ILWU International President Willie Adams took an all-night “red-eye” flight to join striking members of the United Autoworkers Union in Michigan on Monday, October 14. “Solidarity is the most important thing union members can do for each other,” said Adams, who chose to spend his solidarity day in Flint, Michigan.
“Flint is a working-class town with an impressive labor history that continues to this day,” said Adams.
Workers who formed the United Autoworkers made history in 1936 by seizing control of Flint’s General Motors plant after company officials refused to respect the new union.
The “sit-down” strike was one of the country’s most dramatic labor actions that followed the 1934 Minneapolis general strike led by Teamsters and West Coast maritime strike the same year that was led by longshore workers. Adams visited a memorial in Flint honoring the sit-down strikers. He was accompanied throughout the day by rank-and-file UAW activist Sean Crawford, a Flint native whose family members participated in the sit-down. Adams arrived on day 28 of the strike. General Motors wants to continue a “two-tier” system with low-paid “perma-temp” workers, higher health costs and close more plants in the U.S.
“When we say ‘an injury to one is an injury to all,’ it means caring for each other, helping union brothers and sisters, and fighting for the entire working class,” said Adams. “My trip was short, but I made new friends on the picket line, and shared our message of solidarity with these brave workers.”
