UAW

UAW Local 4811’s Stand-Up Strike Grows By 12,000

June 1, 2024 Hannah Bowlus, In These Times. Resist! California, Campus Movement, Israel, Palestine, Strikes, UAW, Unions

Twelve thousand academic workers at UCLA and UC Davis are poised to walk off the job Tuesday morning as part of an historic strike in solidarity with Palestine. The workers — 6,400 at the University of California, Los Angeles and 5,700 at the University of California, Davis — are members of United Auto Workers Local 4811, which represents 48,000 academic workers across the University of California (UC) system. “We’re taking this … unprecedented action because of the university’s serious, unfair labor practices (ULP), which really go to the heart of our rights for freedom of speech and protest, and the ability to take collective action,” Local 4811 President Rafael Jaime told In These Times ahead of Tuesday’s walkout.

Union Power Can Change Campus Protests Forever

May 29, 2024 Hamilton Nolan, In These Times. Strategize! Campus Movement, Palestine, Solidarity, Strikes, Student Activism, UAW, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

Strikes are different from protests. Though protesters frequently say that they are making “demands,” it is more accurate to say they are making requests. Protests rely on persuasion. Their persuasion may be gentle, or it may be aggressive. It may rely on moral shaming to get its point across, or it may rely on the elevation of awareness, or it may rely on the pure intimidation of numbers. But protests, for all of their righteous fury and necessity, lack the legal ability to shut things down until change is achieved. Strikers, on the other hand, can truly make demands. Their proposition is simple: No work will get done until a change is made.

Daimler Truck Workers Use Strike Threat To Win Big

May 19, 2024 Dan DiMaggio, Labor Notes. Strategize! Daimler, North Carolina, Strikes, Truckers, UAW, Unions, Worker Rights

North Carolina heavy truck and school bus manufacturing workers won 25 percent pay increases and ended wage tiers after an energetic contract campaign and strike threat against Daimler Truck. The United Auto Workers unionized these plants in the 1990s and early 2000s—but since then, wages had stagnated. Starting pay was low, and the plants were stuck on different wage scales. At Thomas Built Buses, the largest school bus manufacturing site in the U.S., assembly workers topped out at $24, $5 less than their counterparts at Daimler’s Mount Holly truck plant. The new contract establishes a common wage grid across all 7,400 workers at the four North Carolina plants, as well as parts distribution centers in Atlanta and Memphis.

High-Profile UAW Campaign At Mercedes-Benz In Alabama Falls Short

May 18, 2024 Sarah Jaffe, In These Times. Strategize! Mercedes, The South, UAW, union busting, Unions, Worker Rights

Workers at the Mercedes-Benz U.S. International plant in Vance, Alabama came up short in their first union election on Friday, May 17, with 2,045 votes to join the United Auto Workers and 2,642 against. A brief but high-energy campaign that saw real improvements won at the plant and a worker-led effort to organize failed to create a wave after the high-profile Volkswagen workers’ win in April in Chattanooga, Tennessee. “These courageous workers reached out to us because they wanted justice. They led us. They led this fight. And what happens next is up to them,” UAW President Shawn Fain told reporters shortly after the vote count.

University Of California Workers Vote To Authorize A Strike

May 17, 2024 Natalia Marques, People's Dispatch. Resist! Campus Movement, Repression, Solidarity, Strikes, Student Activism, UAW, University of California, Worker Rights

On May 15, United Auto Workers Local 4811, which represents 48,000 student workers across the University of California campuses, voted to authorize a strike following police and administrative repression of pro-Palestine students staging Gaza Solidarity Encampments. Strike authorization votes took place from May 13 to May 15. Workers voted in favor of striking by a landslide of 79%. There is currently no fixed date for a strike, but the vote empowers the union’s executive board to call a strike at any time. Were Local 4811 to strike, it would be the first strike in history to be called for Palestinian liberation.

In Relay Race To Organize The South, Baton Passes To Mercedes Workers

May 1, 2024 Luis Feliz Leon, Labor Notes. Organize! Auto Workers, Labor Movement, Mercedes, The South, UAW, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

Michael Göbel, president and CEO of Mercedes-Benz U.S. International, stepped down from his post today, according to a video message that workers were shown. Göbel had groused in an April captive-audience meeting about a worker’s claim that Mercedes had come for the “Alabama discount”: low wages. His departure is another win for Mercedes-Benz workers, who already scored pay bumps and an end to wage tiers—and they haven’t even voted on the union yet. The company and Alabama politicians are ramping up their anti-union campaign as an election draws near. The 5,200 Mercedes workers at a factory complex and electric battery plant outside Tuscaloosa will vote May 13-16 on whether to join the United Auto Workers.

Southern Auto Workers Are Rising

April 6, 2024 Luis Feliz Leon, Labor Notes. Organize! Auto Workers, Labor Movement, The South, UAW, Worker Rights and Jobs

Auto workers are gearing up to smash through anti-union bulwarks in Alabama and Tennessee. In Chattanooga, Tennessee, at the only Volkswagen factory in the world without a union, votes will be counted April 19 as 4,300 workers who make the Atlas SUV and the ID.4 electric vehicle decide whether to join the United Auto Workers. “We didn’t think things would happen so fast,” said VW worker Victor Vaughn. Momentum spurred them forward. The organizing committee recruited 300 co-workers as election captains. “We have well over 90 percent coverage within the plant, every position, every line,” said Vaughn.

