LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Workers at the Ford Kentucky Truck Plant here, members of United Auto Workers Local 862, walked off the job Oct. 11, bringing the number of UAW workers on strike against the Big Three to over 34,000. They enthusiastically responded to the call by UAW International President Shawn Fain to go out. Drivers in a steady stream of cars passing by the lively picket lines honked and waved in support.
“Ford has not gotten the message,” Fain said. “It’s time for a fair contract at Ford and the rest of the Big Three. If they can’t understand that after four weeks, the 8,700 workers shutting down this extremely profitable plant will help them understand it.”
“This plant makes $48,000 a minute in pure profits for Ford,” UAW Local 862 President Todd Dunn told the Militant. “Bill Ford told the press this morning that we’re all part of the ‘Ford family,’ but we feel like the part of the family that gets wrapped up in plastic, thrown in the back of the truck and treated like dirt.
“Our priority is to protect jobs and workers’ livelihoods. With the move to electric vehicles we know the companies will need fewer workers. That’s one reason the shorter workweek is so important,” Dunn said. The union is demanding a 32-hour workweek for 40 hours pay.
UAW Local 862 members Amber Sieg and her husband Jamie Sieg are both on strike at the truck plant, with three kids at home. “When you’re only bringing home around $17 an hour, as many entry-level employees do, you have to prioritize how you spend your money,” Amber Sieg told the Louisville Courier Journal.
“We grind and grind, just to get by,” Jamie Sieg said. With prices for gas and groceries climbing, things like taking the family on a vacation to the beach or the mountains seem unattainable. “You can’t sustain a life even making what people consider decent pay,” Amber Sieg said.
“I’ve been helping out on the picket line and whatever else I can do to organize strike activities,” Tim Slonaker, a UAW skilled trades representative at Ford’s Louisville Assembly Plant, which is currently not on strike, told the Militant. Workers there are facing layoffs soon because of the shutdown of the truck plant. Both plants are organized by Local 862, which has 12,000 members.
“We are living in historic times,” Slonaker said. “We are finally getting a fighting chance for all working-class people.”
Rail workers join Pennsylvania auto parts strikers on picket line
LANGHORNE, Pa. — Striking GM workers at the parts distribution center here got a boost from eight rail workers, members of SMART-Transportation Division Local 1373, who joined their picket line Oct. 6.
The Philadelphia-area rail workers brought hot dogs, hamburgers, sandwiches and refreshments for the strikers and provided well-appreciated reinforcements for the picket line that afternoon.
The rail and auto workers spent several hours sharing experiences and getting to know each other. We described the fight rail workers mounted last year battling for a new contract that would address the miserable conditions workers face from the rail bosses. We explained how the Joseph Biden administration and Congress barred us from striking and imposed a contract on us that we had voted down.
“In our local we tend to support other struggles, we have been there ourselves,” Dan Zingaro, local chairman of SMART-TD Local 1373, told the media. “The issues that autoworkers are fighting is a fight we all are fighting, and the autoworkers will stand with us next time.”
“It would take me 400 years to make what the CEO of GM makes,” said Charmian Leslie-Hughes, acting president of striking UAW Local 2177. “I make $18 an hour picking parts and have to provide for my family, while others make $30 doing the same job.” She was describing the divisive two-tier wage system the auto bosses have imposed on them.
Jeremy Ferguson, national president of SMART-TD, has urged rail union members to do all they can to back the UAW strike. “Any reinforcement our union can provide them will go a long way toward their fight and the labor movement throughout this country,” he wrote on the union website.
“The support from other workers has been unbelievable,” Leslie-Hughes said. “This is what it’s going to take.”
— Ved Dookhun
Rail unionist helps win solidarity for UAW strikers at Toledo plant
I am a railroad conductor and union member of SMART-TD Local 1418, out of Conway, Pennsylvania. As a supporter and regular reader of your newspaper, I have been following your coverage on the UAW strike against the Big Three and the solidarity they’ve received. I have been talking about their fight with co-workers and in my union, and some of us have been organizing to go to their picket line at the Stellantis Jeep plant in Toledo, Ohio, near the hotel where we lay over.
I drove to Toledo Sept. 29 to meet up with an engineer who is my local chairperson. We took our SMART gear, a handmade sign, a jug of coffee and couple dozen donuts and went to show solidarity with the strikers. I also brought a couple copies of the Sept. 14 statement by the national president of our union, Jeremy Ferguson, urging union members to show our support to the UAW. We received a warm welcome.
We learned a lot about their fight and the conditions workers at the plant face. We also had the chance to explain to them some of the conditions railroad workers face on the job, and about some of the demands we pushed for in our last contract fight. It was a great experience and we plan on going back with a bigger delegation. I would encourage other readers of the Militant to go to the picket lines and support the UAW strikers.
Also, I was happy to recently learn about a SMART union leadership delegation, including President Ferguson, that went to walk those same picket lines this past week.
In solidarity,
Sergio Zambrana