And as prospects loom that the walkout could last a while, concern grows for Simmons and other Black UAW members that the middle-class life they came to appreciate as children and expected as adults is threatened.
After World War II ended in the 1940s, Black Americans found stable work and fairer wages making cars. Auto industry jobs were unionized and paid well, allowing Black autoworkers to form a Black labor “aristocracy,” according to a 2010 paper by Thomas J. Sugrue, a professor of history and sociology at the University of Pennsylvania.
The battle is for better wages, wages that the strikers say have not kept up with the times. The union wants a 36% salary increase. It is also asking for a restoration of cost-of-living pay raises, an end to fluctuating tiers of wages for factory jobs, a 32-hour workweek with 40 hours of pay, the return of defined-benefit pensions for new hires, who now receive only retirement plans similar to 401, pension increases for retirees and other concerns.
“Everybody on our block worked for the big three auto companies,” Jackson said. “Growing up, I didn’t know the difference between classes. I just knew I didn’t want for anything. We went on a family vacation every couple of months. Our house was paid for. My parents had cars and my stepmother leased a car every couple of years. I just thought we were living the dream.”