LANSING, Mich. — Phil Damico said you don't need to be a part of UAW to head to the picket lines.
On Wednesday, Damico was striking with the members of UAW Blue Cross Blue shield of Michigan, but he said this is only the beginning.
If the UAW doesn’t reach their deal with the Big Three by early Friday morning, Damico is prepared to strike with those workers too.
“We’re definitely an automotive city, so yeah you stand with your workers, always have and always will,” Damico said.
The auto workers are planning to strike because they want things like better pay, health care and the cancellation of a tiered wage system, all things that councilman Ryan Kost said these workers need, which is why he said he too will be on the picket line if there’s a strike.
“The Big three has made $21 billion in profit, not from stockholders, so they should honor that those workers deserve a pay raise, decent benefits and everything else they ask for,” Kost said.
Then, there’s people like Miranda Hinton, who is preparing to strike with the workers because she said she knows first hand how hard they work. Her husband was in the union for over thirty years, when he worked for General Motors.
“Maybe they need to come out of their office, and go to the factory and see what those union workers go through,” Hinton said. “My husband used to literally come home with blisters on his hands after being a team player and working for GM.”
As people like Damico, Kost and Hinton prepare for a possible strike, they’re sending words of encouragement to the union workers.
“Keep up the good fight if you have to,” Damico said.
