DETROIT, Mich. and TOLEDO, Ohio Whether they are brand-new temps or 25-year veterans, the auto workers battling the Big Three in an unprecedented strike say they are fighting to restore their jobs to the gold-standard working-class careers they were in previous generations.

Wages in the auto industry writ large have dropped nearly 20% since 2008 when adjusted for inflation. Now Ford, General Motors and Jeep parent company Stellantis are facing their first simultaneous strike ever in the United Auto Workers 88-year history.

As their union leadership bargains new four-year contracts, workers say they are determined to claw back earlier concessions that lowered payscales for new workers and sacrificed hard-won standards enjoyed by their parents and grandparents, including defined-benefit pension plans.

We gave up a lot, said Kenyon Reed, who works in the paint shop at GMs Factory ZERO , which produces the electric Hummer SUV and electric Silverado pickup. I feel like they owe me.

Reed attended a rally in downtown Detroit on Friday where he held a weathered UAW strike sign, the same one he waved on the picket line during the unions six-week strike against GM in 2019. Factory ZERO workers have not walked out the targeted strikes have only hit one facility apiece for each of the Big Three so far but Reed said hes ready to heed his unions call if the work stoppage expands.

The 12-year GM employee described his unions last two agreements with the company, in 2015 and 2019, as bullshit contracts.

This one right here, theyve got to make me whole, Reed said.