SCAB VIOLENCE

5 workers picketing in UAW strike hit by vehicle outside Flint-area plant

AP Finance
Updated Tue, September 26, 2023 

United Auto Workers picket outside the Flint Processing Center where multiple people were hit on Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2023, in Swartz Creek, Mich. About five people picketing in the United Auto Workers strike outside the Flint-area General Motors plant suffered minor injuries Tuesday when a vehicle leaving the plant struck them, police said. (Roberto Acosta/The Flint Journal via AP) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)More


SWARTZ CREEK, Mich. (AP) — About five people picketing in the United Auto Workers strike outside a Flint-area General Motors plant suffered minor injuries Tuesday when a vehicle leaving the plant struck them, police said.

The striking workers were blocking a driveway, and an employee was trying to leave the Flint Processing Center in Swartz Creek when the collision occurred just before 4 p.m., Chief Matthew Bade of the Metro Police Authority of Genesee County said.

The employee drove through the picket line to leave the plant, Bade said. The employee has not been located.

GM spokesperson Jack Crawley issued a statement saying the company “is committed to the health and safety of all employees.”
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"Plant leadership is working closely with local authorities to investigate and understand what happened,” the statement said.

UAW Region 1-D President Steve Dawes told The Flint Journal that two of the five people struck were taken to a local hospital.

“It was uncalled for,” Dawes said. “These people are out here, you know these are my membership, and they’re out here doing a peaceful, legal demonstration."

“This is very serious and we’re going to be pushing this issue," he said.

The Flint Processing Center is one of 38 locations where workers walked off the job last week in the widening strike by the UAW against GM, Ford and Stellantis.

Despite concerns that a prolonged strike could undermine the economy, particularly in the crucial battleground state of Michigan, President Biden encouraged workers to keep fighting for better wages at a time when car companies have seen rising profits.

Five UAW workers injured in hit-and-run at Michigan picket line outside GM factory
Josh Marcus
Tue, September 26, 2023 

Five people were injured when a vehicle drove through a crowd of United Auto Workers members protesting outside of a GM facility in Swartz Creek, Michigan.

The incident occurred at around 4pm on Tuesday, sending two to the hospital, according to the Metro Police Authority of Genesee County.

“It was uncalled for,” UAW Region 1-D President Steve Dawes told MLive-The Flint Journal. “These people are out here, you know these are my membership, and they’re out here doing a peaceful, legal demonstration.

“This is very serious and we’re going to be pushing this issue,” he added.

Officials are still searching for the individual responsible, described as driving a dark vehicle that may be a PT Cruiser.

The workers outside the GM’s Flint Processing Center are part of the 38 different shops which have walked off the production line since the UAW went on strike earlier this month.

“Plant leadership is working closely with local authorities to investigate and understand what happened,” Jack Crawley, a spokesman for General Motors, told ABC News.

Joe Biden visited strikers in Michigan on Tuesday to show support, appearing at a picket line in a UAW hat.

“The fact of the matter is is that you guys – the UAW – saved the automobile industry back in 2008 ... you gave up a lot and the companies were in trouble, but now they’re doing incredibly well,” he said. “And guess what? You should be doing incredibly well, too”.

Mr Biden said the workers should “stick with it” because they “deserve a significant raise and other benefits,” and to “get back what [they] lost” during the crisis.

“You saved them, now it’s time that they step up for us,” he added.

As The Independent has reported, protesters across the country have faced a spate of vehicle attacks, particularly those advocating for racial justice after the murder of George Floyd.

In the summer of 2020, between May and July alone, there were 104 vehicular attacks at Black Lives Matter protests all across the country, according to a USA Today analysis, from Albuquerque to Visalia, California, to Minneapolis, where a man drove a semi-truck through a crowd of demonstrators on Interstate 35.

In some cases, as with a June 2020 attack in a Richmond, Virginia, suburb, or the 2017 killing of Heather Heyer, who was protesting against a neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, the drivers had explicit ties to white supremacist groups. In others, as with a May 2020 Black Lives Matter protest in Brooklyn, it’s the police themselves ramming demonstrators.