Auto Worker Held in Stabbing Was Feuding With GM

A Pacoima auto worker accused of stabbing the president of his UAW local had been angrily pressing the union officer for months for a refund of contributions to a retirement fund, a union official said Thursday.

Samuel Mines, 33, a 13-year General Motors employee who had been on sick leave since October, remained jailed Thursday, a day after he was arrested on suspicion of stabbing Jerry Shrieves, president of United Auto Workers Local 645.

Shrieves, 50, was taken to Holy Cross Medical Center with a chest wound after the Wednesday afternoon incident and released Thursday, officials said. He could not be reached for comment.

Joe Garcia, secretary-treasurer and spokesman for the local, said Mines was well-known to union officials because once or twice a week for four months he had been coming to the UAW hall, across the street from the General Motors plant in the 7900 block of Van Nuys Boulevard.

On each visit, Garcia said, Mines complained bitterly about his inability to withdraw money from his Personal Savings Plan, a fund administered by the federal government through General Motors. The fund can be accessed only upon retirement or termination from a job.

Mines, a spot welder, did not qualify to withdraw money from the plan because he was still employed by General Motors, Garcia said. Unable to persuade company officials to allow him to do so, Mines turned to the union, Garcia said.

He said he was unsure of how much money was involved.

“Once or twice a week he would come in here and argue and say, ‘I want my money, I want my money,’ Garcia said. “Sometimes he would go to Jerry, sometimes it was me. He wanted his union to try to obtain his money. But we couldn’t do anything for him.

“He would always get vocal and say, ‘They’re messing with me.’ At the end he would always apologize and say he was just frustrated.”

General Motors spokesman Patrick Morrissey said Mines was not a laid-off worker, as police previously reported, but was on a paid leave of absence due to illness. He said he could not disclose the nature of the illness nor discuss the dispute that led to the stabbing.

“This is a matter between an employee and his union,” Morrissey said.

Garcia said General Motors guards would not allow Mines to enter the plant because of the long-running dispute. Morrissey, however, said that was not the case.

Garcia said he never worried that Mines’ outbursts in the union hall would lead to violence because Mines’ dispute was not with the union.

But a shoving match Wednesday erupted between Mines and Shrieves after Mines loudly demanded his money and was told by Shrieves to leave, police and union officials said. Mines then pulled out a knife and stabbed Shrieves while they grappled with each other near a front counter, police said.

Mines fled the union hall and was arrested at his home. Union members said that while waiting for medical attention, Shrieves called the General Motors plant and other union officials to warn them about Mines.

“The first thing he did was call the plant and tell them, ‘Sam might be coming over. He just stabbed me,’ ” Garcia said.

Los Angeles Police Lt. Richard Blankenship said he was unaware of the background of the dispute leading to the stabbing or how much money was involved. He said detectives will present evidence to the district attorney’s office today and seek a charge of assault with a deadly weapon against Mines, who was being held at the Van Nuys jail in lieu of $40,000 bail.