Skip to content

United Auto Workers (UAW)

The 2023 UAW Strike: A Turning Point In Labor History?

February 23, 2024 Nelson Lichtenstein, New Labor Forum. , , , , , ,
How transformative was the strike that the United Auto Workers concluded in November 2023, when it shut down factories at Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis, which now incorporates Chrysler? The UAW has been in existence for nearly 90 years, during which three contests with capital have defined the character of the union and–because of its vanguard role–the expectations and standards for millions of other workers. Should we add last Fall’s brilliantly led and highly successful “stand-up” strike to that list? The great sit-down strikes of 1937 founded the UAW and ensured that, for more than a decade, shop militancy and leftwing politics would define a union representing upwards of a million workers in America’s most important industry.

Strike Threat At Allison Transmission Strips Out Tiers

February 8, 2024 Luis Feliz Leon, Labor Notes. , , , ,
Fifteen hundred auto workers in Indianapolis made their New Year’s resolution public: unless Allison Transmission agreed to eliminate tiers in wages, benefits, shift premiums, and holidays, they would hit the bricks. “The fight plan throughout negotiations was ending tiers,” said Phil Shupe, a 10-year assembler on tier two and bargaining committee member. “We weren't going to accept anything from the company that had any more division. We stood firm that we all needed to be equal.” Workers at Allison make commercial heavy-duty automatic transmissions for fire trucks, school buses, and tanks, as well as hybrid propulsion systems.

Honor The Palestinian Trade Union Picket Line

February 5, 2024 UAW Labor For Palestine, Mondoweiss. , , , , , , ,
On October 16, 2023, Palestinian trade unions issued an urgent call to End all Complicity and Stop Arming Israel. At the CAP Conference on January 24, 2024, the UAW International Executive Board — without membership engagement or approval — crossed that picket line by endorsing Joe Biden, whose administration arms, funds, and facilitates the relentless Israeli genocide and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people in Gaza and throughout historic Palestine that has already killed more than 30,000 people, including thousands of children, in just over 114 days.

The UAW Strike Saved Their Shuttered Plant

February 1, 2024 Sarah Lazare, In These Times. , , , ,
Belvidere, Illinois — It’s been almost five months since JC Bengtson, an autoworker for 24 years, lost his job. ​“I miss working,” says the 55-year-old father of three daughters, all adults. ​“Right now I am unemployed and waiting to hear back.” We are sitting in the union hall of United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 1268, in Belvidere, Ill., not far from the sprawling Belvidere Assembly Plant. Bengtson worked there for 10 years before he was officially laid off in September 2023, right before his union went on strike. The auto giant Stellantis announced in December 2022 that it would permanently idle the facility that assembled the widely popular Jeep Cherokee, and by February 2023, the majority of jobs at the plant had disappeared.

Everywhere He Goes, Biden Is Haunted By The Martyrs Of Gaza

January 27, 2024 Natalia Marques, People's Dispatch. , , , , , , , , , ,
Biden is disrupted on the campaign trail at the Mother Emanuel AME Church in South Carolina by protesters shouting “ceasefire now!” and later gets on a flight to the Dallas airport, where more protesters are waiting for him. Biden’s speech at a Virginia campaign event is interrupted thirteen separate times, and as he leaves his motorcade is met with more protests. Biden, who brands himself as the “most pro-union president” is called out by union workers for his support for the genocide in Gaza as he is receiving the endorsement of one of the largest unions in the country. Biden’s staff attempt to hold a “morale-boosting party” as their boss’s approval rating tanks and more and more men, women, and children in Gaza die from US-made bombs, only to be yelled at by protesters shouting “quit your job!”

We Threw Out The Old Playbook: The New Union Drive At Mercedes

January 20, 2024 Jeremy Kimbrell, Labor Notes. , , ,
Auto workers have had several organizing campaigns at the Mercedes-Benz plant in Alabama. They all follow a similar pattern: Frustrated workers decide there’s enough energy for change in the plant and start talking about organizing. We reach out to a union, the Auto Workers (UAW), and meet with a staff organizer. They lead us through the steps they’ve all been taught for decades—a playbook that hasn’t worked for us at Mercedes. Over the years we got frustrated—not only with the company, but also with the ways that past organizers told us union campaigns had to operate. We would often say to UAW reps, “We don’t know how to win, but we know how to lose, and you do too.”

UAW Is Largest US Union To Call For An Immediate End To The Violence

December 2, 2023 Mindy Isser, In These Times. , , , , , ,
The United Auto Workers have endorsed a cease-fire, making them the largest national union to do so in a major development for labor and the larger movement for peace and justice in Palestine and Israel. Brandon Mancilla, Director of United Auto Workers (UAW) Region 9A, which represents 50,000 active and retired workers within the larger UAW, announced the union’s call for a cease-fire publicly on Friday at a news conference outside of the White House where organizers and activists have been on a hunger strike. “We opposed fascism in World War II, we opposed the Vietnam war, we opposed apartheid South Africa and we mobilized union resources in that fight,” Mancilla says.

