GM on Tuesday stopped covering health insurance premiums for the nearly 50,000 auto workers striking for fair wages and decent benefits. The move shifts healthcare costs to the United Auto Workers (UAW), which will be forced to reach into its strike fund to pay the bills.
Steve Frisque, a full-time union steward and committee lead at the GM parts plant in Hudson, Wisconsin, told In These Times that by cutting off workers' healthcare, the automobile giant is "using scare tactics, making people worried about how they're going to make it" through the strike. "We sacrificed for GM, and now it's time for GM to share the wealth," Frisque added. "They paid essentially no taxes last year, and they act like they're broke. They have made record profits for the last four or five years. When their CEO Mary Barra is making over $20 million and they say they don't have enough money to pay their employees on the floor, then I have an issue with that and I think all of us do."
"GM's decision to yank healthcare coverage away from their dedicated employees with no warning is heartless and unconscionable," said Mary Kay Henry, president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). "GM's actions could put people's lives at risk, from the factory worker who needs treatment for their asthma to the child who relies on their parents' insurance for chemotherapy."
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