Detroit resident and Local 602 member Jesse Dansby pickets in front of General Motors Corp.‘s Lansing Delta Township plant. The strike began at 11 a.m. when GM failed to reach a contract agreement with the United Auto Workers.
Lansing — LeAnne Franke thumbed a text message to her son, premedical freshman Thomas Franke, that said she was walking away from her job Monday at General Motors Corp.‘s Lansing Delta Township plant.
“I told him we were walking and he texted back, ‘Well you tell GM that if they don’t settle with you guys, I’m going out and buying a foreign car,’” she said.
Franke’s exchange with her son was one of the few times the line worker had a chance to laugh on a day GM and United Auto Workers failed to sign an agreement by a union-set 11 a.m. deadline.
“Obviously he was joking — no foreign cars are going to be parked in my driveway,” she said. The UAW represents about 73,000 GM workers nationwide who went on strike Monday, including more than 6,000 workers at the Lansing Delta Township and Lansing Grand River assembly plants.
UAW Local 602 represents GM workers at the Lansing Delta Township plant. UAW Local 602 President Douglas Rademacher said the union is stepping up for job security and healthcare, among other issues.
“We’re representing people who have worked for this company for 30 years with an understanding that, after they give their life to their company, they’ll be able to live in dignity,” he said.
GM and the UAW negotiate a contract every four years. GM came to the table this year saying they’re facing hardships, while building facilities overseas, Rademacher said.
“If they think that we’re going to sit back and allow them to expand globally while our rights and our livelihood is sacrificed, that’s just not acceptable,” he said.
Lyle Birchman, chairperson of the UAW Local 602 legislative committee, said while GM has expanded globally, the company has and should continue to make Lansing a priority.
“Lansing is the only town in the world where a major automobile manufacturer has built two new plants in the last six years,” he said. “The business case is strong here.”
Mike Wilmers, an electrician at GM for 23 years, worried about the financial pinch workers would feel if the strike went on for more than a few days.
“We’ll have a couple days where everybody’s OK, and then anxiety sets in and you wonder how the hell you’re going to pay your bills,” Wilmers said.
John Beck, associate director of MSU’s School of Labor and Industrial Relations, said thousands of families, like the Frankes, have students at MSU whose parents work for GM across the state.
“This is not abstract to them,” he said. “These are their moms and dads on strike. It’s the folks who pay their tuition payments.”
Franke said while the strike may make it difficult to pay the bills, what the union is fighting for holds more importance.
“It’s very stressful because we don’t get a paycheck when we’re on strike, but the benefits of what we’re fighting for and fighting to keep far outweighs the stress of that,” she said.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
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