Lansing community shows support for striking UAW workers

LANSING, Mich. (WILX) - The strike for better wages and benefits continues for auto workers at the General Motors Lansing Redistribution Center, and the reinforcements are piling up.

Food delivered by community members, and some members of Michigan’s government, have kept the picket line fed and hydrated.

“Cars are just pulling over to the side giving us Cottage Inn,” said Local 1753 Vice President Jean Duchemine. “They’re giving us Domino’s, they’re bringing us stacks of water.”

Some people traveled for miles to deliver those cases of water, like Adam Strach from Grand Rapids, who said he wanted to do his part to help as soon as he heard a Lansing location had joined the strike.

“These are working class people, and I’m a working-class person as well,” he said. “I think that working class people have gotten the short end of the stick recently.”

More than just refreshments, others are helping out by bringing their voices. Jesse Estrada White joins a group of Michigan State University students, who said they came to make sure the picket line never gets too quiet.

“When we heard this redistribution center was going on strike, we texted each other last night,” Estrada White said. “We got about six or of us seven of us out here, and we’re going to keep trying to do that a couple times a week.”

Duchemine said community support plays a big role in getting the attention they need to get their demands met.

“We’re a small plant,” he said. We only have 200 people, so people is what we need, and we’ve got a long line to fill.”

A picket line that’s only a few days old, with no end to the strike in sight. But enough backup to keep it going.

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