Catholic church offers prayers for quick, fair end to UAW strike
Matthew Dolan, Detroit Free Press
5 min read
Congregation members pray with the Rev. Sean Bonner during morning mass inside St. Mary Catholic Church in Wayne on Sunday, Sept. 17, 2023.
In the shadow of the United Auto Workers strike, a Catholic Church reconvened Sunday morning, calling for a fair, expedient end to the national labor dispute that has unsettled the congregation's hometown for days.
The Rev. Sean Bonner asked his congregation during the 8:30 a.m. Mass to pray for the autoworkers and their employers, "that they will come to a quick and equitable end to the strike."
At 11:59 p.m. Thursday, nearly 13,000 UAW workers across the three Detroit automakers went on strike at the first wave of plants that the union said it would shut down until a new labor agreement is reached.
Those plants are Ford Michigan Assembly Plant (final assembly and paint only) in Wayne, Stellantis Toledo Assembly Complex in Ohio and General Motors Wentzville Assembly in Missouri. At Michigan Assembly, formerly called Michigan Truck Plant, Ford builds the Ranger midsize pickup and the Bronco SUV.
A righteous case for Fain
For months, the autoworkers union has been gearing up for a walk-out.
"Now we're here to come together to ready ourselves for the war against our only one and only true enemy, multibillion-dollar corporations and employers that refuse to give our members their fair share," UAW President Shawn Fain told his UAW convention this spring. These days, Fain often invokes Scripture to promote unity, rallying his troops, calming their fears and steeling their resolve with biblical passages.
"Like my grandfather's pay stub that I carry with me every day, I'm proud to have inherited my grandma's Bible and her faith," Fain said in an earlier interview.
The Rev. Sean Bonner talks to a congregation member at the end of morning mass inside St. Mary Catholic Church in Wayne on Sunday, Sept. 17, 2023.
The congregation down the street is hardly of one voice.
The oldest Catholic parish in western Wayne County was founded in 1862, now attracting both union members and their bosses. Before 8 a.m. Sunday, Dave Otzman arrived for choir practice prior to Mass. With his wife, Rita, by his side in the brick-clad church parking lot, he wondered about how close a resolution might be.
"I don't know if their demands are too much," Otzman said, referring to the UAW's calls for substantial pay increase and other benefits. "But in any case, I hope they settle it soon." (The UAW struck General Motors for 40 days in 2019 after designating GM as the "target" company in talks that year.)
The Rev. Sean Bonner leads a mass inside St. Mary Catholic Church in Wayne on Sunday, Sept. 17, 2023. Bonner led a prayer for UAW members during the morning mass.
Mary Davis, who has lived in nearby Westland for nearly two decades, said she had no compunction about her criticism of the gulf between organized labor and the Detroit Three automakers.
"I think they are asking for too much," Davis said, referring to the UAW's reported calls for raises of more than 40%. "I think you need to work together. I can see something, but even 20% seems extreme." Davis said she held to those convictions despite coming from a union family and serving as a union steward while driving a school bus.
Regardless of the conflict over the contract details, Denise Laizer, also of Westland, said she worries about anyone out of work. Her friends and neighbors affected by the strike are already concerned about "being able to pay their bills."
Support for the strikers
RoseAnn Boguslawski, who has lived in Westland for two decades, also has seen that economic insecurity. A couple of neighbors, she said, "asked me to take them to Sam's Club" to save money on shopping.
Kenneth Ditmore, a manager who retired from the Wayne facility when it was known as Michigan Truck, said the entire episode was disheartening. "I don't approve of strikes," Ditmore said. "There are other ways to settle differences."
But Pat Colligan, who has lived in Wayne for 50 years, said as a former schoolteacher, wholeheartedly supports the strikers. "We need to share the wealth" and close the gap between well-paid auto executives and their rank-and-file workers.
In particular, she chided the auto companies for holding on to a two-tiered wage system that pays two workers doing the same job differently based on when they were hired.
Now some of her concerns are hitting close to home. The church's food bank, she said, already has a low inventory. "If there is a long strike, will we have enough to help?" she asked.
The union's "Stand Up Strike," targets specific plants of Ford, General Motors and Stellantis, which makes Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Fiat brands. Union leaders have said they will select new plants to take out on strike in various waves if negotiations continue to fail to land new agreements with the auto companies. The unconventional strategy is designed to keep the automakers off-balance to push the companies into a more lucrative contract for union members.
The Rev. Sean Bonner leads a prayer for UAW members during morning mass inside St. Mary Catholic Church in Wayne on Sunday, Sept. 17, 2023.
So far, that uncertainty hasn't rocked St. Mary's, according to Bonner, who has led the parish for seven years.
"If it lingers, I'm sure that will lead to some increased tensions," he said in the church's sacristy after Mass.
He added that the church and the city are "a blue-collar community." As the fortunes of the auto industry rise and fall, "so do we." He recalled at St. Mary's the challenge of weathering other challenges, including the 2008 financial crisis and the closing of the church's school in 2018 after declining enrollment and ballooning debt in the parish.
Nevertheless, Bonner said, St. Mary will remain safe haven for all throughout troubled times.
"We support both sides," he added.
Reporters Eric D. Lawrence, Jamie L. LaReau and Phoebe Wall Howard contributed to this report.
Contact Matthew Dolan: 313-223-4743 or msdolan@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter at @matthewsdolan
