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'Ol' time' labor rally bashes free trade
Sunday, September 04, 2005
By Cami Reister
The Grand Rapids Press

GREENVILLE -- A day after 829 workers walked out of the expansive Electrolux plant for the last time -- starting the spiral that will end in a shuttered facility next year -- the union flag of UAW Local 137 no longer flies over the plant.

"We made a decision as a union," said Jim Hoisington, president of the local. "We decided if they were going to treat us like that, we don't want our flag flying over there."

Hoisington was speaking to about 200 United Auto Workers and other union members and supporters Saturday at the chapter's union hall, located next to the refrigerator factory, which is moving production to Mexico.


The gathering was billed as an "ol' time rally" on Labor Day weekend, and that is what was delivered.

The crowd cheered as union leaders bashed the North American and Central American free trade agreements -- NAFTA and CAFTA -- and the current administration. There were posters and T-shirts and even someone dressed in a milk carton reading, "Missing: my job. Last seen overseas."

"Anyone who voted in favor of CAFTA is nothing but an American traitor," Hoisington said. "It's time we get angry. ... We're going to roll up our sleeves, and we're going to take control back."

Don Oetman, director of UAW Region 1D, echoed the sentiment and urged people to "vote and vote right in '06 and '08."

"This international union didn't close the factory. This local union didn't close the factory. Electrolux closed this factory," he said. "Remember that."

"The government closed it," said a voice from the crowd.

State AFL-CIO President Mark Gaffney encouraged displaced Electrolux workers to remember their union ties and continue fighting for workers' rights. He said Greenville is a victim of a disturbing trend.

"We're becoming a country of the wealthy and the not-wealthy," he said. "A country where the quest for profit and greed can split a community, kill a community."

Those in attendance found the messages rousing.

"It's wonderful to see," said Karolee Hazlewood, 36, a union member who works for the Grand Rapids Public Library. "We need to support our neighbors and friends through all this. ... I have a good job, but I can't make ends meet. It's not just the factory people, it's all people."

Mike Bieber, assistant director for UAW Region 1D, ensured Electrolux workers they did their job well. So well, in fact, competing companies were forced to send jobs to Mexico to compete with them.

"They took the production to Mexico to compete against this place," he said, "to pit workers against workers and wages against wages."

Bieber gestured toward the Electrolux plant.

"We know that through those doors over there walk the finest appliance workers in the world."