Rank And File Picket AFL-CIO Execs at Chicago's Drake Hotel

Rank and File is protesting the opportunistic insider-trading of the Union Labor Life Insurance by the Executive Council as well as other sell-out incidents.

Earl and Mary Cornell were two of the union members who came down from Battle Creek Michigan to join the picket. Earl (whose wife is pictured in the center of the second image) worked for the Kalamazoo GM plant starting in 1966 as a tool and die operator. He ended three years shy of full retirement on March 1st, 1993. Told that the plant would be closing, Earl and other fellow workers were informed they had two options: retire early with a loss in benefits or lose all pension entirely. Earl chose the former. The plant then continued to operate four more years until 1997. Earl and Mary's loss in pension amounts to $4-600 per month.

Mary pointed out another woman to me and commented that she had it worse. "She's also fighting for her two daughters. They call them gypsies because they keep getting moved from plant to plant".

Dan Marino, the fellow in the last image also worked at the Kalamazoo plant which made body parts. He told me that when the plant closed the workers were left with the option of quitting or traveling 120 miles to other plants. The UAW mandates previously limited transfers to 50 miles or less but the UAW leadership opted to ease these as well as other restrictions rather than standing up for it's dues-paying members. Many workers accused the UAW of misleading. A court-case ensued but was thrown out in Michigan, while a parallel case in New Jersey won workers a settlement.