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Gov. Whitmer tells striking UAW members she supports them "100 percent"

Dustin Dwyer
/
Michigan Radio

Governor Gretchen Whitmer stopped by a UAW picket line at a General Motors plant near Grand Rapids Thursday evening.

The governor and her team rolled up in black SUVs just before dusk. Whitmer posed for pictures, shook hands, and listened as workers described what’s at stake for them in the strike.

"... the company's doing well, and the people that actually do the work on the front lines should as well, right?" said Governor Whitmer.

Nearly 50,000 workers have been on strike against GM since last month. They say they’re holding out for higher wages, and job security for temporary workers.

Whitmer told workers in the Grand Rapids suburb of Wyoming that she supports them “100 percent.”

“People know you made a sacrifice,” Whitmer told one worker. “And the company’s doing well, and the people that actually do the work on the front lines should as well, right?”

The strike is the longest against General Motors since 1970.

Dustin Dwyer reports enterprise and long-form stories from Michigan Public’s West Michigan bureau. He was a fellow in the class of 2018 at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard. He’s been with Michigan Public since 2004, when he started as an intern in the newsroom.
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