On the Picket Line at American Axle

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14 min 25 sec - Mar 24, 2008

3,600 members of the United Auto Workers (UAW) union at the five plants of American Axle and Manufacturing (AAM) went on strike February 26, 2008. This auto parts company was spun off from General Motors (GM) in 1994, and they’ve been expanding their international operations ever since.

The issues this strike addresses go to the heart of the disintegration of the standards of living that unionized jobs have brought to the US in the past 70 years. If AAM gets their way, many workers stand to lose everything, since the company is demanding drastic pay and benefit cuts.

Labor Beat visited the picket line in Three Rivers, Michigan, to witness how, in one tradesman’s words, the workers there “are making a stand. We won’t step backward 30 years.”

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Produced by Andrew Freund of Labor Beat. Logo animation by Chris Kaihatsu. Labor Beat is affiliated with IBEW 1220. Views are those of the producer, not necessarily of IBEW. Labor Beat is a CAN TV Community Partner. For more information: www.laborbeat.org 312-226-3330. For more video, visit Google Video or YouTube and search “Labor Beat”.