{"id":1186952,"date":"2023-08-22T13:31:51","date_gmt":"2023-08-22T13:31:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jacobin.com\/2023\/08\/autoworkers-strike-big-three-uaw-shawn-fain-rally\/"},"modified":"2023-08-22T13:32:35","modified_gmt":"2023-08-22T13:32:35","slug":"autoworkers-are-mobilizing-for-a-potential-strike-at-the-big-three-automakers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2023\/08\/22\/autoworkers-are-mobilizing-for-a-potential-strike-at-the-big-three-automakers\/","title":{"rendered":"Autoworkers Are Mobilizing for a Potential Strike at the Big Three Automakers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n \n\n\n\n

Under new leadership, the UAW is waging an aggressive campaign to win a new contract at the Big Three automakers. For the first time in decades, UAW workers are mobilizing for contract rallies at Ford, Stellantis, and GM plants ahead of a potential strike.<\/h3>\n\n\n
\n \n
\n UAW president Shawn Fain speaks at the Solidarity Sunday rally at the UAW Region 1 office in Warren, Michigan, on August 20, 2023. (Jeff Kowalsky \/ AFP via Getty Images)\n <\/figcaption> \n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n \n

Sunday afternoon at the United Auto Workers (UAW) Region 1 Pavilion in Warren, Michigan, felt a lot like church. Autoworkers came together in sweltering heat to rally each other with fiery speeches, cheers, and songs in the first Big Three contract rally anyone can remember.<\/p>\n

The contracts with Ford, General Motors (GM), and Stellantis expire September 14.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been told throughout this thing that we\u2019ve set expectations too high. You\u2019re damn right we have, because our members have high expectations, and record profits deserve record contracts,\u201d said UAW president Shawn Fain at the rally<\/a>. \u201cAs a union, we have to lead the fight for economic justice \u2014 not just for ourselves but for the entire working class.\u201d<\/p>\n

Catchy T-shirt slogans were everywhere: \u201cSame shift, different day,\u201d \u201cStrike Team 2023,\u201d \u201cNo Retreat, No Surrender,\u201d \u201cEnd Tiers,\u201d \u201cStamping in Solidarity,\u201d \u201cFain Ain\u2019t Playin’,\u201d and \u201cUnited We Stand, Divided We Fall.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not even the heat could separate the throng of people who had gathered in a powerful display of unity, love, and anger.<\/p>\n

Kiada Shanklin, a team leader in the quality department at Stellantis\u2019s Jeep Grand Cherokee plant, wore a red shirt declaring: \u201cI have three major reasons to strike.\u201d Her three children each wore shirts: \u201cReason #1,\u201d \u201cReason #2,\u201d and \u201cReason #3.\u201d On the\u00a0back<\/a>, the shirts had the image of a clock and the words “Stellantis, you’re on the clock,” “Tick,” and “Tock.”<\/p>\n

The shirt designs showed members\u2019 creativity, as do the rallies they are holding, scheduled for Detroit, Michigan, Chicago, Illinois, and Louisville, Kentucky, later this week. More are in the offing.<\/p>\n\n \n\n \n \n \n

Bringing in Ramen<\/h2>\n \n

The UAW hasn\u2019t held any Big Three contract rallies in decades, and members haven\u2019t been called upon to mobilize themselves for a contract campaign in living memory. But Fain, who was elected in March, has been encouraging members to put on their own practice pickets and parking lot rallies, drawing inspiration from the United Parcel Service (UPS) Teamsters\u2019 playbook.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m asking rank-and-file activists all around the country to do everything you can do to get organized in your plant,\u201d he\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0on Facebook Live August 15. \u201cOur national Organizing Department is putting together weekly virtual trainings that will walk you through how to organize actions at your workplace.\u201d<\/p>\n

And members are responding with enthusiasm. At the Sunday rally, crowds grew to hundreds of people waving noisemakers and holding aloft posters with demands. These included ending two-tier pay and benefits, winning back the\u00a0cost-of-living allowance<\/a>\u00a0(a raise pegged to inflation that the union gave up during the Great Recession), a shorter workweek, restoring the defined-benefit pension and retiree health insurance, ensuring job security for workers when plants are shuttered, and making all current temps permanent employees.<\/p>\n

At GM\u2019s tech center, skilled trades workers made a show of bringing in and storing big supplies of ramen noodles, a nod to the union\u2019s 1930s history of factory occupations, said Jessie Kelly, a UAW Local 160 member and mold maker who has been talking with her coworkers to answer any questions about their readiness to strike if necessary.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was checking on what the pulse on the floor was, because everything is so different now than in 2019,\u201d she said, referring to the last time GM workers went on strike. \u201cAre you ready to strike if that\u2019s what we need to do? And one guy is like, \u2018Yeah, I don\u2019t want to strike.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

She asked him what was wrong. \u201cAnd he was like, \u2018Can we occupy the worksite like they did during the Flint sit-down strike?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n \n \n \n

What’s Going On<\/h2>\n \n

Member after member marveled at the change in the union since the Members United slate won a majority on the executive board.<\/p>\n

