Open Arms and Doors
As president of the 4,000-member amalgamated UAW Local 163, Larry Long already had a pretty busy job.
But when the testing technicians at one of the plants where his Local 163 members work, Detroit Diesel, showed interest in organizing, Long took on the job of union organizer.
He opened up the local hall for organizing meetings, fielded friendly and hostile questions during an open forum, and distributed his personal response to an anti-union letter sent out by the company.
After voting to join the UAW, the 98 lab techs were assigned to another local union. But even knowing his local wouldn’t grow by his efforts, Long said he would gladly do it again.
“Sure, I would have liked them to be Local 163 members. But that’s all right. The important thing is to help workers get organized,” he said.
Nick Candela, a leader of the organizing drive, considered Long’s help indispensable.
“We tried to organize before but didn’t get support from Local 163. It meant a lot when Larry and Ron Heard (Local 163 vice president) passed out that letter. That’s when people knew we had support,” Candela said.
