More than 3,000 union members, supporters and politicians from several Midwestern states rallied outside the idle Chrysler plant in Fenton on Friday to protest the automaker.
At stake was Chrysler’s decision to close the plant, yet allow factories where the same trucks are manufactured to remain open in Mexico and Canada, even though they remain open as a result of an $8-million bailout to Chrysler from American taxpayers.
“That was the biggest flimflam and the biggest hijacking in American history,” said Lew Moye, one of the protest organizers, president of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists and a member of UAW Local 110.
“It turns out that the jobs of workers in Mexico and Canada are more secure than the ones in the United States.”
Plants that have closed or are closing are located in Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio and Delaware.
Chrysler’s other plant in Fenton, which assembled minivans, closed in October. The two plants had employed 1,200 workers in Fenton, down from 5,000 several years ago.
John Bowman, chief of staff for state Sen. Robin Wright-Jones, said the economic impact of the plant’s closing in the black community is double than in the white community.
He said the Department of Economic Development estimated that a plant closing forces at least five other businesses to close in a community. “In the black community, it’s twice as many,” he said.
Bowman, who worked at the Chrysler plant for 31 years, attended the rally to let protesters know that Wright-Jones supports the UAW’s effort to force Chysler to reconsider its decision to close the Fenton plant.
“We are sick and tired of this, and we want our jobs back here,” Bowman said.
Moye, who began working at Chrysler in 1964, said the automobile industry contributed greatly to the creation of the black middle class in St. Louis. He said it also allowed blacks the opportunity to give back to their communities financially by supporting non-profit agencies such as local churches and the United Way. From 2004-2008, members of the UAW raised nearly $6 million to benefit the United Way, according to the United Way of Greater St. Louis.
Moye said African-American auto workers also helped black-owned businesses and doctors and attorneys in private practice.
“Blacks from those factories carried those businesses and churches,” he said. “This plant has meant a lot to this community.”
Moye said gone are the days when factory jobs were handed down to the next generation to support their families.
During the rally, John Harris, who had worked for Chrysler for more than 15 years, hugged a man carrying a protest sign with his children’s pictures on it that read, “My Dad lost his job to Mexico.”
Harris said, “I wanted to show solidarity and I feel his pain.”
Calvin Johnson and his wife Annette attended the rally with their daughter Joanne, who is 7. Calvin Johnson, who has worked at the plant for 25 years, said he was elated about the large turnout and had hoped the organizers would shut down Interstate 64. Protesters marched across an overpass above I-64 traffic.
“It would send a message to the world that American workers are tired,” he said.
Johnson, who has two young adult children, said the job at the plant helped provide for his family. “I worked seven days a week, 12 hour days for 20 years so I’ve been taking care of business,” he said.
He said he is thankful for the stipend the union gives workers while they are out of work. “That’s one of the best things the union has done for us,” he said.
Retirees have even stepped in to help, Moye said, and many have made concessions to try to save it. UAW retirees agreed to cut dental and vision from their benefits package to save the plant.
Moy said, “But after all of that was done, they made the announcement that they are closing eight plants in the United States.”