Please Launch Workers United Against Mass Layoffs

April 4, 2024 Les Leopold, Scheer Post. Organize! Labor Movement, Solidarity, UAW, Unemployment, United Auto Workers (UAW), Worker Rights and Jobs

It’s time for a new organization to protect working people from the plague of mass layoffs. Let’s call it, for now, Workers United Against Mass Layoffs. Given the United Autoworkers’ growing prestige, this seems like the ideal moment for the union to lead the fight against needless mass layoffs everywhere and for everyone. The United Autoworkers know all about mass layoffs. Currently, GM is laying off 1,314 workers across two plants in Michigan, and another 322 UAW members are losing their jobs at Missouri Central School Bus. They are not alone.

Hyundai Workers Roll The Union On In Alabama

February 4, 2024 Luis Feliz Leon, Labor Notes. Organize! Alabama, Hyundai, UAW, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

Auto workers at Hyundai in Montgomery, Alabama, have signed up more than 30 percent of their nearly 4,000 co-workers in an ambitious drive to unionize. The Auto Workers (UAW) announced the organizing breakthrough with a new video, “Montgomery Can’t Wait,” where workers link the labor and civil rights movements: “Montgomery, the city where Rosa Parks sat down, and where thousands of Hyundai workers are ready to Stand Up.” “There’s something about our fight to unionize being homegrown that makes it just that much sweeter,” said Quichelle Liggins, a 12-year quality inspector at Hyundai.

Inspired By Strike Wins, 1,000 Volkswagen Workers Sign Union Cards

December 9, 2023 Luis Feliz Leon, Labor Notes. Organize! UAW, Unions, Volkswagon, Worker Rights

Today workers at Volkswagen's Chattanooga, Tennessee, assembly plant announced their third bid to unionize plant-wide with the Auto Workers (UAW). Riding the momentum of its strike of the Big 3 automakers, the UAW now wants to double its numbers in the auto industry by adding 150,000 workers at companies that have long avoided unionization. Thirteen non-union automakers are on notice: Honda, Toyota, Hyundai, Nissan, Subaru, Mazda, Mercedes, Volvo, BMW, Volkswagen, and electric vehicle producers Rivian, Tesla, and Lucid. The union says it has been inundated with calls and online sign-ups by workers at these firms. The Volkswagen drive is the first to go public, after 1,000 workers signed union cards.

Ford Caves

October 27, 2023 Jane Slaughter, Labor Notes. Resist! Autoworkers, Ford, Strikes, UAW, Unions, Victory, Worker Rights

Since 1979, union auto workers have endured round after round of concessions. That era is over. On Wednesday, the 41st day of the union’s Stand Up Strike against the Big 3, Auto Workers (UAW) President Shawn Fain announced a deal with Ford. The contract gains are substantial. The union added the straw that broke the camel’s back this week when it hit General Motors’s and Stellantis’s two biggest moneymakers, SUV and truck assembly plants in Texas and Michigan, on Monday and Tuesday. Workers at Ford’s top cash cow, Kentucky Truck, had gone out October 11.

US Auto Workers, Activists Show Up For Fired Mexican Workers

October 26, 2023 Ashley Bishop, The Real News. Resist! International Solidarity, Mexico, UAW, Unions, Worker Rights

On Tuesday, Sept. 26, protesters affiliated with the United Auto Workers (UAW), Labor Notes, Unite All Workers for Democracy (UAWD, the rank-and-file reform caucus within the UAW), the Democratic Socialists of America, Latino/a Workers’ Leadership Conference, and Casa Obrera del Bajío gathered outside of VU Manufacturing’s headquarters in Troy, Michigan, to deliver a list of demands in support of 400 Mexican workers in Piedras Negras, Coahuila, who were recently laid off by the company. VU Manufacturing shut down the newly unionized facility along the Mexico-US border in August, while 71 workers were still in their employ.

UAW And Ford Announce Tentative Deal

October 26, 2023 Ari Bloomekatz, In these Times. Resist! Stand Up Strike, UAW, Unions, Worker Rights

The United Auto Workers have secured a tentative deal with Ford that would end the strike against one of the mammoth automakers making up The Big Three, the union announced Wednesday night. Earlier in the evening, numerous journalists and publications noted that the tentative deal was likely, and publications like Bloomberg reported early Wednesday evening that the deal had already been made. “We announce a major victory in the Stand-Up Strike. Today, we reached a tentative agreement with Ford. For months we said that record profits mean record contracts, and UAW family, our Stand-Up strike has delivered,” UAW President Shawn Fain said,

UAW Members At Mack Trucks Reject Tentative Agreement

October 9, 2023 UAW. Resist! Mack TRucks, Strikes, UAW, Worker Rights

After voting by 73% to reject a tentative agreement, nearly 4,000 UAW members at Mack Trucks in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Florida walked out on strike at 7 a.m. on Monday, October 9. “I’m inspired to see UAW members at Mack Trucks holding out for a better deal, and ready to stand up and walk off the job to win it,” said UAW President Shawn Fain. “The members have the final say, and it’s their solidarity and organization that will win a fair contract at Mack.” After weeks of failing to address core economic issues, the company reached a tentative agreement with just minutes to spare before the initial deadline on October 1.

Twenty-Five Thousand Auto Workers Are Now On Strike At The Big Three

September 29, 2023 Luis Feliz Leon, Labor Notes. Resist! Big Auto, Stand Up Strike, Strikes, UAW, Worker Rights

Seven thousand Auto Workers at two more assembly plants will walk off the job at noon ET today, UAW President Shawn Fain announced in a Facebook Live appearance this morning. Joining the strike are Ford’s Chicago Assembly Plant and General Motors’ Lansing Delta Township Assembly in Michigan. Fain announced that Stellantis would be spared this time. The union had been expected to expand the strike today at all three companies, but, said Region 1 Director LaShawn English, three minutes before Fain was scheduled to go on Facebook Live, the UAW received frantic emails from company representatives.

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