fill the jobs," Kelly said.

Cheryl Bell, a sanitation worker with 21 years in the plant, noted that three years ago there were 28 people in her department, but "now there are only 15."

One of the main points in the Pontiac settlement is the company's agreement to take on almost 600 new workers at General Motors Truck Operations.

Workers at the complex had urged the hiring of additional people to cut back on the grueling forced overtime and the refusal of earned vacation time. It is not clear whether these will be new hires or transfers of workers from plants that have closed down or been sold off.

GM has also agreed to restore part or all of the $850 holiday pay each worker lost during the strike and pay more than $11.5 million in back pay awards to settle individual grievances.

GM and the UAW also reached a settlement at a parts plant in Anderson, Indiana, hours before a July 23 strike deadline there. The details of the contract weren't immediately available.

Here in Warren, Dan Beski, a millwright with 20 years at GM, and about a dozen others picketed one of the gates along Mound Road. All the gates have similar sized groups of strikers waving at cars and trucks that sound their horns as they pass. Beski said the company is "trying to combine the trades. They want welders, millwrights, and sheetmetal workers all in trade. They only want two trades, mechanical and electrical."

He added that another issue is the large number of outside contractors in the plant. GM "thinks as long as they schedule us 10 hours a day they can have outside contractors doing our work. But we should be doing it."

When asked how long they expected to be on strike considering the length of the Pontiac strike, a group of auto workers seemed to agree with hoist operator Gordon Graham when he said, "I don't feel the strike will go on very long. Without our transmissions GM won't be building vehicles."

Some 2,700 workers at GM's Flint assembly plant were told not to report to work for July 24.

Other unionists have already been stopping by to join the picket lines here in Warren. Strikers report that the president of UAW Local 22 had visited. Marc Naumoff, a member of Teamsters Local 372 who had struck the Detroit Newspaper Agency over two years ago, was on the picket line. He explained, "I'm repaying my debt. Other unionists from all over have supported us so I'm here supporting them."

John Sarge is a member of UAW Local 900. Holly Harkness and Toni Gorton, members of UAW Local 235, contributed to this article.  
 
 
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