Uaw) Local Union No
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OPEN LETTER TO THE RANK & FILE MEMBERSHIP OF UNITED AUTO WORKERS (UAW) LOCAL UNION NO. 862: You may be wondering why trailers with messages from Teamsters Local No. 89 directed at both your UAW leadership and Ford Motor Company have been parked across from Ford’s Louisville Assembly Plant (“LAP”), where you are employed. I intend to explain the purpose behind those trailers in a moment, but first I need to tell you the story of Scott Goldsmith. Scott Goldsmith was raised in a blue-collar family here in the Louisville area. Living paycheck to paycheck was normative, as it still is for most of the working classes of our society. Scott’s family was not immune from the hardships of financial instability. His single mother worked as a laborer holding down jobs in a number of industries as she strived to provide the best that she could for her children. From an early age, Scott had “blue-collar dreams” as he called them: the hopes of one day achieving a good paying job, marriage, buying a home, and raising a family with little more than his high school education. He did not need much in life. Material things were not a big issue for someone like him. All he wanted to do was raise a family and provide for them so that one day his wife and kids could have opportunities that he did not have despite his mother’s tireless efforts. Scott’s dreams began to materialize in 1990 when he was hired at Ford’s Louisville Assembly Plant. He was hired to work for a carhaul company that contracted with Ford to move the vehicles from the production line to the yard where they would be transferred to rail cars or trucks and delivered to dealerships. By this time, Scott was only 22 years of age and had bounced around from job to job searching for financial stability, the catalyst to his blue-collar dream. But no previous work was as promising as the job at LAP. In fact, his new job at LAP was all that he could have ever hoped for. The fruits of his labor would ultimately provide a good hourly wage, health benefits, pension benefits, and, most of all, a sense of pride and hope for his future. Scott immediately went to work in August of 1990 as a young, motivated employee. He joined the ranks of Teamsters Local No. 89. Scott worked hard at his craft and took great pride in his efforts. Day or night, rain or shine, Scott worked. As soon as he saved up some money, Scott purchased his first automobile, a Ford F-150, thanks to the wages that he earned from his job at LAP. For Scott, this was the way it had to be. Yes, he could have bought another competitor’s vehicle. Nonetheless, Scott was raised to show gratitude to those who supported him. Because Scott believed that the Ford plant had given him an opportunity to make a good living, he wanted to repay Ford in his own little way by purchasing one of their trucks. It was a small gesture in relative terms, but Scott took great pride in that truck and the FORD logo attached to it. In 1997, Scott met Cindy. Cindy was a young working-class native of Louisville, just like Scott. At the time they met, she was working as a waitress in the service industry. After a yearlong courtship, Scott asked Cindy to be his wife. In 1998 phase two of Scott’s blue-collar dream was realized as they took their vows and said “I do” in front of family and friends. Phase three was achieved a year later in 1999 when Scott and Cindy bought their first home. Due in large part to his stable, consistent employment at LAP, the bank gave them a loan to purchase their home. It was a modest home. Sure, it probably wasn’t their “dream” home, but it was still “their” home, and they were proud of that accomplishment. Both Scott and Cindy were living the dream with one tiny exception: they wanted to hear the pitter-patter of tiny little feet running across the floors of their new abode. Nothing made Scott prouder than the idea of raising a family. That is why he considered it an integral part of his own blue-collar dream. To their delight, in 2000, Scott and Cindy were blessed with a handsome little boy. This fourth phase of Scott’s blue-collar dream could have been a financial nightmare had he not still maintained his job at LAP. However, by 2000, Scott was a seasoned 10-year veteran of the carhaul industry at LAP. His wages were stable and sufficient to provide for his new family. His health insurance benefits were ample to pay the lion’s share of the costs associated with their newborn. So, needless to say, Scott had a huge smile on his face the day he walked into his home and told his wife that because of his job, benefits and their savings, she would be able to stay home on maternity leave as long as she needed to. In turn, Cindy was able to stay at home and care for their newborn the entire first year of his life. But Cindy didn’t just stay at home and take care of their son. She also enrolled in college in an effort to get a degree. Scott never had the chance to get a college education. The financial resources and support often necessary to achieve higher education were simply not there for him. So, like many of us, Scott went immediately into the workforce after high school. Scott recognized that because of his stable job and income, he could now support the three of them while Cindy advanced her education. Years of frugal living and saving had culminated into this special opportunity to lift his family up in the world. This was a great opportunity for her to obtain a college degree, and he was proud to help her achieve it. The same would be true someday for his children. During her second year of school, Cindy gave birth to her second child, a beautiful baby girl. Scott labored long hours at LAP to provide for the four of them. While Scott was at work, Cindy labored at home caring for the two children, sometimes only finding time during the late hours of the night to study. Scott spent his time away from work relieving Cindy of the childcare duties so that she could focus on her education. They both made numer- ous sacrifices to facilitate the betterment of their family. Life was a struggle in those years, but those were happy times because the family had a modest life with the hopes of a bright future. The struggles and sacrifices paid off in 2007 when Cindy graduated college with a degree in the medical field. She would be the first person in her family to achieve this goal of a higher education. Scott could not have been any more proud of his wife for her accomplishment. Cindy could not have been any more proud of Scott for the sacrifices that he made in order to make her education become a reality. Seventeen years after starting his job at LAP, it appeared that Scott was on the verge of achieving his “blue-collar dream”. He had worked hard every day earning a fair wage and benefits. He had bought his first car. Then he married the girl of his dreams and together they purchased their first home. He was later blessed with two wonderful children. Both he and his wife were raising their children and providing for them. They hoped that through her education and their joint efforts, they were building a stable foundation from which they would someday send their own children to college. But most importantly, they were able to achieve all of these things, directly and indirectly, through his consistent and stable employment at LAP. I submit to you that although he calls it his “blue-collar dreams”, what he was really trying to achieve was a place in the middle class of our society. Instead of calling it a blue-collar dream, perhaps it would be more appropriate to call it a “middle-class dream”. It is fair to say that up until February of this year (20+ years after Scott first began at LAP), Scott and his family believed that they had not only achieved their blue-collar/middle-class dream, but also that their dream was secured because of the apparent strength and longevity of Ford Motor Company at LAP. Little did they know, that was not going to be the case. Around February 13, 2012, Scott Goldsmith and 166 co-workers lost their jobs at LAP. Just like that! One day they woke up to find that they had no jobs, no wages, no benefits, no security, nothing. Despite his 20+ years of service at LAP, Scott Goldsmith found his world turned upside down. The same can be said for his co-workers and his co-workers’ families. That’s right, Scott Goldsmith was not alone. In fact, Scott’s story is merely represen- tative of the countless other stories of employees whose families were left in the wake of this tragic event. I submit to you that in today’s economy, discharges and layoffs are not an unusual event. Union and non-union employ- ees lose their jobs every day. Nevertheless, what is unusual about this particular event is that another union, a so-called ally to the Teamsters in the labor movement, is at the heart of and an active participant in the taking of these jobs.