Cassandra Rudolph, of Stellantis\u2019s Sterling Heights Assembly, said the biggest difference was \u201cthe transparency.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead of him [Fain] being closed off, every week he lets us know what\u2019s going on,\u201d said her coworker Joe King. Rudolph added, \u201cInstead of them just popping off and we\u2019re unprepared and don\u2019t understand what\u2019s going on.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the first time in UAW history the members saw what the union was asking for in negotiations,\u201d District 1 director LaShawn English told the crowd, drawing thunderous applause.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a long time coming. \u201cI\u2019ve been waiting for this,\u201d said thirty-eight-year GM worker Bill Bagwell in UAW Local 174. \u201cA $10-an-hour raise might keep me on the job. I supported one member, one vote with New Directions [a reform caucus in the 1980s] and I\u2019ve been waiting since then. It took their [recent UAW leaders\u2019] corruptness to give us the glory we deserve.\u201d<\/p>\n\n \n \n \n

“Ready to Show the World What We Deserve”<\/h2>\n \n

Lynda Jackson, recording secretary of UAW Local 7, celebrated her thirteenth anniversary with the union this past June, and said she\u2019s never seen anything like Sunday\u2019s rally.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never seen the pavilion this packed,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019ve never seen so many people engaged and excited, and just ready to show the world what we deserve.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jackson says autoworkers deserve higher wages based on the profits they\u2019ve generated: \u201cMy mother retired from Ford in 2004, and her top pay was $28 an hour. Our top pay is $31.77. So in twenty years, the top pay only rose about $4.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to be moving with the times. The cost of these vehicles is constantly going up, but our pay isn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pandemic-era sacrifices are a sore point. \u201cWe were considered essential workers in 2020 and made to go back into these plants to build these vehicles,\u201d Jackson said. \u201cSo it\u2019s essential that we be compensated.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his presentations on Facebook Live, \u201chonestly, it sounds like Shawn Fain is listening to us,\u201d she said. \u201cEveryone is on the same page, whether you are supplemental \u2014 how do you force someone to do all this overtime and only allow them three days off in a year? \u2014 or full-time with thirteen years in without a pension.\u201d Supplemental is Stellantis lingo for temporary workers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t have a pension. I don\u2019t have retiree health care,\u201d said Jackson, a tier-two worker. \u201cSo can you imagine being a recording secretary of a local, and when you go to retire, you just quit? I\u2019m not even a retiree. How big of a slap in the face is that?<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re all in the same fight together,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd what I really like about everything is the updates \u2014 it\u2019s showing the world that we\u2019re not being quiet anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n\n \n \n \n

Permanent Jobs Demanded<\/h2>\n \n

The top three demands for supplemental and other temp workers are equal health care, permanent employee status, and raises.<\/p>\n

Ron Sabatula hired in at $17.46 as a temporary employee after the 2019 strike at GM. His coworkers on the assembly line earn $28 an hour. \u201cBut we all do the same job,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Stellantis has the highest number of temps of the Big Three automakers. A supplemental worker who asked for anonymity for fear of company retaliation said Stellantis workers are paid the least of the Big Three companies.<\/p>\n

\u201cEach of the Big Three is posting profits,\u201d he said. \u201cBut Stellantis just posted $12 billion in profits in the last six months. That signals to me that they are the most profitable and yet they are the most deeply exploitative of workers on the floor.\u201d<\/p>\n

At Stellantis\u2019s Jefferson assembly plant, workers are fired up about converting temporary jobs into permanent ones. \u201cThey\u2019re willing to strike for the temporary employees,\u201d the same worker said of his coworkers.<\/p>\n\n \n \n \n

“Let Us Get Some Rest”<\/h2>\n \n

Leta Pollard has worked for Stellantis through the various mergers, starting twenty-four years ago when the company was known as Chrysler. Stellantis was formed in 2021 through a merger of Fiat Chrysler and Peugeot, and is the parent company of Jeep, Ram Trucks, and Chrysler.<\/p>\n

Generations of her family have worked at Chrysler and Ford, starting in 1969. Her top issues are higher wages, ending tiers, and forced overtime.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey divided us some years ago,\u201d with the tiers, Pollard said. \u201cBut now, we are back, and we are saying, \u2018we want back what you took from us.\u2019 That three-tier, two-tier \u2014 all of that \u2014 needs to be out of there.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause we come in, we do the same work. We want the young adults to get the same pay, the same medical benefits that our parents before us stood strong on the picket lines for. We are not going to give it up so you can put more money in your pocket. We want money in our pocket, so we can buy what we build.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pollard said people don\u2019t want to work at Stellantis because they are forced to work grueling ten-hour shifts. Starting pay is $15.78. \u201cYou don\u2019t want to give us our vacation days,\u201d she said. \u201cYou don\u2019t want to give us our personal days when it\u2019s necessary. It\u2019s time out for that. Do you want a well-built car? Let us get some rest. Let us have time with our families.\u201d<\/p>\n

What can members do before September 14 to show the companies they mean business? \u201cWear your buttons,\u201d said Jackson\u2019s coworker Charles Mitchell. \u201cWear your red. Exercise your right to concerted activity. Hold meetings at break time around the break table. Organize. Mobilize.\u201d<\/p>\n\n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n\n\n

This post was originally published on Jacobin<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sunday afternoon at the United Auto Workers (UAW) Region 1 Pavilion in Warren, Michigan, felt a lot like church. Autoworkers came together in sweltering heat to rally each other with fiery speeches, cheers, and songs in the first Big Three contract rally anyone can remember. The contracts with Ford, General Motors (GM), and Stellantis expire [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":737,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1186952"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/737"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1186952"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1186952\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1187243,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1186952\/revisions\/1187243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1186952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1186952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1186952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}