Striking auto workers in Twin Cities area nearing two weeks on picket line
Some 25,000 United Auto Workers members across the country are continuing to take part in targeted strikes against the Big Three automakers.
That includes workers at parts distribution facilities in the Twin Cities area — and Friday will mark two weeks since they started picketing.
Nathan Storck, 48, is among more than 80 workers on strike at the General Motors parts distribution center in Hudson, Wis. Speaking on the picket line on Thursday, he said morale is high among his striking co-workers. They’re picketing 24/7 in six-hour shifts.
Storck said the rank-and-file are united in their stance that the now-profitable automakers owe a debt to workers.
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“They came to us when they were hurting and asked for concessions and they made us promises that ... we would receive everything back when they were profitable — and those were broken promises, and we never got that back,” he said. “They’re getting record profits and and we’re getting minimal raises. They’re making tens of billions of dollars a year and we don’t even get a raise some years.”
GM, Ford and Stellantis claim they have made reasonable counteroffers. They say the wage increases and other terms the union is proposing would make it hard to compete with other automakers.
On the picket line in Hudson, Storck said one reason the workers feel like they are doing the right thing is all of the support they are getting from members of other unions.
“I’m surprised a lot with the number of unions that come out of the woodwork that I never even knew about,” he said.
Storck said that while some passersby express discontent with the strike, he thinks most of the general public is supportive.
“Because everybody’s hurting, people are hurting with — paying their own bills and paying their own mortgages or finding a place to live,” he said. “I think they’re starting to see that their wages are not keeping up with where our country’s at. And it usually starts with union wages, you know? The union fights, our wages go up, and people follow behind.”
UAW workers also continue to picket outside Stellantis parts facilities in Plymouth and New Hope.