Auto Worker Caravan

More than 200 picketed at the Ren Cen on June 16, while AAM CEO Dick Dauch and ex-gov John Engler were giving their talks at the National Business Summit. The picket included auto workers from a number of different plants in Michigan and Ohio, and many labor and social justice activists in the Detroit area. There was a lot of energy among the participants and quite a few media interviewed various people.

Click here for photos

Following the picket we marched to Grand Circus Park, also in downtown Detroit, which functioned as the HQ for the People's Summit, and where there had been tents and tables set up.

We held a rally at Grand Circus Park and a number of autoworkers and retirees spoke including Frank Hammer, Gregg Shotwell, Tony Browning, Ignacio Meneses, Martha Grevatt and myself. Jesse Jackson also spoke.

AUTO RETIREE ROUNDTABLE

The Real News filmed the picket and rally and asked if we could, at the end of the rally, pull together a meeting of retirees. I believe something like 9 of us got together for a conversation of more than an hour. We talked about our lives and what the economic crisis in auto means for us.

Click here to watch all five videos of the conversation.
--Dianne Feeley, American Axle retiree

Join auto workers Tuesday, June 16 at a demonstration to save jobs in front of GM Headquarters/Renaissance Center from 12:00 noon to 2:00 pm.
American Axle CEO Dick Dauch and former Governor of Michigan, John Engler will be addressing the National Business Summit at the same time.

A picket in front of the Renaissance Center will be followed by a Hart Plaza.
The picket and rally is being organized as part of the People's Summit, a 4-day tent city at Grand Circus Park organized by Detroiters in protest of the National Business Summit, a meeting of CEOs and heads of corporations from across the country being held in Detroit. Workshops at the tent city will be held after the rally.

Download a leaflet by clicking here.

Why we're going to rally and attend the People's Summit

I look forward to seeing old friends and meeting new friends at The People's Summit. We'll share food, laughs, and ideas about how we can fight to win."

--Gregg Shotwell, author of Live, Bait & Ammo, Delphi retiree

We were told April 29, before the concessions vote, that there were no additional plant closings. On April 30 Chrysler and the Auto Task Force told our elected officials that our plant was not closing. One day later in bankruptcy court Chrysler announced that ours was one of eight plants that would be discarded as "bad assets." We were double-crossed! I'm joining the Autoworker Caravan at the Peoples Summit to say "No human being is a bad asset.

--Martha Grevatt, Executive Board Member, UAW Local 122

I'm going to be downtown Tuesday afternoon June 16, at 12:00 pm, because we need a new trade policy, a new industrial policy, a new health care policy for the 21st Century. It was Labor who pulled us out of the Great Depression, it was Labor who built our infrastructure and it's Labor who is going to pull us out of the latest Economic Crisis--so why are we treated like the enemy?

--Jim Theisen, Chrysler worker

On April 26, the UAW announced a tentative agreement with Chrysler that, as members were told details, revealed all the cuts contained in the Ford UAW agreement (such as loss of bonuses, loss of cost of living wage increases, and loss of break time) plus new language that allows the company to hire more temporary workers and to cap the wages of entry-level workers at, well, entry-level.

Download the highlights of the tentative agreement here.

Download the following leaflet by clicking here.

Doesn't One Concession Just Lead to Another?

When the UAW and Ford reached a tentative agreement in late February, rank-and-file auto workers poured over the new language, finding changes to break time, paid holidays, wage cuts, and skilled trades jobs that seemed more about weakening the union than fixing the limping industry. Read below for a draft statement from auto workers encouraging General Motors and Chrysler workers to vote no on their impending agreements. A link to the tentative agreement is available by clicking here.
Read the full draft of the leaflet at www.autoworkercaravan.org/whyvoteconcessions.

After kicking off a petition campaign at the Jan 11 rally in front of the North American International Auto Show, auto workers from across the Midwest talked to their coworkers about the strings attached to the auto industry bailout money. Hundreds of petition signatures poured in.

On February 5, auto workers handed off the first round of more than 400 signatures to staff of Michigan Representative John Conyers in Detroit. A second set was mailed to President Obama.

Since then, hundreds more petitions have been collected by auto workers desperate to make a point - we need policies that will shape the way our industries work for the years to come, not more cuts to worker wages, benefits, and working conditions.

Click here to read the letter auto workers sent to President Obama along with the petitions.

Auto workers have called for a rally on January 11 at 1 pm outside of Cobo Hall on press day of the North American International Auto Show. With news of the Bush administration's $17.4 billion loan to the auto industry being tied to game-changing concessions that could erode wages across the board, auto workers will rally for long-term solutions for the auto industry's problems that don't unfairly blame workers for failed corporate policies.
Download a flyer here. Click to read more.

Retired and active auto workers wrote an open letter to their counterparts in non-union auto plants across the country to express solidarity and a hope that auto workers across the industry could work together to stop corporate and government attacks on workers' benefits, wages and working conditions. Read the letter by clicking here.