(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.