class struggle

By Union Jake and Adam Keller - The Valley Labor Report, October 24, 2023

By Union Jake and Adam Keller - The Valley Labor Report, October 23, 2023

By Luis Feliz Leon and Lisa Xu - Labor Notes, October 23, 2023

Today 6,800 Auto Workers (UAW) struck the most profitable Stellantis plant in the world.

At 10 a.m. workers streamed out of the Sterling Heights Assembly Plant (SHAP), near Detroit, where they build the Ram 1500 pickup.

“It’s just real now,” said Crystal Pasarcik, the sergeant-at-arms at Local 1700, which represents the plant.

“Some of the younger people have been bugging us every day, wondering when we were going to go out,” said Charles Archard, a first-shift committeeman (full-time steward). “We understand General Motors and Ford came to the table with some more concessions and Stellantis didn’t want to do it, so they hit ’em where it hurt.”

They join 34,000 UAW members already walking picket lines at six Big 3 assembly plants and 38 parts distribution warehouses nationwide.

Local President Charles Bell thinks it’s “very likely” that striking SHAP will be the straw that breaks the camel’s back at Stellantis. “We put out the most profitable vehicle the company has, in large quantities,” he said. “The guy [CEO Carlos Tavares] didn’t help when his salary was revealed, at least $26 million.”

SHAP works around the clock, on three shifts, with much Saturday overtime scheduled.

By Jake Johnson - Common Dreams, October 23, 2023

The United Auto Workers union launched a surprise expansion of its strike against Stellantis on Monday, calling on nearly 7,000 employees at the company's largest plant to walk off the job in response to the carmaker's inadequate contract offers.

"Despite having the highest revenue, the highest profits (North American and global), the highest profit margins, and the most cash in reserve, Stellantis lags behind both Ford and General Motors in addressing the demands of their UAW workforce," the union said in a statement. "Currently, Stellantis has the worst proposal on the table regarding wage progression, temporary worker pay and conversion to full-time, cost-of-living adjustments (COLA), and more."

Monday's walkout at Stellantis' Sterling Heights Assembly Plant (SHAP) in Michigan—the company's largest facility and the site where the popular Ram 1500 pickup truck is built—brings the total number of UAW members on strike against the Big Three U.S. automakers to more than 40,000.

The UAW called SHAP Stellantis' "biggest moneymaker." The company reported $18 billion in profits last year—up 26% compared to 2021—and its chief executive took home nearly $25 million, 365 times more than Stellantis' average employee.

"We want our fair share," UAW president Shawn Fain told striking workers outside of the Sterling Heights facility. "So, let's get to it. Let's stand up and let's win this thing."

By Luis Feliz Leon - Labor Notes, October 20, 2023

The Auto Workers (UAW) have thrown the Big 3 on the back foot.

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.

On September 29, Stellantis was spared—after frantically calling the union with a new offer.

By Katie Myers - Grist, October 20, 2023

United Auto Workers president Shawn Fain wore a T-shirt reading “Eat the Rich” and a deadly serious stare when he announced a major development in the union’s monthlong strike: General Motors agreed to include its electric vehicle and battery factories in the forthcoming labor contract. That deal will cover 6,000 employees at four coming GM battery plants.

“We have been told for months this is impossible,” Fain said during the October 6 livestream. “We have been told the EV future must be a race to the bottom. We called their bluff.”

If Fain has made anything clear, it is that he, and the 383,000 people he leads, are not bluffing. In the two weeks since GM’s concession, the union has redoubled its efforts to win similar agreements from Ford and Stellantis. Last week, every one of the 8,700 workers at Ford’s massive Kentucky Truck Plant in Louisville joined the picket line, halting production of the company’s line of Super Duty pickup trucks. 

GM’s promise to unionize its EV and battery operations comes after automakers sold 300,000 EVs in the previous quarter, and everyone involved in the labor dispute feels the electric transition is all but inevitable. The strike has increased pressure on the Big Three to include their electrification ventures in the master contracts they hold with United Auto Workers, or UAW. It also could press other automakers to increase pay or agree to unionize if they hope to compete for workers.

By Lisa Xu, Chris Budnick, Teddy Ostrow and Ruby Walsh - In These Times, October 19, 2023

By Union Jake, et. al. - The Valley Labor Report, October 18, 2023

By Héctor Rivera - Tempest, October 17, 2023

As the UAW strike against the big three automakers entered week four, the labor upsurge shows no signs of slowing down. On Monday, October 9 the strike expanded to the Volvo-owned Mack Trucks after 73 percent of workers voted to reject a tentative agreement and brought out 4,000 workers on strike. On Wednesday, October 11, the UAW announced a strike at Ford’s biggest plant globally, bringing out 8,700 union members in Kentucky. At the end of week the UAW organized rallies in several key sites across the country including in Chicago and outside of Los Angeles in Rancho Cucamonga.

The rallies were bolstered by news from Shawn Fain that General Motors (GM) had agreed to bring battery production for electric vehicles under the UAW’s national master agreement with the company. Fain announced this shift as a victory and a sign that the strike is bringing results at the bargaining table since GM had previously refused to move EV production under the UAW contract. Given this concession the union did not strike at GM’s assembly plant in Arlington, Texas. Thus far, the strike has expanded to six assembly plants of the Big Three and 38 parts depots operated by GM and Stellantis.