United Auto Workers

YORK, Pa. -- Take a stroll down Memory Lane, for such a place does exist, and there lies a gray slab of American industry about to fade away: A parts plant owned by Caterpillar Inc., the world's largest maker of earth-moving machinery.Just beyond, on the same block, rises the foundation of what's to come: The I-beams of a mini-mart gas station.And dividing the two stands an American flag, symbol of progress, power and -- here in this blue-collar town -- upheavals in the way of business.This is the logic on one block of Memory Lane -- the aptly named boulevard undergoing tectonic change: Even as a service station prepares to open with the promise of 40 jobs and a starting wage of $6.20 an hour, a plant nearly 500 times larger is about to shut down next door.

WASHINGTON - First it was the heads of Detroit's Big Three automakers who offered public pledges to cut costs, shrink their vehicle lines, go green and slash their salaries in the quest for a desperately needed government bailout. Yesterday, it was the workers' turn to sacrifice before crucial congressional hearings begin this morning on the automakers' request for $34 billion in emergency loans. United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger said the union would allow General Motors, Ford and Chrysler to delay billions of dollars in payments to a retiree health-care trust and suspend a jobs bank that pays laid-off workers.

At the American flag-festooned Poncabird Pub yesterday, men in work clothes sat in small groups and attempted to understand the death in the family. It was after shift change at the nearby General Motors plant, whose sprawling buildings and parking lots could be seen from most barstools. It will close next year after 69 years, its employees had just learned. "Look at these guys," a barmaid said. "The other shoe has dropped; their future is pretty much shot." Although the autoworkers knew the patient had been on the critical list for some time, not many wanted to talk with outsiders about it. Outside on Broening Highway, named for an early 20th-century Baltimore mayor, tractor-trailers thundered into well-worn potholes.

General Motors Corp. wants Maryland to halt payments of unemployment benefits to about 3,000 union workers at its Southeast Baltimore van assembly plant who were laid off last month as a result of strikes at two GM parts plants in Flint, Mich.The local development comes as GM is indicating that it may drop some low-profit cars if United Auto Workers' strikes continue into August.The No. 1 automaker had asked the state Office of Unemployment Insurance to either reconsider its June 12 decision to pay the benefits to the laid-off workers at the Broening Highway plant or it will appeal to the Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board.

An article in yesterday's editions of The Sun about a strike against Ryder System Inc. incorrectly implied that Local 239 of the United Auto Workers Union would honor a picket line at the General Motors Corp. assembly plant here. The president of the UAW local assumed that Teamster drivers would honor a Teamsters' picket line.The Sun regrets the errors.

I feel that the money Baltimore County and Maryland have decided to give to GM White Marsh will do little good for the county or state as a whole ("Council approves $6M for GM White Marsh expansion," Sept. 21). This gift will help only a very few overpaid United Auto Workers members. Taxpayers would get much more bang for their buck if these funds were used to train and mentor minimum wage employees so they might advance themselves toward making a living wage, or to train and mentor unemployed citizens of Maryland.

Douglas A. Fraser, 91 United Auto Workers leader Douglas A. Fraser, who led the United Auto Workers union through dark hours in the U.S. auto industry in the 1970s and '80s, died late Saturday at Providence Hospital in Southfield, Mich., his wife, Winnie Fraser, said yesterday. She said he had emphysema and went into the hospital with breathing problems. Mr. Fraser was popular with the union's rank and file, who appreciated his candor and accessibility. "Everybody thought he was wonderful," Mrs. Fraser said.

Local 239 of the United Auto Workers union has reached a tentative contract agreement with the General Motors Corp. assembly plant in Southeast Baltimore, reducing the chances of a strike at the city's largest manufacturing employer this year.Rodney A. Trump, president of the local, which represents 3,200 hourly workers at the van assembly plant, said the agreement was reached yesterday morning following extensive negotiations.Rank-and-file members are scheduled to meet at the UAW hall on Oldham Street for their ratification vote at 1:30 p.m. Sunday.

Francis L. Smith, 79, the diocesan bishop of Ohio for the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World, died of a heart attack in Akron, Ohio, on Tuesday. He was pastor of the First Apostolic Faith Church in Akron from 1951 to 1992, when he retired with the title pastor emeritus. He was chairman of the Ohio District Council before being elevated to bishop in 1972.Genora Johnson Dollinger, 82, who rallied support for the hard-fought strike that launched the United Auto Workers union at General Motors Corp.

WESTMINSTER -- The Economic ripples of a strike by 3,200 Auto Workers has had a dramatic impact on Marada Industries Inc., a GM parts supplier to the now-idle General Motors Corp. Broening Highway minivan assembly plant in Baltimore.Marada produces steel structural components that go into the GM van, and its big factory was nearly vacant last week.Only one of its four giant metal press machines was operating. The roll mill line, which would normally be a clatter of activity as it banged out a bumper every five or six seconds, was sitting idle.