• 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

Wake up to issues

I found it astounding that another retired brother would actually consider abortion, gay marriage and gun control his major concerns (From the readers, Solidarity, March-April).

They have absolutely nothing to do with the 30,000 workers who will lose their jobs at General Motors and Ford. Besides that, we retirees will now be asked to contribute to our health care and pay more for prescription drugs.

For God’s sake, let’s pray our negotiators think only about the members and our retirees in the 2007 UAW contract talks.

Look what concentrating on these divisive issues and voting for them has brought to our country. Wake up – our nation and our union are in trouble.

James Perine
UAW 1219 retiree
Lima, Ohio

Short memories

I’m writing this to express my disappointment regarding the allotment of space to Sen. Hillary Clinton in your March-April issue.

Let’s not forget that President Bill Clinton is responsible for promotion and passage of the NAFTA and GATT agreements.

Unless unions across this nation wake up and draw a line in the sand and let those pseudo friends of labor know we will no longer support them, they will continue on this course of treating blue-collar workers as expendable, brainless herds of cattle.

Being a Democrat is no longer the only criteria to gain my support. I want candidates who, after being elected, remember who put them in office.

Manuel Rey
UAW Local 594 retiree
Troy, Mich.

When is it enough?

While driving West, I saw a herd of cattle in a feed lot getting fattened for the slaughterhouse. They had no rights regarding their survival, no say in the matter.

It made me think of President Bush and the Republicans on Capitol Hill.

They send our children to Iraq with improper equipment. They refuse to raise the federal minimum wage because it would hurt the economy. They OK “free trade” pacts so they can send our jobs overseas.

It seems they view us – the working class – like cattle.

But the fact is we do have rights, and one of them is voting.
Haven’t you had enough? VOTE!

Frederick O. Leal
UAW Local 228 retiree
Pontiac, Mich.

Union means ‘unite’

If we allow our union to be diverted or divided by personal issues, the UAW will not accomplish the things that matter to all of us.

Everything we do should be for the welfare of all. To promote discrimination under the guise of Christianity is not what this union stands for.

The word union means unite, and anyone who claims to be a Christian should be the first to recognize this.

Roger D. Higdon
UAW Local 862 retiree
Louisville, Ky.

Child care thanks

My husband and I have three children, ages 2, 4 and 6, enrolled full time at the UAW-GM Child Development Center in Flint, Mich. I’d like to express the value of the center to me and my family.
Since the first day we visited the center, we were very impressed with the staff’s professionalism. Developmentally speaking, we know without a doubt that the education is excellent. Our oldest child started kindergarten at 5, and the center continues to support his playtime as well as his continued education.

We feel the teachers are an extension of our family. We would not be the parents or the family we are today without the support of the center and its well-educated staff.

Kathrine and Kevin Nolley
UAW Local 651
Flint, Mich.

(Editor’s note: The teachers at the UAW-GM CDC are members of UAW Local 1811.)

New Balance righted

Regarding your article in the March-April issue, “New Balance to do the right thing,” you people must be buying the wrong New Balance shoe.

I have been running in the New Balance 856 for more than three years, and that shoe is made in America. (There’s a sticker under the shoe’s tongue.) The materials are imported, but the shoe is made here. They replace the 856 with the 857, and that shoe is made here.

I often wonder how many Toyotas, Hondas and other foreign brands are found in the parking lots of General Motors, Ford and DaimlerChrysler facilities. I know you can find plenty in the parking lots at Caterpillar Inc, where I work.

I have 38 years here and have yet to buy a foreign-made vehicle. If the time comes, I’ll quit driving. Many of us are our own worst enemy.

Robert A. Cassidy
UAW Local 974
Dunlap, Ill.

(Editor’s note: Our story focused on the plight of workers at the New Balance factory in China. But you are correct. In an industry that has sent most of its production overseas, New Balance does manufacture a percentage of its shoes in the United States. It has three factories in Maine and two in Massachusetts.)