Workers, other union members, and Wayne sheriff offer solidarity for striking UAW

DETROIT (FOX 2) - Autoworkers, friends, family, and even the Wayne County sheriff were outside the Michigan Assembly Plant Friday for Day 1 of the UAW strike.

"I thought it was important we come out and show a commitment and our solidarity," said Sheriff Raphael Washington, who had words of encouragement for the workers. "Keep up, get your message out. And hopefully everybody will be back to work very shortly."

It may be a while before workers are done striking. Some have predicted issues to exasperate for the economy the longer the protest goes on and the wider the strike becomes.

It's apparent at least to the workers outside the front of the Ford plant in Wayne, however, they're ready to go the distance.

"If we don't stand together, we're going to fall and we can't fall," said Sandy Kirklin of UAW Local 900. "We have to stand together."

Kirklin has worked on the line for decades. 

She said she had wanted to work for the company since she was 12 years old, even writing an essay about it.

"And so I finally got my dream job of being on the line," said Kirklin. But lately, the task doesn't feel like a dream job - especially for those working on lower tiers within the plant.

"These people work doing the same job, sometimes harder jobs than we do, and get paid less. That’s not fair," she said.

The picket line outside the plant Friday stretched down Michigan Avenue. It brought people from all over the Midwest, including Christopher Kruger who came from Chicago.

"Two this morning," he said. "I figured it was fast because there wasn’t anybody on the roads."