green unionism

By Nick Livick, Union Jake, and Adam Keller - Valley Labor Report, September 14, 2023

By Julia Conley - Common Dreams, September 13, 2023

On the eve of the expiration of the United Auto Workers union's contract and a potential strike Wednesday, climate action groups were among more than 100 civil society organizations on Wednesday calling on the "Big Three" automakers to ensure that a new contract protects workers as the U.S. transitions toward making electric vehicles.

Groups including the Center for Biological Diversity, Public Citizen, Sierra Club, and Earthjustice were among those expressing solidarity with nearly 150,000 union autoworkers who are demanding that employees of electric vehicle battery plants being developed by Stellantis, Ford, and General Motors are paid fairly—reflecting the record profits the automakers have reported in recent years.

"Within the next few years—the span of this next contract—lies humanity's last chance to navigate a transition away from fossil fuels, including away from combustion engines," wrote the groups in an open letter. "With that shift comes an opportunity for workers in the United States to benefit from a revival of new manufacturing, including electric vehicles (EVs) and collective transportation like buses and trains, as a part of the renewable energy revolution."

"This transition must center workers and communities, especially those who have powered our economy through the fossil fuel era, and be a vehicle for economic and racial justice," they added. "We are putting you on notice: Corporate greed and shareholder profits must never again be put before safe, good-paying union jobs, clean air and water, and a livable future."

By Union Jake and Alex Press - Valley Labor Report, September 13, 2023

By Matthew Cunningham-Cook and Lucy Dean Stockton - The Lever, September 12, 2023

Roughly 150,000 auto workers are preparing to launch what may be the biggest strike in decades this Thursday over their employers’ refusal to provide adequate pay and job security. Meanwhile, in the past twelve months, the Big Three automakers — General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis — have authorized $5 billion in stock buybacks, effectively giving billions of dollars to shareholders that could have gone to auto workers.

On top of the stock buybacks, the Big Three have reported $21 billion in profits in just the first six months of 2023. Despite the enormous gains, the companies have cried poverty in response to union demands for wage increases to make up for decades of pay stagnation.

In a statement released last month, General Motors (GM) claimed that the United Auto Workers’ (UAW) demands “would threaten our ability to do what’s right for the long-term benefit of the team.”

As part of its efforts to force the auto companies to spend more on their workers, the UAW has taken aim at the corporations’ stock buyback approach, in which companies repurchase their shares to drive up their short-term value. In their negotiations over a new contract, which expires on Thursday, the union proposed automatic payments to workers when the companies authorize buybacks or expand dividends. 

By Luis Feliz Leon - Labor Notes, September 12, 2023

Two days before their contract expires at midnight Thursday, the Auto Workers (UAW) are poised to strike the Big 3 automakers—General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis—to recoup concessions made over the past two decades, end tiers, boost wages, and fight for a shorter workweek and other quality-of-life demands.

The auto companies are preparing for a strike, given the UAW’s new fighting spirit, on display in rallies and on the shop floor.

UAW President Shawn Fain was elected in March on a slate backed by the reform movement Unite All Workers for Democracy (UAWD), on a platform of “no corruption, no concessions, no tiers,” ending nearly 80 years of one-party rule in the union.

The reform slate won every seat it contested and came into office with a mandate to take the union in a more militant direction, similar to the leadership shakeup in the Teamsters in 2021.

By Union Jake - Valley Labor Report, September 12, 2023

By Marcelina Pedraza, Torice Sawyer, Nick Livick, and Max Alvarez - Working People, September 11, 2023

By Jeff Schuhrke - In These Times, September 11, 2023

After decades of accepting concessions demanded by the Big Three automakers, the United Auto Workers (UAW) is now making bold demands of its own in one of the most spirited contract campaigns in the union’s recent history. At midnight on September 14, when the union’s contracts expired with Ford, GM and Stellantis without an agreement, workers at all three automakers went on strike at targeted locations.

The Big Three have made a combined nearly quarter trillion dollars in profits in North America over the past decade — including $21 billion in the first six months of 2023 alone. The companies’ shareholders and executives have been richly rewarded through stock buybacks and exorbitant salaries.

Meanwhile, the workers who actually make the cars have seen their real wages plummet by 30% over the past 20 years. In what was once a middle-class career, some autoworkers now make as little as $15.78 per hour, often working overtime to earn enough to support their families.

The union’s contract proposals, which UAW President Shawn Fain describes as ​“audacious and ambitious,” aim to not only counter the effects of recent inflation, but also to undo the consequences of years of concessionary bargaining by the UAW’s corrupt former leadership clique, whom Fain and a slate of rank-and-file-backed reformers replaced this March in the union’s first-ever election where top officers were directly chosen by the membership. 

“You cannot make $21 billion in profits in half a year and expect members to take a mediocre contract,” said Fain. ​“Our campaign slogan is simple: record profits mean record contracts.”

By Derek Seidman - Truthout, September 10, 2023

We may be days away from the biggest U.S. auto worker strike in years. The contracts between the United Auto Workers (UAW) and the “Big Three” automakers (Ford, General Motors (GM) and Stellantis) expire on September 14. The agreements cover nearly 150,000 workers at the three corporations. So far, news reports indicate that the union and the auto giants remain far apart in negotiations. A whopping 97 percent of UAW members have authorized a strike.

The demands of autoworkers are clear. They include eliminating wage and benefit tiers, obtaining double-digit wage increases, the restoration of cost of living adjustments, defined benefit pensions for all workers, reestablishing retiree medical benefits, the right to strike over plant closures, new protections for workers if a plant shuts down, and more. Looming over the negotiations is the accelerating transition to electric vehicles (EVs). Auto workers are in a historic fight to ensure that EV production comes with high-quality union jobs.

The auto companies are not hurting financially. UAW President Shawn Fain has stressed the “record profits” of the Big Three, claiming the companies took in $21 billion in profits during the first half of 2023 alone and an astounding $250 billion over the past decade. Their CEOs have seen their “pay spike 40% on average over the last four years,” says Fain.

The auto workers’ fight is not theirs alone. In organizing to win substantial gains for their members against companies that are awash in billions in profit, victory for the UAW can help raise the wage floor for other workers and set an inspiring example of what militant trade unionism can achieve. It can help turn the tide on the trend where workers create ever-rising profits for corporations, but never seem to receive their just share.