BMWED Standing Strong with Striking UAW Workers Published: Oct 3 2019 2:52PM
BMWED Brothers are Sisters nationwide are standing with United Auto Workers members on strike at General Motors. Their fight against GM’s greed is our fight too. It is every working persons’ battle, because without the gumption and courage shown by strikers, corporations would bleed labor dry.
Sadly, this is not a new struggle. The UAW has struck GM before. In 1937, newly-formed union workers walked out of GM factories in Flint, Michigan over brutally unfair workplace practices and low wages. But the company wasn’t sitting idly by. GM appealed to the police, who responded with predictable force. They arrived at Fisher Plant No. 2 on January 11 with guns and tear gas. They hurled the tear gas into the barricaded plant, and fired bullets at every moving shape they laid eyes on.
But the occupying strikers were both militant and clever: they had covered the windows with metal sheets and punched holes in them, through which they poked the nozzles of fire hoses. They stood off against the police for six hours, and while fourteen strikers were injured, the police eventually withdrew. And eventually, the Union workers prevailed.
Since then, there have been other strikes between the UAW and the Big Three automakers. It always boils down to the same, tired, despicable root. Companies attempting to squeeze every last cent of profit out of the laborers’ work.
As the strike progresses into its third week, remember that GM CEO Mary Barra makes $22 million annually. Remember that the UAW wants GM to hire its employees and not just bring them on – permanently – as temps. They want affordable health insurance to stay affordable. They want a piece to the record-setting corporate tax decreases to trickle down to the assembly line workers. They want fairness.
