(I-
Ahe
thre
wee
Detr
t.u e
,st rik
B
T
it Nv
" Al
Ave
the
mez
hour
uni
hair
T3
one
B
fron
day
Chrysler stopped Dailundaunted
;IlT iC's NOTE: Nhat follows is afternoon there was a good deal
first of a teo-art account from more to worry aboot than who hit
.e Iaily staffers Oho covered this
k's Chrysler plant shutdown in whom first.
oi and braed tuch adversity The UPI state wire informed
nt th ptaet and s heith its newspapers that 300 workers .
in e k.) in the Mack Ave. press room had
y DAN BIDDLE, KEN FINK taken over the plant and shut
and DEBRA THAL dtwn the assembly line. Outside
lists the plant gate, we were told, a m
o trio of oltege joorn s crowd of workers and demonstra-
as Mars brooght to life. tors had organized a wildcat
t Chrysler's sprawvling Mack picketline against the wishes of
stamping plant in Detroit, UAW leadership.
workers seized control of the And needless to say, the gentle-
ans of production for some 40 men who run Chrysler weren't
rs and had both company and too pleased, either.
on officials tearing out their
r over what to do about it. WBEN THE Ann Arbor college
press contingent arrived, the
HE TROUBLE started with main gate looked like a popular
Communist. booth at the Street Art Fair, ex-
ill Gilbreth had been fired cent -that the signs didn't ad-
n his job the previous Fri- vertise jewelry and no one was
and decided over the week- smiling. Channel 2 was looking
for filmable people; Workers'
Action Movement (WAM) agita-
tors on the outside of the fence w :
and true-to-life workers on the°x
inside of the fence were harassing
the security guards and looking
for a fight.
The Daily had no interest in - I
fighting anyone and was looking
for a story.
The story, it seemed, was not
to be had. Somewhere, deep
within the arteries of the auto-
mobile-producing facility before *
us, about 50 workers were said Daily photo by KEN FINK
to be plotting the downfall of the UAW Local 212 Pres. Hank Ghant, left, had few answers for either th
corporate structure. Inasmuch as wDaily
the plant was shut down for the workers of The
day, the rebels seemed to have
met with initial success. Reporter Biddie tried to talk cape" atop the plant's 13-foot with Biddle's politeness in s
over the fence to UAW Local wire barrier, was spotted by ing quotes remarked, "Li
BUT COMPANY officials were President Hank Ghant, but Ghant security guards who politely friend, you're making my
adamant in their refusal to let seemed equally bereft of answers. asked her to explain herself. awfully difficult. I wouldn't go
any press into the plant. "We don't support the strike," Photographer Fink found him- there if I were you. You're ask
Adamant, in fact, was the word he said in a strained voice, "but self equally thwarted. While most for trouble."
Gilbreth of the day. Officials were ada- we support their (the rebels) subjects for newspaper photoS The statement was accur.
mant, workers were adamant in efforts to solve some of the smile politely or at least cooper- The Daily's nervous threeso
that the best way to take an their demands for total amnesty problems here. ' What happens
ult like that was to take it and improved working conditions, now? God only knows."
ing down. .. ..demonstrators were adamant in But He wasn't available for
o he camse in Tuesday mtre- their rejection of UAW leader- comment. wantavailablefor
and sat dtwn on top of his ship, and UAW seemed equally
chine. adamant tiver the badness of the Thi-~~''- fgr I
work stoppage. AS UAW BIGWIGS conferred failed asThal, poised like a Igure in "T h
HAT STOPPED the assembly Union Vice President and top hastily with Chrysler bigwigs,
and started the crisis, negotiator Doug Fraser even had reporter Thal conferred hastily Great Escape" atop the plant's 13-foot wi
pair of guards entered the the chutzpah to urge Chrysler to with Detroit Free Press littlewig
ssing room where Gilbreth "sweat out the strike." Paul Branzburg on the possibility barrier, was spotted by security guards w
ked and tried to remove him, of entering the plant by climbing
Gilbreth had done his home- WHERE WAS the union's fight- the barbwire fence at some un- politely asked her to explain herself.
k, just like Lenin used to do, ing spirit? Where were the calls seendlocation. Branzburg, it
some 300 fellow Chrysler for worker solidarity at otherdeveloped a liaison
kers came swiftly to his de- plants? Where were the thousands with a guy named Frank, who
seexpectedt had sneaked out, unbeknownst to ate, a lady in the picket line impressed with the immensity
he guards left witr battered milling about the plant ina many, from the innards of the advised Fink to stop taking pic- what we had just done, liter
hdgacrdig eto wthe cottmr moon o t antipa vienc plant. Logically, if he could get tures or "I'll punch out your put our heads together andc
ds--according to the com- mood of anticipated violence? ~u ihu aigtobe e fcin ae"sdrdtepo n os
y, Gilbreth and another work- (The demonstrators, given the out without making trouble, he fucking face."sidered the pros and cons
Clinton Smith, attacked the benefit of the doubt, numbered could get back in without making moving forward into the plan
rwith steel pipes. t00.) And where, above all, was tobe U H AL a o ob
theehs.e n he enbe through ButwthesffortsofThaIa stopped, and Fink's face was to "I'M SCARED," said F
the hole in the fence through But the efforts of Thal and remain scarless and animated as "Let's leave."
HE WORKERS told a dif- which we could crawl in and find Branzburg failed as Thal, poised finally a route to journalistic Biddle and Thal expresseds
ent story, but by Tuesday the rebels? like a figure in "The Great Es- sus a-etar flings cnnerningthe
end
inst
sit
s'
ing
mnac
T
tine
A
pre
wor
but
war
and
wor
fens
T
hea
pan
er,
pair
T
fere
he
eek-
ook,
job
o ir.
ing
ate.
nme,
rg
e
re
h0
y of
ally
con-
of
I.
su.
When in doubt, crawl under the stantial possibility of arrest for
fence. trespassing. But Frank, our pro-
So we did. letarian contact, offered us a
massive rebel escort and voiced
FRANK, who seemed to have enthusiasm about our endeavors.
no difficulty finding his way to "Well, you only live once,"
either side of the fence, egged us mused Biddle. The die was cast.
on as we squirmed boldly be-
neath the cyclone fence delineat- DEFYING WARNINGS from
ing the main gate. The action guards and incredibly hairy eye-
had its drawbacks: it aroused the balls from officials, we ran into
ire of security guards with gun- the plant.
belts and swift-moving company
officials with jackets and ties. Watch tomorrow's Daily
Moreover it aroused the revolu-
tionary fervor of demonstrators for Part II: The fear-
on both sides of the gate-some- some threesome hobnob
thing that WAM's people had
been trying to arouse all after- with the revoluntionary
noon. hardcore, deep in the
They chanted "Hell, no, they
won't go!" as officials moved silent bowels of the
toward us and tried to arrange temporarily disabled
our departure. One gentleman
who had earlier been impressed corporate monster.
THE
Summer Daily
Suminer Edition of
T HE MICHIGAN DAILY
Edited and managed by students at the
University of Michigan
Friday, August 17, 1973 News Phone: 764-0552
Deity Photo by KEN FINK
One of some 40 rebel workers who held out inside the plant's fences until
Wednesday morning.