BOLINGBROOK, ILL. — Mary Greene, a second-generation General Motors worker who’s been at GM’s Chicago Parts Distribution Center since 2013, jumps up to cheer and dance with her ​“UAW — On Strike” sign as cars and freight trucks drive by. Greene tries to say, ​“Thank you!” or lift her hand in acknowledgment to every passing supporter who raises a fist or honks in solidarity.

This Sunday, on a winding stretch of Remington Blvd. opposite a quiet pond surrounded by factories and warehouses, a handful of members of United Auto Workers Local 2114 picketed. Workers at the Bolingbrook warehouse have been on strike since Friday after being among the more than 5,000 United Auto Workers members at 38 parts distribution centers tapped by UAW President Shawn Fain to walk off the job in the union’s fight for a new contract with better pay, increased retiree benefits and other demands.

The UAW’s ​“stand-up strike” strategy involves union leaders selecting small numbers of local unions to strike at a time, as opposed to calling for a nationwide strike as they work toward a new contract with ​“The Big Three” auto manufacturers — Ford, General Motors and Stellantis.

Greene, a parts technician who also walked out alongside her coworkers in 2019 during the nationwide General Motors strike, when 46,000 GM autoworkers struck for over a month, says that this time around, she’s hoping for a better, quicker outcome.

“I hope it doesn’t go as long as the last one did,” Greene says. ​“It was 40 days and 40 nights, so it was long, and it was starting to get miserable in the middle of October, you know, starting to get cold and stuff.”

Greene is hoping for cost-of-living adjustments, better benefits and wage increases. She says that, like many of her union comrades, she lives paycheck to paycheck and has required surgeries in the past due to the job’s physical demands.

Multiple members of UAW Local 2114, like Greene, say that while their local management largely hasn’t been difficult to work with, it’s General Motors higher-ups making record profits amid declining hourly wages and other issues that are problems.

“It’s not fair that they’re bringing home these millions of dollars and have so many summer homes and everything else, and we’re living paycheck to paycheck to try just to try and make ends meet,” Greene said. ​“I mean, that’s how I am. I mean, I get paid, and my check’s gone if I pay my bills.”