Auto Workers Direct Momentum Toward Organizing Plants

December 1, 2023 Luis Feliz Leon, Labor Notes. , , ,
“The company knows that Toyota workers are watching,” said Auto Workers President Shawn Fain on November 3. “And when the time comes, Toyota workers and all non-union auto workers are going to be ready to stand up.” That time has come—yesterday the UAW announced its plan, already in motion, to organize the whole auto sector. “Workers across the country, from the West to the Midwest and especially in the South, are reaching out to join our movement and to join the UAW,” said Fain in a new video. The union says thousands of workers have reached out asking for support in unionizing their auto plants. They’ve scoured the old websites from previous union drives and filled out forms to be put in touch with an organizer.

Next On UAW’s To-Do List: Adding Members At Nonunion Factories

November 29, 2023 Marick Masters and Raymond Gibney, Jr., Scheer Post. , , , , ,
Having negotiated “record contracts” with the Big Three – and seen the bulk of its rank-and-file members approve them – the United Auto Workers says its work isn’t done. The union intends to try once more to persuade the rest of the U.S. auto industry’s workers to join the union. “We’re going to organize like we’ve never organized before,” said UAW President Shawn Fain. As labor scholars who have studied union finances, we believe this is a formidable objective. On top of the intense corporate resistance from the likes of Tesla CEO Elon Musk, there’s the high cost of waging expensive campaigns in states like Tennessee and Alabama, which have “right-to-work” laws designed to discourage labor organizing.

A General Strike In 2028 Is A Uniquely Plausible Dream

November 12, 2023 Hamilton Nolan, In These Times. , , , ,
The labor movement is a capricious friend — it hands out heartbreak as much as it hands out joy. But every once in a while, it is able to wave a triumphant flag and give us all a glimmer of what its potential could truly be. The recently concluded UAW strike offered just such a moment. It wasn’t just the contract agreements themselves, which were a material success, but also the union’s public call for movement-wide coordination to build the possibility of mass action around the May 1, 2028 expiration of the next auto contracts. ​“We invite unions around the country to align your contract expirations with our own so that together we can begin to flex our collective muscles,” the UAW declared on October 29.

UAW Wins Tentative Contract Deal With Final Big Three Holdout

October 31, 2023 Jake Johnson, Common Dreams. , , , , , , ,
The United Auto Workers on Monday secured a tentative agreement with General Motors that reportedly includes a 25% general wage increase over the life of the four-and-a-half-year contract as well as cost-of-living adjustments. According to Bloomberg, the UAW's agreement with GM has similar economic terms as the historic tentative deal the union reached with Ford last week and a subsequent agreement with Stellantis over the weekend. With the GM deal, the UAW has now reached a tentative contract agreement with each of the Big Three U.S. automakers, putting an end—at least for now—to the union's historic six-week strike that involved nearly 50,000 workers.

After GM Boasts Higher Revenue, Auto Workers Strike Its Cash Cow

October 25, 2023 Keith Brower Brown, Labor Notes. , , ,
General Motors CEO Mary Barra started her day boasting to company investors how much car sales and revenues have recently climbed. Two hours later, Auto Workers reminded her who made those revenues happen. The Auto Workers (UAW) struck GM’s most profitable plant, the massive Arlington Assembly, just outside Dallas. On grounds stretching across 250 acres, the 5,000 workers at Arlington make every GM model of full-size SUV, like the Tahoe and Escalade. According to an industry analyst at Benchmark, it’s “the most profitable auto plant in the world,” producing about 30 percent of GM revenue.

UAW Strikes Massive Ram Truck Facility

October 24, 2023 Chris Isidore and Vanessa Yurkevich, Portside. , , , , , ,
The United Auto Workers union sent 6,800 Stellantis employees to the picket line Monday morning in a surprise, targeted strike at the company’s Ram truck facility. The Sterling Heights Assembly Plant is Stellantis’ “largest plant and biggest moneymaker,” UAW said in a statement Monday. The plant, about a half-hour north of Detroit, in Sterling Heights, Michigan, produces the Ram 1500 pickup. The union said the company, which makes vehicles under the Dodge, Ram, Jeep and Chrysler brands, has “the worst proposal on the table” in its negotiations on pay, converting temporary workers to full time and cost-of-living adjustments.

Auto Workers’ Strike Strategy Is Forcing The Big 3 To Pony Up

October 21, 2023 Luis Feliz Leon, Labor Notes. , , , ,
For the first time in recent history, the union is playing the automakers against each other—departing from its tradition of choosing one target company and patterning an agreement at the other two. And its gradually escalating Stand-Up Strike strategy has multiplied the pressure that can move the companies off the dime. Every Friday for four weeks, the CEOs waited with bated breath for UAW President Shawn Fain to announce strike targets. Two Fridays in a row, one company moved on major bargaining issues just minutes before workers were scheduled to walk out.

Auto Workers Charge Up The Power To Fight For An Electric Future

October 17, 2023 Keith Brower Brown, Labor Notes. , , , ,
“I think organizing those [non-union] plants needs to be our number one priority after we get done organizing the Big 3,” says Ryan Ashley at Ford Cleveland Engine. “With how significant the gains are looking in this contract, they’ll see it. And it’ll help.”
«123456»