Secure Community Ties
The late UAW President Stephen P. Yokich was honored by the American Arab Chamber of Commerce at its 10th annual Building Economic Bridges banquet on Oct. 25 in Livonia, Mich. Yokich was of Lebanese descent and maintained strong ties between the UAW and the local American Arab community. He died Aug. 16.
UAW President Ron Gettelfinger, keynote speaker at the event, said the UAW will continue to “build those bridges for social and economic justice for all Americans.”
Gettelfinger noted that families in the local American Arab community — one of North America’s largest — benefited from union wages. He deplored attempts by the Bush administration to use the campaign against terrorism as a pretext to undermine freedom, including the right to organize.
“Homeland security is about economic security for working families,” he said. “It’s about building a society that includes all of us, not just some of us.”
