What does it mean to be union?
We believe this is a legitimate question far too many of us within the UAW haven’t spent much time considering. When each one of us decided to join the union, what were the motivating factors that compelled us to do so? Did we join simply because we were expected to? Do most of us honestly believe that the purpose and role of a union member is to simply show up to work every day and pay monthly dues while putting total faith in our leaders to serve our best interests behind closed doors?
At one point in time, the UAW was one of the most powerful and dynamic trade unions that our country has ever known. Through the collective action and solidarity of the rank-and-file on the shop floors, the UAW was able to bring multi-billion dollar corporations to their knees in order to ensure dignity in the workplace.
Without a doubt, times have changed greatly over the years, and — unfortunately — so have the strategies and ideology of our leadership at the International level. Where once the power of the union was derived from a militant workforce, today we find that the power of the UAW has been consolidated into the hands of a privileged few at the Solidarity House.
Our union has become more and more bureaucratic at the expense of internal democracy. The processes of our great Constitution have become stifled with copious amounts of red tape and various loopholes to subvert the will of the membership. Often, shameless loyalists to the Administration Caucus are respected and promoted within our union while those who advocate for free thinking, democracy, and a semblance of accountability from our leaders are smeared and outcast.
Our concern is that too many of us continue to blindly accept what has happened to our union over the years because it is the easy thing to do. It is far easier to accept the status quo and pretend that we are powerless to do anything other than to follow the marching orders of the International Executive Board rather than to educate ourselves about our history and to truly stand together in solidarity with one another. It is much more convenient to tell ourselves, “well, as long as I’m taken care of, then I’m okay with the situation” than it is to insist on standing up for the most vulnerable within our union.
The sad reality is that too many of us have become more loyal to leaders than to the actual principles of unionism.
So, what can each of us do? We believe the first step is to talk to one another and to stop accepting the dog-eat-dog competing going on between Locals and one another at our workplaces. We want to start a conversation among UAW workers about how corporate competitiveness is destroying the future of our jobs, our coworkers, our families and communities, and to discuss how we can stop it.
We believe that we should commit ourselves to starting a discussion with our coworkers in our own and other workplaces about how we can all unite around the values we all share of equality, solidarity, democracy, and mutual assistance. We want to hold open and honest debate regarding ideas and strategies that we can implement in order to move the union forward for every member. We advocate for transparency and democracy because we believe that an educated and informed membership in control of its own destiny is the only way we can finally start winning again.
We pledge ourselves to ally with other workers across the country wherever we can to build a truly open and democratic union and movement that is beholden to the will of the rank-and-file — the highest authority in the UAW.
In Solidarity,
Justin Mayhugh and Tom Laney