UAW’s Victory Marks a Turning Point for Workers

By Peter Dreier - The Progressive, November 7, 2023

If it weren’t for the war in Israel-Palestine, and the election of an abortion absolutist and lesser-known election denier as Speaker of the House, the recent settlement of the United Auto Workers strike with the three major auto companies would have been the biggest news story in the country.

After the strike began on September 15, the union staggered the walkouts at different facilities at different times in order to keep the companies guessing and to escalate when additional pressure was needed, rather than have all 150,000 members who work at the three companies walk out at once.

ltogether, about 34,000 workers at nine auto factories and thirty-eight parts warehouses in over twenty states walked off the job. It marked the first time in the union’s history that it went on strike at all three companies simultaneously. Ford was the first company to reach an agreement with the union, followed by Stellantis (the parent of Chrysler, Jeep, and Ram), and then General Motors on October 30. GM caved in less than forty-eight hours after the union walked out at its largest North American factory in Spring Hill, Tennessee. 

The workers scored one of the most impressive union triumphs in the past fifty years. They included: 

• 67 percent boost to the starting wage for new hires to over $30 per hour over the next four and a half years.
• 33 percent increase on the top wage from $32 to no more than $42 an hour over that period.
• 25 percent overall pay increase and reinstatement of annual cost-of-living adjustments that the UAW lost in 2009.
• An end to the two-tier wage system through which some workers make lower starting salaries and get lower pay increases. 
• Boosts to retirement income, including an increase in 401(k) contributions from 6.4 percent to 10 percent. 
• The right to strike if the automakers seek to close factories and lay off workers.

Temporary workers will also become full-time employees after nine months of continuous employment. “We have slammed the door on having a permanent underclass of temporary workers,” UAW president Shawn Fain said.

The UAW also scored a pioneering victory for both union jobs and climate justice—two goals that some pundits consider to be at odds. The tentative contract includes Stellantis’ agreement to re-open a factory in Belvidere, Illinois, that once employed 1,200 UAW members and to add a new electric vehicle battery plant nearby that will employ 2,000 to 3,000 workers. The company also agreed to invest $155 million into three electrical vehicle factories in Kokomo, Indiana. The UAW’s tentative contract with GM will allow workers at the company’s currently operational and future joint-venture battery plants to hold votes on unionizing and decide whether they want their contracts to be included in the UAW’s master contract.

The tentative contract settlement between the UAW and the two large automakers still needs to be ratified by the union’s rank-and-file members. 

The union’s core message throughout the strike was simple: After years of stagnant wages and painful concessions, workers should share in the auto industry’s prosperity.

Read the rest of the article here.

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are not the official position of the IWW (or even the IWW’s EUC) and do not necessarily represent the views of anyone but the author.