Dear UAW Sisters and Brothers,
I donʼt want to assume that all of you know me, although some of you might recall me from my service in the GM Department on the Umpire Staff during 2000-2006. I've since retired. My name is Frank Hammer and I originally hail from UAW Local 909 in Warren , Michigan where I served as President and Chairman during the years 1982-1993. I am sending you this letter because we, as autoworkers, are confronted with the most critical challenge that we can ever expect to face: the possible collapse of our industry and GM. While the big heads ponder whether they should let GM go into bankruptcy, the faces of the autoworkers who will be most impacted by their decisions have barely been seen.
Make no mistake about it, the aim of sending GM into bankruptcy is to demolish once and for all the 70 years of contractual agreements through which we've achieved the standards weʼve enjoyed, at least until recently,. Their aim is to demolish our union, as if itʼs us who are the villains whoʼve brought down the auto giants. As we all know, it is the greed of Wall Street which has created the fix we are in, and they are getting ready to make us the fall guy.
Itʼs important to give our support to the UAW leadership by making phone calls and sending emails to our representatives in Congress. But if you are as concerned as I am, you will agree that we need to do more, not alone in our homes, but united in solidarity. We need to stand together, and the time to act is no more pressing than right now.
There is a group of us in Detroit , mostly retired union members/officers and activists, who are organizing a car caravan of autoworkers to take our message to the Congress, leaving Detroit on Sunday and arriving in DC on Monday. We will have a send-off rally from 2 to 4 PM (please see the attached leaflet and related materials). Local and National media have learned of our event and caravan, and we have been told that they intend to cover it.
I cannot impress upon you the importance of having a sizeable presence of autoworkers who are concerned about their future, if not on the caravan, at least at the local Detroit rally. This is our time to express ourselves, and the more of us there are, the better.
The corporate media and right-wing pundits have smeared the good name of union autoworkers and have made it sound like we have committed a crime wanting to achieve a middle class existence. One thing is very clear: if the government pushes the Detroit 3 over a cliff, we can forget any working class American getting anywhere near being middle class. On the contrary, Wall Street wonʼt be happy until we are all made part of the working poor.
I ask you to please join us, on our own behalf and on behalf of all of America ʼs workers. Thank you.
Fraternally yours,
Frank Hammer
UAW-GM International Representative, retired
Detroit
