UAW Picketer Killed by Drunk Driver Remembered as Personable, Funny

A United Auto Workers member was killed on the picket line September 28 outside Eaton Aerospace, where workers have been on strike since September 16. Seth Webb, a member of UAW Local 475, was struck by a drunk driver. So were four other picketers, two of whom were rushed to the Henry Ford Hospital across the street with severe injuries.

The 500 members of Local 475 walked off the job after months at the bargaining table. They have been picketing 24/7 at the facility in Jackson, Michigan, where they manufacture hydraulics equipment for military, government, and commercial planes.

Webb was a newer hire at Eaton’s Plymouth St. plant, but he had already developed deep bonds with many of his co-workers. A union member who trained him described him as funny, personable, and extremely quick to learn.

Webb often staffed night shifts on the Michigan Ave. picket line, along with his brother Aaron Fraser, who was also struck. Fraser has since been discharged from the hospital and is recovering.

At least two other UAW members have been killed on picket lines since 2019, one at John Deere and one at General Motors.

BENEFITS SQUEEZE

Workers on the picket line describe a years-long campaign by management to squeeze employee benefits while downplaying record profits. Eaton earned more than $20 billion in profits in the last decade and well over $3 billion in 2023 alone. Its stock price has quadrupled in the past five years and now sits at $330 a share.

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One of the big sticking points in the strike is the company’s push to establish two tiers for retirement benefits.

Wes Wetherby, a lube technician with 12 years at Eaton, said the company had come into bargaining with an aggressive agenda of eliminating pensions for all new hires. Eaton wants to put new hires on a 401(k) with up to a 6 percent match, and begin freezing existing union workers’ pensions toward the end of this next contract in 2028. In 2020, Eaton announced it was freezing pensions for all its non-union employees.

“The company has made money hand over fist over the last five-year contract,” said Wetherby. But management claims the company simply hasn’t hit the “profit metrics” needed to preserve and expand benefits.

Despite the tragedy on the picket line and the aggressive posturing by Eaton, workers continue to picket round the clock and the nearby strike camp continues to provide food and other donated supplies to picketers. “People are sick of the company making tons of money and not sharing any,” Wetherby said.

Donations to support Seth Webb’s family can be made to a GoFundMe page started by his sister. There are also GoFundMe pages to support the two severely injured picketers: donate here to support Kyle Agler, who is still in the ICU, and here to support Aaron Fraser, Seth’s brother, who was also critically injured and has since been discharged.

Justin Yuan is an organizer for the Unite All Workers for Democracy caucus in the UAW. Ethen Winright is an organizer with SEIU Homecare Workers United.