UAW strike: What Spring Hill GM workers say they're fighting for. 'We deserve to have a life'

General Motors treated Angie Osborn to almost all that Spring Hill had to offer. It was 1993, three years after the first car rolled off the assembly line at the town’s GM Saturn plant, and not long after the last manufacturing plant in California she worked at shuttered.

The company flew her from the Golden State and put her up in what was Spring Hill’s one hotel, which featured its one restaurant, and took her on a tour of the plant. When she started there, she had enough money to live well and save to build her own house.

So much has changed 30 years later. What was a farming town of just over 1,500 people is now a mid-sized city of more than 50,000.

And what was once a job that workers say could support an entire family has many now living paycheck to paycheck or working second jobs.

Update: UAW strike: Just days after Spring Hill walks out, GM and union reach tentative agreement

Workers at the plant walked off the production line at 5 p.m. Saturday, joining the thousands of others United Auto Workers employees across the country who have been striking since Sept. 15 for a better contract for workers. Among their asks: better pay for all workers, better benefits and more job security as the automaker sees record profits.

UAW Region 8 Director Tim Smith called several local union leaders, including UAW Local 1853 President John Rutherford and Shop Chairman Jason Spain, after he got word from UAW President Shawn Fain.

“I called Jason (Spain) and said, ‘We’re striking. Have everybody out in one hour,’” Smith said. “And hearing his voice was incredible.”

Vanderbilt University finance professor Josh White, a former economist for the Securities and Exchange Commission, said UAW Spring Hill’s inclusion in the strike “likely reflects its position of strength in bargaining with GM following tentative agreements with Ford and Stellantis.”

GM said it was disappointed in the decision to expand the strike to Spring Hill.

“We are disappointed by the UAW’s action in light of the progress we have made. We have continued to bargain in good faith with the UAW, and our goal remains to reach an agreement as quickly as possible," a statement from a GM spokesperson says.

GM has touted that its contract offer is historic, reaching a 23% to 25% increase for some.

Most picketers said they were surprised but excited to join the fight. The energy at the union hall and the handful of picket locations near the plant on Sunday was a mixture of optimism, camaraderie and a few moments of anger, expressed by workers.

“We fight for all of our local (workers), not just us. It's not just us. If it wasn't for our jobs, they wouldn't have jobs," said Sherry Barger, who has worked at the plant for seven and a half years.

Auto manufacturing turned Spring Hill into what it is today, many say.

Analysis: A prolonged UAW strike at General Motors' Spring Hill plant would have hurt Tennessee

“New people, in great numbers, changed the small town into a city” after the opening of the GM plant, reads the City of Spring Hill’s website.

“...[T]he energy and vitality of these newcomers allowed the town to move forward in the arts, business, and education. The Saturn Plant became an anchor to Spring Hill’s economy.”

UAW STRIKE: GM Spring Hill strike, 'feels good': Here's everything we know

Building family legacy as GM employees

Smith said better pay for workers helps boost the local economy as employees have more money to spend at local shops and restaurants.

Barger's husband, David, and son Michael Barger both work at the plant. Michael, 26, started working at the plant two weeks after high school.

He has a wife and two kids whom he’s trying to provide for, but it’s tough. He said he mostly lives paycheck to paycheck.

Osborn said she’s fighting so that the new workers like Michael can have the same opportunities she had. In 1993, she said she made about $18 an hour; that's roughly $34 an hour today, adjusted for inflation.

“Young people really need it,” Osborn said.

Workers say starting pay is much lower now, adjusted for inflation. Dwayne Kelley, who was just rehired at the plant, makes $18.75, which he said is generally the amount given to new workers in his position, despite having six years of experience there from years before.

He has put his body on the line for GM. He said that one day at work in 2017, as he was pulling a gas tank off a table and onto a hoist to place it in a car, he pulled his bicep and a muscle in his shoulder.

Kelley said that because of the plant’s medical stipulations and the time it takes to see an outside doctor, he went back to the line.

He injured his other arm the same way, he said.

“It cost me two-and-a-half years out having surgery,” Kelley said.

Concerned about family time

Tia March, 34, is a single mother who has worked at the plant since 2016. She lives an hour away from work. She works six days a week, from 4 p.m. to 1:15 a.m., meaning she doesn't have much time to spend with her son, who is 11.

"I don't really get to be a mother," March said.

She said her and other workers deserve more.

"I feel like we deserve to have a life too. I feel like (GM executives) do, so why shouldn't we?" March said. "Especially when we're out here actually building the cars."

Could the finish line be near?

White expects these latest actions to be the final stretch of the strike that began in September, especially following recent agreements reached by Ford and Stellantis.

“At this point, UAW has the superior bargaining position. … It is clear that UAW leadership wants to leverage recent agreements with Ford and Stellantis to further pressure GM for concessions,” White said. “I would not be surprised to see these negotiations end within a week or two, with the union securing a package of raises and benefits like those agreed to by Ford and Stellantis.”

Evan Mealins is the justice reporter for The Tennessean. Contact him at emealins@gannett.com or follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @EvanMealins.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: UAW strike in Tennessee: What GM workers say they are fighting for