Autoworkers buoyed by solidarity

GM’s ability to move everything from finished cars to automotive parts in or out of its plants ground to a halt without the 10,000 Teamsters needed to do the work.

Out on the sun-drenched picket lines, autoworkers were moved, sometimes to tears, when they saw support pouring in from other workers and from neighbors in their communities.

“We were overwhelmed by the support during the walkout,” Mike Sheridan, president of Local 905 in Jamesville, Wis., said Sept. 25. “It’s amazing — the local Pizza Huts sent pizzas and a pub down the road sent breakfast omelettes.”

Workers on the picket lines and the thousands that came out to support them saw themselves not just as fighting to preserve their own standards of living but also as soldiers on the front line of a battle for all American workers.

“We’re not only taking on a company,” said Douglas Grover, who works at the GM plant in Flint, Mich., “but an entire government that doesn’t care that American manufacturing jobs are disappearing overseas.”