Higher education workers aren’t just joining their UAW brothers and sisters on the picket lines. They’re also on the front lines of the struggle to win direct elections of top UAW officers and break the decades-long one-party control of the union’s leadership positions. Ballots are due back November 29 in a referendum that will decide whether the UAW moves to a one-member, one-vote system for electing its 13-member International Executive Board (IEB).
Academic workers who support one member, one vote say the push for direct elections is about more than democracy; they’re hopeful it will pave the way for other reforms they’d like to see in the union. That includes more organizing—both via stronger contract campaigns and a renewed commitment to new organizing—on the part of the UAW international.
The corruption of top UAW leaders has been a barrier to organizing efforts, said Brandon Mancilla, president of the Harvard Graduate Students Union (Local 5118). “When we were just trying to get authorization cards signed for recognition or strike authorization,” he said, “people often said things like, ‘I support unions but I don’t support the UAW. They’re corrupt.’”