Uncertainty, apprehension and stress were the words people picketing General Motors workers at the car company’s sprawling Detroit-Hamtramck assembly plant used to describe day one of their strike.
If the strike by United Auto Workers (UAW) members drags on, they could soon end up earning just $250 per week, and there’s fear about what that could mean for their families. But picketers who spoke with the Guardian said they were also certain about their mission, and accept the need to “sacrifice” while standing up to what line worker James Cotton called “flat-out greed” on management’s part.
The UAW called a strike on Sunday for the first time in over a decade as negotiations reached an impasse. Talks began again on Monday. Cotton and other workers insist they are not just there for the 49,000 union employees at GM’s US plants and distribution centers, but for workers across America who aren’t sharing in high corporate profits, as well as their families and their communities. Keneisha Williams, who has been with the automaker for four years, echoed that: “We’re fighting for all American workers.”
