WYOMING, Michigan — Just past 7:00 in the morning, a dozen or so men pull up onto the gravel shoulder along Business 196. They get out of their cars and trucks, slip on their reflective neon yellow vests, and hoist signs over their shoulders.
They’re going on strike.
Their target is Rieth-Riley, the construction company where, on any other day, they would be pulling into for work.
They begin their march on the lonely highway filled with industrial parks and gas stations; eighteen-wheeler tractor trailers fly by in either direction, coming so close that each approach brings the fresh spray and sting of tiny bits of gravel kicking up from their wheels.
As if in apology or solidarity, a melody of sorts forms as the truckers lay on their horns for their fellow working men.
The strikers are members of the Operating Engineers Local 324 and are part of 200 workers at 13 other Rieth-Riley plants across the state, a move that has caused road projects all over Michigan to grind to a halt.
A handful of workers explain the situation off the record — going on the record would cause trouble. Across the street Dan McKernan, Local 324’s spokesman, is on the phone pacing back and forth in an empty lot, fielding calls from workers and the press.
“Today the workers of Rieth-Riley Construction in Michigan decided to go on strike to try to get Rieth-Riley to resolve both the unfair labor practices that the National Labor Relations Board has already taken and scheduled a trial for, and to get a new contract in place. They’ve been without a new contract since the last one expired June 1st of 2018,” he said after sprinting across the highway.
The strike comes one year after a company lock-out also delayed road construction projects for weeks — if you’ve ever driven in Michigan in the past 2 decades you know within seconds of crossing the state line those road projects are desperately needed.
Last year then-candidate Democrat Gretchen Whitmer used “fix the damn roads” as the crux in her campaign for Governor. That got her elected.
“Despite working through this summer without a contract, and being locked last year, they’ve been treated incredibly unfairly. And that’s not my opinion. That’s the opinion of the National Labor Relations Act,” McKernan said.
The men in the picket line proudly admit they did not vote for President Trump in 2016, yet one day after the Democratic debate held in their state, they fumble to point to anyone who picked up the mantle of the union worker, outside of Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan.
Their biggest concern is Democrats’ swift embrace of “Medicare for all,” which would eliminate the union workers’ private healthcare coverage. There’s also the Green New Deal, which includes a long list of environmental regulations that could crimp their jobs.
Hillary Clinton won union households in 2016, but she greatly underperformed other Democrats. Had she done as well among union households as Obama did, according to exit polls, she would have carried Michigan — and probably Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, too.
Right now, none of the union men are all that keen on national politics. “We just want to get this resolved and get our workers back to work,” said McKernan.
You have to wonder: Do Democrats want to win back this state in 2020 badly enough that they are willing to move to the center to appeal to these workers? Looking at the debate stage these days, that seems unlikely.
So could Trump win over these Democratic voters? Also unlikely, although not impossible. There is a thin line between love and hate, even when it comes to politics, but indifference? Well that is poison.
