The Westfall Papers
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http://westfallmike.tripod.com
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!
This site will
give a time line and be based on Westfall’s work and writing
condensations.
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