Pride, anger mix as Chrysler workers watch plants shut down

[Omaha Steve]

http://transitional.pww.org/article/view/16530/

Author: Tony Pecinovsky
People's Weekly World Newspaper, 07/25/09 19:06

FENTON, Mo. — As the crowd swells and hundreds of UAW members line the entrance to the Chrysler North and South Assembly plants here today, I can’t help but think of my grandfather. He gave over 30 years to Chrysler.

On average, the union brothers and sisters here have given 15 to 20 years of their life to a company that has turned its back on the community.

Evidence of the betrayal is apparent in the stilled, lifeless plants, in the lost wages and benefits, in deferred college applications and missed mortgage payments. In addition, the school district has lost its biggest source of tax revenue. And the United Auto Workers union hall, once a center for community activism, will eventually have to close its doors.

As the rally builds, cars and trucks fill the lot. Chants fill the air as a thousand-plus union members, their families and friends walk around with their heads held high. It's almost ironic. The background is filled with steel and metal, towering but silent, while the foreground is alive and vibrant, hopeful. Full of pride.

It really says a lot about working class folks. How they still manage to smile and connect with friends and former coworkers in spite of the situation. But then again, workers have always been able to make the best out of a bad situation.

My grandmother receives UAW-negotiated survivor’s benefits now that my grandfather is gone. Like her, thousands of other Chrysler retirees are loosing their dental and vision coverage due to the bankruptcy. I wonder how many of the thousand-plus workers here and their families won't have health care soon.

Adding injury to insult, over $12 billion in taxpayer dollars was given to Chrysler. They called it a bailout. The workers here call it a scam. Eight plants in the U.S. are being closed, while Chrysler plants in Mexico and Canada increase production.

FULL story at link.

[tomreedtoon]

1. More anger. Less pride. Add a jigger of courage.

And you might have a cocktail that might get the UAW off its ass and make it attack the rich and powerful companies that are screwing their employees.

[zbdent]

2. I remember the days when the "conservative" (read: Patriotic) thing to do was to

buy American made cars, and "only weenie America-hating liberals buy foreign" (read: better gas mileage) cars ...

(but with Japanese made radios in the "American made" cars, right?)

but now, the "conservative/Patriotic" thing to do is to buy "Foreign" cars which use taxpayer $$$ to protect the factories they built in areas where they were able to keep unions from intruding, so they can say "I bought an American car - A HONDA!"