Jonah Furman writes for Labor Notes:
Auto Workers (UAW) members made history last November, winning direct elections of national officers (“one member, one vote”) in a membership referendum. Now delegates are headed to a Constitutional Convention where candidates will be nominated for the top slots.
The whole process will put to the test whether reformers can break the iron grip of the Administration Caucus, the one party that has ruled the union for 70 years.
On UAWD’s delegates at Convention:
The reform group Unite All Workers for Democracy (UAWD) has put forward a platform for delegate candidates with the motto, “No Corruption. No Tiers. No Concessions!” Dozens of UAWD members have been elected delegates by their locals on this platform.
UAWD has also built a slate, though the group’s steering committee is still considering additional endorsements. […]
A majority of convention delegates will be products of the UAW’s entrenched system and culture, though UAWD will be a notable presence. The reformers’ goal is to convince fellow delegates that their union is best served by the reform spirit shown by members in the referendum last year.
On UAWD’s priority resolutions at Convention:
UAWD is putting forward eight resolutions. One is a constitutional amendment to ban the practice of negotiating tiers in contracts. Another calls for the union to hire 100 new organizers to carry out an aggressive organizing strategy in the growing electric vehicle industry.
Another resolution calls for fighting discrimination by pushing to hire more women and people of color into skilled trades positions and instituting more union-led education to reinforce the principle “an injury to one is an injury to all.”
Another UAWD resolution would have called for strike pay to be increased from $275 a week to $400. On June 7, however, the UAW Executive Board announced that it was adopting this increase in advance of the convention—a sign that the incumbents are trying to get out in front of the opposition on this issue.
At least 24 locals representing 180,000 members had voted to back the increase in strike pay, including some of the largest auto locals and two John Deere locals.
UAWD is still pushing for strike pay to be paid starting on the first day of a strike, rather than the eighth; the Teamsters adopted a similar resolution at their convention last year.
Any resolutions not formally recommended by one of the constitutional committees (which UAWD’s resolutions are not likely to be) needs 15 percent of the delegates’ support to be brought to the floor, and a majority of the delegates’ votes to pass.