LANGHORNE, Pa. After the sun went down Monday, Raina Shoemaker dropped four slices of cold pizza onto the grill grate and pushed them over the flame with a stick. When they were warm, she doled out the slices to her General Motors co-workers on makeshift plates fashioned from a torn pizza box.

Shoemaker, a GM warehouse worker, has been on strike for more than two weeks, much of that time spent in the glow of the fire outside the companys parts distribution center here northeast of Philadelphia.

The GM employees, all members of the United Auto Workers union, were each assigned to a six-hour picket shift at the warehouse so that the protest could continue around the clock. While Shoemaker wasnt officially on duty this particular night, there was nowhere else shed rather have been.

We are going to win this, said Shoemaker, whos worked at the warehouse for four years. I dont care what it takes. If I have to frigging support everyone, I will do it. Write that down. We are winning.

The first prolonged U.S. auto strike in more than two decades entered its 17th day on Thursday, long enough to become dangerous for both sides. GM continues to lose money due to stalled production one estimate puts the cost at $1 billion so far while workers are starting to feel the squeeze of missed paydays.

The UAW started distributing strike pay to members on Monday, but $250 per week only goes so far in covering mortgages, groceries and truck payments. Those who could began saving months ago when a strike seemed possible, but many of the newer workers who are on a lower pay scale couldnt afford to put money away. Every additional day the work stoppage lasts, the more those workers will be tested. Many, if not most, have never experienced a strike before.

The warehouse in Langhorne is a case study in how union members are holding it together now that GM has dug in and the burst of initial headlines has passed. The facility, which sends parts out to GM dealers along the East Coast, employs about 80 union members a tiny fraction of the nearly 50,000 on strike around the country. But they drew hundreds of supporters to a rally at the picket line over the weekend, a show of solidarity that stunned some strikers.

This Has Brought Us Closer

Food arrives at the Langhorne picket site every day bags of hoagies and boxes of doughnuts so much that the strikers can barely get through it all. The pizza came courtesy of some sympathetic steelworkers. Local members of the Democratic Socialists of America dropped off a load of wood to keep the fire burning. As Shoemaker reheated the pizza, a worker from a nearby Boeing plant showed up with another bundle of wood. Hes been stopping by ever since the strike started.

The company had no idea how much support we would get, said Charlie Correll, whos 66 and has worked 48 years with GM. And honestly, neither did we.

Employees who passed by one another on shift changes for years with little more than a hi and bye, not even knowing names, are now camped out together, planning events and learning about each others families. Shoemaker said she decided to give her strike payment check to a co-worker who needs it more than she does.

GM totally miscalculated, said Dave Greenhalgh, whos worked at GM facilities since the early 1980s. This has brought us much closer. There were people who were on different shifts and didnt know each other. Now theyre out here on the picket lines together.

Workers went on strike to look out for one another, Greenhalgh said, and the divisions between workers inside GM have made for one of the most contentious issues in the negotiations.

Although the contract talks are tight-lipped, GM probably wants to expand its use of temporary employees , a category the union believes has been exploited. Workers at the Langhorne facility say the use of temps has not been a major issue there, since most temps tend to get hired on within a few months. But they feel the problem is pervasive at assembly plants, where workers can remain temporary for two years or more and sometimes for multiple stints before becoming full-time employees.

Then there is the in progression system. In 2007, the UAW agreed to put newer hires on a lower pay scale as the company veered toward bankruptcy. The sacrifice helped keep GM alive, but it created rifts within plants and undermined a central tenet of unionism: equal pay for equal work. The unions 2015 contract ultimately created a pathway for newer workers to reach the earning levels of legacy employees roughly $30 per hour but only after theyve put in eight years. They start around $17 per hour.

Workers at the Langhorne facility said their system is even more complicated. According to Shoemaker and others, employees who came on after the 2015 contract top out closer to $24, because they work in distribution. They refer to one another as first-tier, second-tier and even third-tier, depending on when they started working for GM.

Its just not right, said Correll, a legacy employee because of his long tenure. Theyre making over $10 billion a year [in profits]. Look at what the executives make . You want to cut costs? Theres your start.