Member Minute

Mike Hanley

Mike Hanley, 53, went to work at Delphi Corp.’s Saginaw (Mich.) Steering in 1976. He left in 1994 to serve in the Michigan House of Representatives, and in 2001 he went to work as community liaison for then-U.S. Rep. James Barcia. He returned to Delphi in 2003 and retired in 2006, the same year he became president of UAW Local 699. He is a former Saginaw City Council member and current Saginaw County commissioner.

You love politics and are good at it. Why did you leave that to go back to Delphi?

I wanted to focus on financial security for my wife and two sons. Back then we thought it was financial security, but three years later Delphi declared bankruptcy. In the early days [then-CEO] Steve Miller was threatening to break every promise made to us over the years. There was a lot of pain and sacrifice. And then we see this global economic collapse after all the hard work we did to prepare ourselves to be a success.

You say your members “looked crisis in the eye daily.” What would you say to other autoworkers on the front lines now?

I’d tell them to stay solid. And stay involved in politics. If there’s anything this situation illustrates, it’s that what we win at the bargaining table can be lost in the legislative halls.

If you could talk to the White House auto task force, what would you say?

I’d tell them managed bankruptcy is not the way to go. I would remind them we were the arsenal of democracy. And I’d ask them to help spread the word to all Americans that we make fantastic products.

Emily Everett