Rouge Deaths

[Richard Gibson]

Around 3:15 this afternoon an explosion at the 80 year old Ford Rouge
Plant, where I worked, killed at least one worker and injured, with severe
burns, up to 30 others. Burns are hard to quickly evaluate. It is likely
that many of those burned will suffer horribly for years.  This is the
second major explosion at the plant which was once the largest auto complex
in the world, with over 100,000 workers. The plant now employees about
9,000 people, a clear reflection of the shift in US industry. 

The area of the explosion, near my old job site, was decrepit in the 60's
and, according to my friends, has not had a significant refurbishing since
then. This is the second major explosion in the same area in five years.
When I had to work in the tunnels under the Rouge, which among other things
were routes for trains which carried finely ground coal to power plants,
all of us feared the possibility of explosions, which would cleary rip
through the entire tunnel system. I am not certain this is what happened
this time around.

William Clay Ford has been on the site decrying what happened to his "Ford
Family." The UAW leadership from the once militant communist led Local 600
is on TV virtually hugging Ford, thanking him for the grief couselors and
MD's he provided in the emergency. The local ABC affiliate is leading their
special converage with praise for the unity of "UAW-Ford, " the title the
company uses in their ads. 

The answer to the question, "Is there hope for the labor movement?, " is
Hell No, because the structure and the purpose of this labor movement is
utterly rotten--as this incident dramatically shows. 
Rich Gibson
Program Coordinator of Social Studies
Wayne State University
College of Education
Detroit MI 48202

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	Life travels upward in spirals. 
	Those who take pains to search the shadows
	 of the past below us, then, can better judge the
	 tiny arc up which they climb, 
	more surely guess the dim
	 curves of the future above them.