By David Fleet
Editor
Swart Creek— It’s a sunny, warm early October morning and about a dozen United Auto Workers have set up a picket-line at the entrance of the General Motors Parts Processing Center, 3406 S. Dye Road, Swartz Creek.
Among those workers is a 1977 Brandon High School graduate and former Brandon-Goodrich resident who was walking the early morning picket-line. He has worked for General Motors and has been a UAW member for more than four decades. Now, he is part of the Sept. 29 walkout of the UAW as the escalation of its Stand Up Strike against General Motors and Stellantis at 38 locations across 20 states continues.
“I started in 1979,” said the UAW member who asked to remain anonymous. “I’m a gypsy, this is my seventh GM facility I’ve worked at over those years. At one point I was laid-off for more than five years, before they called me back.
A small wood fire burns inside a 55 gallon barrel just under a small pop up canopy tent. The strikers discuss a variety of topics including families, Detroit Lions football and the weather while a myriad of passing divers express support with blaring horns. Trucks pass in and out of the massive 3.1 million square feet GM Flint Processing Center while strikers picket.
“I’ve been here at the SPO (Swartz Creek) since 1989 and since that time I can count on one-hand how many 40 hour work weeks we’ve had,” he said. “We live here at work, it’s been 50 hours a week minimum, including Saturday and Sunday for a long, long time.”
“I’m not really happy about the strike,” he said. “I’d rather be working than out here, I don’t have many years to go and I’ll retire. So, I’m out here for the younger people that are coming into the company. They need an income, a place to work, they have to survive too. My time (here) is up here.”
The strike was launched at midnight Sept. 15, it was the first time the UAW has been on strike against all three companies at once. Some of the issues include, benefits such as hourly pay, retirement benefits, work-life balance and technology.
The electric vehicle production is not doing us any justice, said the former Brandon resident.
“We have an electric company right now charging more during peak time,” he said.
Currently, Consumers Energy charges 1 ½ times higher from 2-7 p.m.
“Right now we are just not set up for electric vehicles,” he said. “It’s going to be a thorn in our side. The EVs have not impacted our jobs yet, but it’s going to. They are fighting for job security. It’s going to be a situation and I don’t have any answers.”
“The bottom line is I’m out here for the future of the younger people,” he said. “That’s what they deserve, it’s not fair what the ‘Big-Wheels,’are making. This is a corporation, we should all work together on this. They want to say the success is due to the performance of the plants. Who are the performers? Us. It’s on our backs.”