• In this Issue >
  • Features
    • From the President
    • 258 years of trade unionism
    • Beware of the man behind the screen
    • Artists at Work
    • Capturing the essence of her subject
    • Giving new personality to old metal scraps
    • Honorable mentions
  • Union Front
    • What’s in the SAP?
    • Closing loopholes
    • Auto Dealership
    • Michigan workers vote ‘yes’
    • Workers get a first contract
    • UAW wins big settlement
    • Organizing Roundup
  • Departments
    • From the Readers
    • World of Work
    • UAW 101
    • Safer Work
    • Still Solid
    • Skilled Trades
    • Workers' Words
    • Phipps' Tips
    • Green Corner
    • Solidarity Index / Past Issues

Above: Dairy Barn, a photograph by John M. Augliaro, Local 1700, Sterling Heights (Mich.) Assembly

Below: Lunch Time, a pastel drawing by Ruben Garcia

“I know that there are other guys like me who wanted to make a living as an artist but all of a sudden got married, then had kids and other responsibilities and couldn’t do it. I just want them to see that it’s never too late. You can always get back to it whether you draw, paint or whatever.”

Ruben Garcia,
Local 12,
PQI artist,
Toledo (Ohio) North Assembly

Artists at Work

On the job, UAW DaimlerChrysler members rely on skill and concentration to build high-quality products. Off the job, some find those same tools help them create beautiful, award-winning works of art.

For welder Elizabeth Jordan of UAW Local 1435 in Toledo, Ohio, off-the-clock tools are pencil and charcoal. This year the details she captured in a pencil drawing called “Prince of the City” won her first-place honors in the 2005-2006 Artists at Work exhibition.

Weld inspector Dennis Sabatowich of UAW Local 140 in Warren, Mich., has a knack for creating items out of scrap metal. He took second place for “A Spring Walk,” his welded sculpture fashioned from discarded auto parts.

Sponsored by the UAW-DaimlerChrysler National Training Center (NTC) in Detroit, this was the sixth juried employee art exhibition.

It’s the only worker art program of its kind in the country jointly sponsored by a major corporation and a labor union.

Jordan and Sabatowich are among 45 UAW members from 19 local unions and 40 non-represented workers whose works are on display at the NTC.

In addition, at the recent UAW-DaimlerChrysler Annual Meeting and Joint Training Conferences in Las Vegas, Jordan, Sabatowich and third-place winner Robert DiTommaso, an 18-year Daimler-Chrysler employee, received special recognition.

This year’s exhibit includes 154 pieces ranging from woodcarving and photography to metal engraving and fiber art. The winners were selected from a record 1,500 entries from Los Angeles to Jacksonville, Fla.

Seven other UAW members from five locals were among the 15 artists who received honorable mentions for their art work.

In the next few pages, Solidarity profiles these talented UAW artists, celebrating the creative energy that drives our union.

Sandra Davis