The Stand-Up Strike has been a unique approach to bargaining that has generated some unique outcomes. The most unique is the re-opening of a plant slated for closure. Many members of UAW Local 2250 have come from factories that closed and while transferring allowed folks to keep their jobs it is not as nice as earning a living without a new mortgage or rent payment, leaving friends and family, and learning to Facetime.
Members from Janesville, Doraville, Van Nuys, Oklahoma City, Lordstown, Baltimore, Warren, Shreveport and even the old St. Louis Corvette plant and others would love to look back and talk about how their plant closed but was saved in negotiations. For Chrysler/UAW members at Belvidere Assembly this video, Belvidere Deserves Better, will be a nostalgic story they show their kids and grandkids.
Another factory making mid-size pickups is not what we really wanted to experience, but this historic reversal of a plant closing and the change that will make in the lives of those UAW members and the entire community is something to celebrate.
( graphic via uaw.org)
