AND he did not grow up in Flint. He grew up in Davison. Lilly White Davison at the time.
The UAW was one of the richest and most powerful unions in the U.S. They were making $20 per hour when other blue collar workers were making maybe $5 per hour. My father used to show me his old pay stubs (he worked for the railroad) — some of the earliest ones were at the rate of 35 cents per hour. He made so little money he didn’t have to pay taxes. His union was not interested in the big paychecks — they went for the benefits. At one time they had the best health insurance and the best pension plan. But then when the other unions became too greedy, the companies folded and there was no business for the railroads anymore — so the railroads went under also. My dad was lucky though — he was already on pension when the railroads folded and his health care was paid for until he was 65 (he retired early at 60). His pension included a cost of living increase and he was smart enough to have not only a regular pension, but also a supplemental pension which he paid into over the years. Plus my mother also drew a spousal pension. So the two of them did very well. With the other unions, however, those workers had pension plans that went belly up, and because none of them were wise enough to build a nest egg from their extravagant wages, many of those workers wound up destitute.
Greed and stupidity did in the blue collar workers. So by and large, I can’t feel sorry for them.