UAW Strike: A big win for the working class
UAW Local 230 rallies during the Stand Up Strike
The national five-week #UAWStandUpStrike (September 22 - October 28), which ended with a solid victory for the union, the members, and the working class, was bolstered by the excellent support and solidarity offered by DSA-IE & DSA-LA here in Southern California, just as DSA provided at other strike locations around the country.
On week two of the strike against the Big 3 (just Stellantis and GM members in California, as Ford has no major facilities here) members of UAW 6645 - GM in Rancho Cucamonga, and UAW 230 - Stellantis-Mopar in Ontario, stood up and walked out, joining other locals across the country that struck the week before.
Our GM facility has roughly seventy-five UAW members. The strike lines were active and ran 24-7 until the end of the strike. Members from several different unions, folks from the community and elected officials came out to both strike lines and showed their support and solidarity.
UAW 6645 members were grateful for all who came out to our rally on October 6 at the GM PDC in Rancho Cucamonga with the pro-labor band, Los Journal Eros Del Norte, and for DSA-LA, which provided the street tacos vendor. Due to the unsafe conditions of vehicle traffic in the area and other logistical issues, it was very challenging to hold strike support rallies at GM. But we did.
A gun on the line
Meanwhile UAW 230 - Stellantis in Ontario had a very active and fluid strike line. Starting three hours into Day One, September 22, the strike was extended to the Parts Delivery Center’s cross-dock operation in Mira Loma. This is a third party logistics facility used to deliver parts to the dealers, a job that was partially lost through arbitration. The arbitration decision allowed Stellantis-Mopar to be more profitable and save money, without any benefit to the customers or the employees.
Within an hour of our strike line extension we had a lively picket line, comprising UAW members along with DSA-IE strike supporters. Imagine our surprise when we had a handgun pulled on us by an employee of SI Testing, a Rancho Cucamonga electrical service company and service vendor for the Mira Loma building.
Apparently the driver felt he didn’t have to wait the 15 minutes and his turn to leave the property. He snaked around the other trucks in front of him, and when he was stopped by a DSA member and a UAW striker from hitting a female striker, the driver pulled out a handgun, pointed it at us and said “Get the fuck out of my way!” In self-defense, we distracted him with our picket signs. He drove off to the side and was followed by a striker to get his vehicle license plate. Unfortunately the Riverside County Sheriffs’ Department was more interested in managing our strike line than in the driver threatening us with a handgun.
Meanwhile, on Friday October 13, Stellantis hired para-military anti-union security guards to come in and break our strike lines. The Huffmasters Security firm, which has a history of breaking picket lines with violence (see the More Perfect Union story), deployed their thugs throughout Stellantis-Mopar operations where the company felt it had “problems” getting its trucks out. These guards were hired to be intimidating and to threaten our members.
We had one major incident where the Mopar director instructed the security team to blow through the lines, causing a confrontation between UAW members and the security guards as they came onto public streets in military formation.
UAW stood strong and we held the line that morning. The incident was retaliation for our members holding up the trucks and management for six and a half hours. After the arrival of 30 police officers and a call of an unlawful assembly, the line was opened and management was allowed to report to work.
YDSA in the house supporting UAW Local 230
Results of the Stand Up Strike
UAW negotiators have negotiated one of the best contracts coming out of the Big 3 in the past twenty years. We are ecstatic about the 25% wage increase and a positive step in bringing all our UAW members in the Big 3 up to equal pay for all.
Although we were not able to successfully negotiate post-retirement pensions and healthcare for those hired after 2007, we have fourteen years to negotiate those items (until the first non-pension UAW member is eligible to retire under the new tiered pension structure).
We are grateful for the DSA, other unions and the community’s support during our strike, and we look forward to supporting future union efforts and workers in their quest for justice and the fight against Corporate Greed. As they say, #EatTheRich #UnionStrong!