The rank-and-file caucus United All Workers for Democracy built a broad, grassroots campaign to promote voter turnout for direct elections. A team of volunteers helped with phone banking, text banking, leafletting, social media outreach and generating media publicity. It became clear that they had tapped into a widespread sentiment in their union.
The vote is a step forward, but the work is far from finished. Good fighting leaders have to be drafted to run for the IEB, and the rank-and-file movement needs a program and a strategy for the convention and beyond. Those discussions have already begun in the UAW’s ranks.