The following resolution passed at the UAWD Mid-Year General Membership Meeting held on January 30, 2022.
Rationale:
1. UAWD’s core mission is to rebuild the UAW as a democratic union, one which does not simply represent its members but empowers them to organize with each other for better working conditions and a better world.
2. UAWD’s key campaign thus far has been leading and winning One Member, One Vote in the 2021 UAW Referendum, and we are best known as a caucus among UAW members for fighting corruption through the campaign for direct elections.
3. At UAWD’s January 9 Vision and Priorities Meeting, the following two priorities were ranked highest when members in attendance were polled:
a. Recruit, train, and support reformers in delegate elections;
b. Campaign for reformers in International Executive Board (IEB) Elections.
4. By focusing UAWD resources on the two priorities above in 2022, we can grow our caucus this year and extend our credibility to other key UAWD goals, including:
a. Recruit, train, and support reformers running in local elections;
b. Provide political education for UAW members through organized events;
c. Take action on the shop floor to fight for better working conditions;
d. Campaign for UAWD’s Platform at this year’s and future UAW Conventions.
Resolution:
1. Strategy
a. Campaign Priorities — UAWD staff time and Steering Committee (SC) focus will be prioritized for organizing relating to two campaigns:
i. Delegate Campaign: Recruiting local organizers, both within and outside of UAWD, and supporting them in creating slates and running campaigns for Convention delegates. This will not include a centralized UAWD endorsement process for delegate candidates, but may include creating a minimal UAWD delegate platform that candidates can sign on to, as decided by the Organizing Committee. This campaign will be the key priority during the remainder of the winter and early spring.
ii. IEB Campaign: Leading and supporting campaigns for IEB positions, both pre- and post-Convention, for candidates endorsed through UAWD’s democratic endorsement process. UAWD commits to having a slate of credible and inclusive candidates, with a visionary platform for the 2022 UAW Constitutional Convention, that seeks to unite all sectors that the UAW represents; the SC will structure this process to ensure the slate is credible and inclusive. After candidate recruitment, this campaign will be the key priority during the late spring, summer, and fall.
b. Approach — To be able to scale our caucus to be a significant organizing force UAW-wide, UAWD must recruit many more organizers and bring them into key roles locally and in our organization. This will be done this year by creating organizing spaces, below, to empower our caucus members to:
i. Develop skills, learn how to organize, and become local leaders, especially by encouraging members to lead local delegate campaigns;
ii. Take on leadership roles in UAWD and play an active role in decision-making, facilitated by transitioning more responsibility to committees beyond the SC throughout the year.
2. Structure — In order to achieve the strategic objectives, above, the UAWD SC will oversee the establishment of the following committee and meeting structure, some of which is already in place:
a. Permanent, staffed committees — The following committees will meet regularly, be supported by staff, and chaired by members of the SC or staff:
i. Steering Committee (SC): The SC will continue to operate as it has, under Article VI of the UAWD Bylaws, directly managing UAWD staff, and holding weekly meetings with those staff and SC members in attendance.
1. Financial Subcommittee: As described in Bylaws Article VI(5).
ii. Organizing Committee (OC): As soon as possible, the SC will oversee the transition of the OC into a space that takes the lead in deliberating and making strategic organizing decisions, reporting to the SC and UAWD membership. In consultation with the OC, the SC may set a criteria for OC membership, based on organizing engagement, though OC meetings will remain open to all UAWD members.
1. Delegate Campaign Subcommittees: As soon as possible, staff and the SC will convene committees on a regional, and, if possible, national basis. The purpose of these committee(s) will be to make strategic decisions about the delegate campaign.
2. IEB Campaign Subcommittee: This committee may be launched at some point throughout the year, or the OC may take up the role of leading the IEB campaign.
iii. IEB Endorsement Preparation Committee: To facilitate the IEB candidate endorsement process, as described in this resolution.
b. Permanent, unstaffed committees — The following committees will not be regularly supported by staff, though staff may be called on by the SC to support some of their efforts or operations; the SC will be responsible for seeking and appointing co-chairs for these committees, either from SC members or other interested UAWD members, but these committee may remain dormant without meeting regularly when they do not have co-chairs:
i. Legal Support and Research Committee: Will train and organize UAWD members to provide legal support to delegate campaigns, IEB campaign organizers, or members drafting Convention resolutions.
ii. Communication Committee: Will lead decision-making for our website, social media, other external communications, and internal UAWD communications; this work will be overseen directly by the SC and staff if the committee is dormant.
iii. Education Committee: Will oversee educational programs for UAW members, as described in Article II of the UAWD Bylaws.
iv. Convention Resolutions Committee: Will support the drafting of resolutions based on UAWD’s Platform and other membership resolutions; will coordinate with the OC and UAWD-aligned delegates to have these resolutions passed at the local level and supported at the Convention.
v. Diversity Committee
c. Ad hoc, unstaffed committees and working groups — The following committees will not be regularly supported by staff; the SC will not be responsible for facilitating them, though may be involved in their work if they are in operation:
i. Topic-specific ad hoc working groups, for example relating to electric vehicle, may convene and are encouraged to coordinate with relevant committees above and inform staff about their meeting times, so that they can be publicized.
ii. A group of members may petition the SC at any time to form a committee, which can later become a permanent committee.
d. Other meetings — The following meetings will be supported by staff and, if appropriate, overseen and chaired by the SC:
i. Annual National Meeting and Special Membership Meetings: As described in Article IV of the UAWD Bylaws.
ii. Monthly Members and Supporters Meetings: Publicized to UAWD members and contacts to learn about ongoing efforts.
iii. Regular Phonebanks: Organized by staff to support membership recruitment, delegate candidate recruitment, fundraising, or GOTV.
e. Unless otherwise stated here, in another resolution, or in the UAWD Bylaws, all UAWD meetings should be open to all UAWD members. Committee chairs are responsible for publicizing meetings on UAWD Slack or sharing a schedule with UAWD staff to include in membership-wide communications.