This resolution was passed at the October 2024 Annual Membership Meeting via Zoom on October 13, 2024.
Resolution: Promote the UAW’s Commemoration of May Day in Preparation forthe May 1, 2028 General Strike and beyond, beginning in 2025
Submitted by Frank Hammer, UAW 909 retiree
Whereas, the UAW is leading the U.S. Labor movement by calling for a coordinated strategy for a unified general strike against the billionaire class on May Day 2028, with the aim of reshaping the economy into one that works for the benefit of everyone, not just the wealthy,
Whereas, this aim will require reclaiming our country’s history of militant trade unions that united workers across race, gender and nationality – and specifically May Day, which in 1886 has its roots in Chicago’s Haymarket Square, where workers were organizing and fighting for the 8-hour workday,
Whereas, this demand was met with brutal resistance by employers, who used both vicious mercenaries and the police to violently suppress mass protests led by unions – which led to seven labor leaders being falsely charged and sentenced to death,
Whereas, the cause of those Haymarket Martyrs became the cause of the working class around the world, and May 1 became an international holiday in 160 countries, commemorating the fight of workers everywhere to reclaim their time and the value of their labor, except its country of origin, the USA,
Whereas, the billionaire class and their political lackeys have done everything they can to white out the true history of the working class, and want us to believe that corporate bosses gave workers decent wages, benefits and safer working conditions out of the goodness of their hearts – and that justice and equality for people of color, for immigrants, for women and for queer communities were gifts benevolently handed down from above,
Whereas, A united working class is the only effective wall against the billionaire class’ race to the bottom. For the U.S. labor movement, that means grappling with some hard truths, like the undeniable fact that it is impossible to protect “American” jobs while ignoring the plight of everyone else. Since corporate greed doesn’t recognize borders, neither should we.
Therefore be it resolved that the UAWD:
- endeavor by every means possible to support and help build the UAW’s efforts for a unified general strike on May 1, 2028,
- urge the UAW to initiate a union-wide, multi-year education campaign to instill in the membership a deep understanding and appreciation of the historic origins and the rightful observance of May Day, as part of reforming the culture of the UAW,
- call on the UAW to plan annual, union-wide, observances of May Day rooted in international solidarity with workers’ May Day celebrations around the world, and
- call on the UAW to win the AFL-CIO to launch a national labor campaign to win May 1 as a legally recognized Federal holiday honoring May Day as International Workers Day.
[1] Most of the language of this resolution is drawn from a UAW President Shawn Fain article in the publication, In These Times, https://inthesetimes.com/article/may-day-2028-general-strike-working-class