Exel was convinced its employees would refuse to stop work. Ford management was also convinced that the 300 other workers in the plant--also members of UAW Local 882--would ignore the picket line set up by workers at Exel. The hopes of both companies were dashed when Ford workers reporting for the 10:30 am shift March 25 did not begin work, and more Exel workers joined the picket line. The Ford bosses closed the plant early in the afternoon. The factory remained shut the next day, as Ford workers honored the Exel picket lines.

With the cost of lost business mounting every hour, the walkout continued. Then Ford and Exel blinked: the day after the strike began, Exel caved in to the union’s demands. Laid off workers will now receive some 10 days severance pay per year of service, not the one and a half the company originally offered. They will also be placed on a preferential hiring list at other Exel facilities. It is reported that a majority of Exel workers have now signed union cards at the new Florida facility.

The sentiment among workers who went through this struggle is that they would never have been able to accomplish so much without the union. The strike was the first ever by the newly organized Exel workers, and the first at the Atlanta parts distribution center in well over a decade.

Bob Braxton works at the Ford PDC warehouse in Atlanta and is a member of UAW Local 882. Jimmy Hill is a UAW Local 882 union steward at Exel.  
 
 
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