All in a Day's Work
Zookeepers, ice cream makers and cemetery crews ... and they’re all card-carrying UAW members.
For nearly 70 years, the UAW has been organizing all kinds of workers.
And even though 64 percent of our membership still works in auto assembly or parts and supplier facilities, we are proudly a union of all workers.
In truth, there are UAW-represented workers who at first glance might seem an odd fit for an industrial union.
For instance, take UAW workers at Perry’s Ice Cream in Athens, N.Y., or at Cape Shoe Co. in Cape Girardeau, Mo., or at Potter Park Zoo in Lansing, Mich.
“To know that we have so many thousands of UAW members there with us in solidarity is incredible,” said Lt. Beth Pilat, chair of the 35-member unit of UAW Local 12 at the Lucas County (Ohio) Sheriff’s Office.
From musical instrument makers to academic student employees to brewery workers to shopping cart makers to T-shirt silk-screeners, here’s a look at some nontraditional things UAW members do that, well, may surprise you.
