KANSAS CITY, Kan. — As members of the United Auto Workers protested outside the General Motors plant off Fairfax Trafficway on Monday, the Teamsters Local 41 union joined the fight and vowed not to deliver to the factory as long as the strike lasts.
The strike began at midnight and led to groups holding signs and picketing all day long on Monday.
Following the announcement from the Teamsters, Local 41 president Ralph Stubbs told 41 Action News that it was important for unions to band together.
“Teamsters has the word ‘team’ in it. That means everything,” he said. “We work closely with everybody in town. We want to make sure that everybody is treated fairly.”
As unions continue to take on challenges such as jobs leaving the country and right-to-work legislation, Stubbs said unions should work together now more than ever.
“If they’re striking for their issues, they’re important and they’re important to us,” he said. “We’re at the part right now where we have to show some solidarity. If we don’t do that, then we could fail.”
Due to the decision by the Teamsters, members who deliver to the GM plant will not receive a paycheck for the work.
With the strike now impacting families in the metro, Stubbs said the personal sacrifice emphasized the importance of the protest.
“We have our Penske guys that haul parts in and out of the factory,” he said. “They’re not working. That’s their job and that’s their livelihood. They don’t know if they’ll be out one day, two days, a week.”
As the protest continued on Monday, Rockhurst University economics professor Anthony Tocco said the UAW strike represented a much bigger issue facing the country right now.
“The union wants (General Motors) not to go abroad,” he said. “The union wants more and more jobs here.”
With other unions showing solidarity with UAW this week, Tocco said the issues impacting the union could end up trickling down to many others.
“It’s critically more important today than it was back then because of the decrease in numbers of all the unions,” he said. “If they don’t stick together today, they will all die separately. Union membership will keep on going down.”
As the UAW strike faces an uncertain end, Teamsters Local 41 said it would stand by the union’s side for however long it takes.
“If we don’t support each other then we’re going to fail,” Stubbs said.
