["One of our biggest goals coming out of this historic contract
victory is to organize like weve never organized before," said United
Auto Workers president Shawn Fain. ]
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UAW PRESIDENT SAYS WORKERS MUST ‘FLEX OUR COLLECTIVE MUSCLES’ TO
WIN CLASS WAR  
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Jake Johnson
October 30, 2023
Common Dreams [[link removed]]

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_ "One of our biggest goals coming out of this historic contract
victory is to organize like we've never organized before," said United
Auto Workers president Shawn Fain. _

UAW President Shawn Fain, shown with striking workers, has pledged an
agressive organizing campaign at non-union auto facilities., Mandi
Wright, Detroit Free Press

 

With three historic tentative agreements in hand after six weeks on
strike, the United Auto Workers is looking to galvanize the rest of
the U.S. labor movement by calling on other unions to align their
contract expiration dates with the UAW's—a move that would give
workers maximal leverage at the bargaining table and the ability to
strike together, if necessary.

If ratified by UAW members, the union's four-and-a-half-year contracts
with General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis would expire on April 30,
2028. Should the contracts lapse without an agreement before that
deadline, the UAW would be positioned to strike on International
Workers' Day, commonly known as May Day.

In a speech on Sunday night in Detroit, UAW president Shawn Fain made
clear that the April 2028 expiration date was chosen strategically,
with an eye toward invigorating a labor movement that has been
under coordinated assault
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corporations and their political allies
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decades.

"May Day was born out of the intense struggle by workers in the United
States to win an eight-hour day. That's a struggle that is just as
relevant today as it was in 1889," Fain said. "Even though May Day has
its roots here in the United States, it is widely celebrated by
workers all over the world. It's more than just a day of
commemoration, it's a call to action."

Aligning contract expiration dates, Fain argued, would allow unions to
"begin to flex our collective muscles."

"If we are going to truly take on the billionaire class and rebuild
the economy so that it starts to work for the benefit of the many and
not the few, then it's important that we not only strike, but that we
strike together," said Fain, the first UAW president to be directly
elected by rank-and-file members.

After months of contract negotiations and six weeks of picketing, the
UAW secured tentative deals with General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis
that surpass the gains of any Big Three contract in decades after
years of declining real wages
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corporate profits
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Under the tentative Ford agreement
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similar to the deals with the other two automakers—the top wage for
UAW members would jump by over 30% to more than $40 an hour and the
starting wage would rise to roughly $28 an hour, a 68% increase, over
the life of the contract. The UAW valued the gains in the deal at more
than four times those of the 2019 contract with Ford that recently
expired.

The UAW also tentatively won the right to strike over plant closures
at Ford and Stellantis and union protections
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electric battery plant workers at General Motors.

The victories came at the tail end of a major year for organized
labor. Across the U.S., more than 450,000 workers—from nurses
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employees
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off the job this year in pursuit of better wages, benefits, and
working conditions. Other workers in critical sectors,
including airline pilots
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appear poised to strike in the near future.

Though 2023 was one of the biggest
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for strikes in recent history, it still pales in comparison
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the 1970s, when more than a million workers went on strike each year.
Today, union membership is at an all-time low of 10.1%
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as public support for unions sits at its highest point since 1965
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Fain said he hopes the UAW's victories in contract talks with the
powerful Big Three will mark "a turning point in the class war that's
been raging in this country for the past 40 years," adding that the
union is setting its sights
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non-organized car companies such as Tesla, Toyota, and Honda.

"One of our biggest goals coming out of this historic contract victory
is to organize like we've never organized before," Fain said. "When we
return to the bargaining table in 2028, it won't just be with the Big
Three. It will be the Big Five or Big Six."

_Jake Johnson is a senior editor and staff writer for Common Dreams._

* UAW
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* Shawn Fain
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* union organizing
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