National Writers Union Website<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\nLast Saturday, we hit the road, which stretched out into Appalachia, determined to visit striking GM workers at the Philadelphia Parts Distribution Center. A Turkish friend, \u00c7a\u011fatay \u00d6nc\u00fc, asked to come along. We were nervous because our car has had mechanical problems. We didn\u2019t want to get stranded on the way and miss out on a historical moment of class struggle.<\/p>\n
Fortunately, we made it there safely, where groups of young workers and their families had been taking six-hour shifts. Altogether, a group of about 200 of us banded together for a solidarity event with workers, union folks, college activists, locals, and politicians. It was a big turnout.<\/p>\n
GM workers have been striking since September 16. As Jay Jay, 37, a worker companion said, \u201cWe are standing up for fair wages. We\u2019re standing up for job security. We\u2019re standing up for affordable quality healthcare. We are standing up for our temporary employees who are being taken advantage of.\u201d<\/p>\n
Danny Mendoza, 30, the night shift representative who\u2019s been working at GM since 2008, tells us that the issue of temporary workers is especially important. While there\u2019s only one temporary worker among all 85 at his center, in some GM plants roughly half the workers are temporary. They contend with low wages and precarious hours.<\/p>\n
We learn that Tommy, 56, has been in different parts of the company for nearly four decades. \u201cIf you don\u2019t go to school, you\u2019ll work at GM,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a good job,\u201d one of us says, to which he replies: \u201cAt least it pays the bills.\u201d Less so when workers are on strike as they have been the last three weeks.<\/p>\n
When we mentioned that the steelworkers of Turkey are also fighting for collective bargaining, we saw the value of workers from both countries sharing their experiences. Danny helped us create a solidarity video for Turkish workers with a message from Jay Jay.<\/p>\n
\u201cI heard that the steel workers of Turkey are also going through a collective bargaining process, and I want to let you know that we stand together with you. We hope you guys get exactly what you deserve.\u201d<\/p>\n
The US workers in the background didn\u2019t just support their class brothers and sisters from Turkey in word; they posed next to a quickly prepared banner that read \u2018Good luck Turkish SteelWorkers.\u2019<\/p>\n
We spoke to Erin, Tommy\u2019s partner, who showed us a photograph alleged to be GM CEO Mary Barra\u2019s mansion. \u201cWhy would anyone need such a house?\u201d Erin asked, while repudiating injustice.<\/p>\n
During the strike, workers who earn at least $600 a week have to make do on $250 weekly, distributed from union resources. Some can only get by receiving donations, such as food. Others manage by relying more on spousal or family income, or by working other temp jobs.<\/p>\n
Despite support, the strike becomes harder as time passes and unmet needs accumulate. Although the workers are ready and willing to continue, if need be, they want the strike to end soon. They are exhausted. Bitten by flies in the heat of the day, and freezing at night, they persist in solidarity.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By E. Kilic, originally published on the National Writers Union Website. Last Saturday, we hit the road, which stretched out into Appalachia, determined to visit..<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23419,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[97],"tags":[347],"class_list":["post-23416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-us-news","tag-workers-struggle"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23416\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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