General Motors on strike since September 16

General Motors on strike since September 16

Sunday, 13.10.2019

In spite of mutual assistance, General Motors employees must find ways to cope financially and cut corners. (Keystone)

Betty Johnson, after 34 years working on General Motors assembly lines in Michigan and Tennessee, knew that a strike would mean many personal sacrifices.

"It's not easy," she says in front of a picket line at the Detroit-Hamtramck assembly plant.

"I still have $ 45 of my $ 250 strike payout package," she says, referring to the fraction of weekly pay that Strawberry employees receive each week.

"I'm about to dig into my retirement savings."

Nearly 50,000 US GM workers have been on strike since September 16, demanding wage increases and improving the situation of employees hired after the bankruptcy group's 2009 historic bailout by the Obama administration.

Their demands relate to job security but also health insurance and the status of temporary workers.

But it is increasingly difficult for them to continue living decently with very little income.

Betty Johnson has already contacted the United Way, a local organization that helps families in need, to get financial support for paying her energy bills and mortgage.

Free food

"I do not know how to feed five children with $ 250 a week," she says, adding that the agency workers are even worse off with their hourly wage of $ 16.5, according to the UAW union ( United Auto Workers).

President of UAW Local 5960 in the suburbs of Detroit and an employee of a factory where GM makes electric vehicles, Louis Rocha observed the importance of community support in this difficult context.

The section offers free meals at any time, thanks to donations from local businesses, churches and individuals. For example, pizzas have been distributed every day since September 16, he says.

According to him, self-help is visible on many levels, like a veterinarian who offered to operate a family's cat for free and avoid euthanasia.

The vice-president of this section 5960, Gerald Lang, even thinks that GM executives have underestimated the ability of workers to stand together during this strike.

But despite this mutual support, disgruntled employees must find ways to cope financially and cut corners.

Diana Reed, who has been with GM for five years and is also a member of section 5960, says she has begun searching her home for all kinds of merchandise for sale online.

To make matters worse, this single mother of five boys claims that the three eldest, employees, help pay the bills, while the two youngest, at university, interrupted their studies to avoid tuition.

"Do I live it wrong? Yes, but it's a concession to make," she adds.

Diana Reed, who used to give food banks, is now accepting donations of food.

"I had to swallow my pride and it was hard, but what helped me do that was to think of my boys." (AWP)