Support the UAW Strike Against GM

I admittedly haven't studied all the issues between the UAW and General Motors and the recent strike vote. What this article is really about is not so much the specifics of this strike, although I support my UAW brothers and sisters. No, what this is really about is what it is like to walk a picket line and all it entails.

In March of 2002, the company I work for, Trane/Fort Smith, tendered our union, UAW Local 716, a contract offer that simply was not acceptable to most of the membership. It included several "poison pills", the worst of which was a provision in which the company could increase our health care contribution any time their costs increased with very little notice. What they basically wanted was for the union to give them a blank check at a time when the company had just made record profits the previous year.

The CEO of American Standard, Trane's parent company, had just pulled down several million dollars in salary and bonuses while most of us got a silver coin with the image of a trophy on one side and the Trane emblem on the other with the inscription "People Make It Happen". But the people who made much of the record year happen were given an offer that was downright insulting.

Fittingly, the offer was voted down overwhelmingly on a Saturday. The next day picketing started, with workers being assigned alphabetically by last name to picket one day a week. The "G"'s, which my last name begins with, were assigned to picket during regular working hours on Tuesdays, along with "F" and "H".

Entering uncharted waters, having never walked a picket line before, I had no idea what to expect. The first day, we arrived at the union hall, a couple of miles from the plant, before daylight, with donuts and a few snacks available to us. The we carpooled to the plant in the dark. Being March, in our part of the country, the weather can be very unpredictable, even moreso than usual.