On a windy, rainy picket line, Ford workers vow to persist

WAYNE, Mich. — Temperatures are beginning to drop after nearly a month of picketing, but those on strike with the United Auto Workers said their spirits were still high as they braved the autumn chill, wind and rain Saturday outside Ford Motor Co.’s Michigan Assembly Plant.

Workers made clear: They’ve lost a lot. They’ve received multiple strike paychecks of $500, which is much less than they would have made on the assembly lines. Smoke from burn barrels seemed to follow wherever people stood with a stiff breeze blowing everywhere, and a month of picketing can take a toll.

But so much more is at stake, the workers said as their walkout marked its 30th day. Every striker who spoke to The Detroit News has more than two decades working for Ford, and each one said they were going to stick it out to end the tier system and get back some of what they gave up to help save the company during the worst of the Great Recession 15 years ago.

“We helped them recover,” said Ann Goodman of Adrian, who has worked for Ford for 24 years. “We’d like to start to recover too, now.”

Goodman, 58, said she hopes the strike doesn’t go on much longer. Her mood changes from day to day, she said, in part because it can be difficult to have her future feel like it’s at least partially out of her hands while the company and the bargaining committee go back and forth.

But she wants the younger people at Ford to have the same opportunities she did, she said. Like everyone standing in the rain Saturday, she considered herself a “die-hard.”

“We have to get back what we lost,” she said.

The Michigan Assembly Plant was one of the first three Detroit Three automaker plants to go on strike. Now, dozens across the country are on strike or idled due to strikes elsewhere. The most recent addition is Ford’s Kentucky Truck Plant, where workers started striking earlier this week after the UAW said Ford “refused to make further movement in bargaining.”

The company, in response, pointed to its most recent offer, which includes a 23% wage increase over the length of the contract, a three-year progression to the top of the wage scale, restoration of the cost-of-living adjustment formula that was suspended in 2009, and conversion within 90 days of temporary workers to permanent status, among other contract improvements.

Those on strike are holding out. Brian Dicola of Southgate, who has worked for Ford for 29 years, said he still agreed with UAW President Shawn Fain and planned to stick it out for as long as necessary.

As the strike grinds on, he said he’s only growing closer to not only his own coworkers at Michigan Assembly but also with volunteers from other plants who have come out to demonstrate support. Dicola has met people from different plants as well as people showing up even when they don’t need to be on the line just to show solidarity. Blustery weather was likely keeping away some supporters, who Fain had asked to make a show at picket lines this weekend, Dicola said, but he was quickly considering those on the line with him his second family.

As he’s on the line, he thinks about his real family too — bills don’t stop just because work did, he said. His son plays a lot of sports, with costs that can add up fast, and there’s also other expenses, everything from groceries to suits for homecoming.

He has a second job painting, and he has spread some of the work from that to other picketers to help everyone get bills paid. The younger workers on lower wage tiers especially had a hard time putting money away in anticipation of a strike, he said. Hearing his friends talk about their financial struggles has been one of the hardest parts, Dicola said, but it keeps him motivated.

“I’ll be out here five years if I need to be,” he said, adding that in his opinion, Ford has the money to meet the UAW’s demands. “They just don’t want to.”

There’s an expectation that after a month of striking, the initial feelings of excitement might wane. And Sean Farnan, a 30-year employee of Ford, pointed out that the weather was a little nicer when the strikes began last month. But he said he, like Dicola, plans to be out there for as long as it takes.

“We’ll be out here deep-frying turkeys if we need to be,” Farnan said. “We’ll be singing Christmas carols if we have to be out here then.”

Farnan, 54, said it was time that companies make things right with their employees, through raises and other benefits. The tiered system that hurts younger workers has been a problem for a long time, he said, as it pits worker against worker.

He’s eager to let the negotiators do their jobs in the “tug of war” between the union and the company. That’s the only way things can improve, he said.

“Look at it this way,” he said, pointing to a car carrier driving in front of picketers down Michigan Avenue. “Those trucks are still rolling. Ford is still making money. They can improve the economic issues, the other things, to make sure we are too.”

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(Staff Writer Jordyn Grzelewski contributed.)

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