Union injustice

Hello! My name is Ami and I'm hoping to reach out to other union members or prior members who have experienced or witnessed an injustice action from their union or from a union official. I want other people to know my story and hope that others will share theirs as well. I started at General Motors in 2002, following in my mother and her mothers foot steps. I started out at 22 as a temporary empoyee which meant I could be let go at any time but through that time I made it and was hired in 2002. To date I am 48 years old and was fired from my job recently. As an auto worker I have had alot of ups and downs but I always believed that being a member of the union I would always have some one there to stand beside me and fight for me when needed. In the past that had always been the case. I had even lost my job once before do to attendance and substance abuse issues but i got help and i was represented from my union which led to me getting my job back. I believed in my union and I was proud to be a member. Well my world took a bad turn recently from the actions of the head union offical of my local union and has led to me being fired. I was placed on a job I was struggling to keep up on and didn't want to get in trouble so I reached out to the main union official after having conversations with lower level ones. I knew there were other open jobs in the area and felt if I could get to a different job I would be safe. My supervisor who I felt was harassing me could have disqualified me from the job and I even asked him to but come to find out for him he said it was just to much paperwork. So I was beside myself and begging for help because I didn't want to lose my job. I contacted the head union representative (The Shop Chairman) via text message about getting some help on the issue. As I was texting him asking for help, advice, anything, he thought he was texting someone else and it came to my phone, saying: Are you going to fire her already? Your killing me, let her go, LOL. I was distraught, confused and overwhelmed at the situation and nearly broke down there on the assembly line. I tried to get an understanding of why he texted that to me and aaked why with no response for a long time. He did finally text me back saying I wanted to believe him and I did even though my instincts told me other wise. I started speaking with coworkers who were in disbelief themselves and some suggested I put the texts on our local union facebook group so I did and it went crazy with support, confusion, disbelief, and disgust. Alot of people didnt believe he would do that while others said it doesn't surprise them but in all the debating of the issue he never made one comment. At this point I was distraught and could barely function thinking in my head did he really do that or was it just a mistake well two days later I got my answer when I was fired for performance issues on the assembly line. Today my car is loaded and I am getting ready to go to the YWCA because I cant afford to maintain my bills and my lights and water have been shut off. I'm asking for donations to help me keep my vehicle and get utilities back on so I can hopefully get another job to get me by but I am also getting advice from other union members on what I need to do and I want to hire a lawyer to represent me from my union officials actions. Any amount will help. I don't want to be a begger but do need help. I also saw this as a way to try to share my story and reach others who have had something like this happen to them. I am also job searching daily. As of now I am still waiting on a response from the union as to their position. Your support will help me heal from this life changing experience and help me get back on my feet as I go through this. My heart is broken from this and some days I am still in disbelief but I am trying to march forward the best I can. I now believe the reason this happened was that the union official either didnt want to help or deal with me or that he was embarrassed by me showing his messages to other workers on Facebook. I surely never dreamed that someone could do so much damage to someone else so easily. Im not perfect and have made plenty of my own mistakes but I don't believe anyone should have to go through something like this and believe no one should be able to abuse their powers like this. I also want to say that their is also alot of good wonderful men and women in my union. People reach out to me daily to say hi, and ask if Im ok? And I want to thank them for that and supporting me.