The Westfall Papers

From the 1970's and through the 1980’s before American based multi national corporations had exported, automated and restructured out of existence so many of America’s well paying middle class jobs there were powerful grass roots voices coming from Flint, Michigan sounding an alarm.

General Motors was our countries largest manufacturing corporation and the largest concentration of G.M. workers was located in Flint. The work began with nine G.M. assembly line workers from Flints U.A.W. Local 598 who formed a group called the U.A.W. 25 & Out Committee which started out working on retirement issues.

The scope and issues of the work expanded, matured and evolved quickly over the years into the C.E.R.P. committee and finally The Westfall Awareness Committee. Over this period there were various side groups that were headed by Westfall including Workers Opposed to Concessions, Workers for the Fight against Corporate Property Tax Reductions and various other groups. The work started in Flint and remained based in Flint however the work and ideas generated from these activists quickly spread all over the country.

Local union politicians didn’t know what to do with these rebel activists and did not fully recognize or understand the power and influence of their work. While some union leaders embraced their work and worked closely with them other union leaders attempted to use them as political pawns. Other union leaders ignored and denigrated their work because they viewed them as a threat to their power base.

They were wrong and these activists refused to be silent. They did incredible work both inside and outside of the union. They raised the sensitive social issues and worked with well known people who had name recognition from all over the country.

Westfall wrote thousands of pages of material for hundreds of articles over the decades. The groups conducted rallies, chaired conferences, led demonstrations and did both TV and radio shows, which debated these profound changes. While rooted in the auto industry their material crossed employment boundaries and was applicable to all American workers no matter where they worked.

Westfall wrote important union / corporate negotiated benefit programs. These programs have helped offset the pain of restructured job loss by allowing older workers, in many instances, to voluntarily retire earlier rather then discharging the lower seniority worker where designed job redundancy occurs. This has saved thousands of lower seniority workers who were slotted for discharge.

Westfall was a consultant to the Dept. of Education in Washington where he worked out of Alexandria Virginia. He spoke at major universities, was asked to speak in congress and many well known people worked with him on his issues. Ralph Nader, who worked with Westfall for years and used Westfall as a consultant on his material, said in a radio interview, that Westfall was one of the most intelligent people he had ever met. World respected Victor Ruther, who also worked with Westfall, was a leader in the historic 1937 sit down strike in Flint and one of the founders of the U.A.W. said Westfall was a leader like others should be and he valued Westfall as a friend. These Flint workers regularly debated top corporate leaders at the GM stockholders meetings on restructured job loss, foreign worker exploitation, apartheid and other important issues.

This story is powerful and this site will focus on this work by targeting some of the Westfall Awareness Papers including a sample of the speeches, monthly awareness letters, radio / TV interviews, and film / rally proposals and newspaper / magazine interviews done with a variety of media sources from all over America.

This is an historical site designed and run by people who were members of one or more of Westfall's groups and it is rare historical grass roots Americana at its best. These workers were futurists. Consider the timeline and content of their projections in their papers relative to what has happened since. It is shocking how accurate they were.

These hard working concerned American assembly line workers from Flint were the ...“only” ..Major collective grass roots worker voice in our country sounding a national alarm as to the impending social and economic consequences resulting from these changes.

This restructuring was one of Americas most overlooked and important issues at the end of the last century. Nothing has had an impact on America’s workforce like it ……Nothing!

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