Detroit, Michigan – Approximately nine hundred UAW delegates, elected by the membership of their respective local unions, are arriving in Detroit to attend the historic UAW 38th Constitutional Convention. For the first time ever, candidates nominated at the Convention for the union’s top leadership positions will be elected directly by the UAW membership this fall, rather than by Convention delegates.
UAWD, the reform caucus in the UAW, has endorsed the UAW Members United slate for International Executive Board (IEB), and is uniting a broad coalition of reformers in the UAW to campaign for the slate. UAWD members will be voting on additional endorsements to grow the slate following Convention, through a bottom-up process that empowers the membership of the caucus to decide on which candidates to endorse.
Many UAWD members and supporters are serving as Convention delegates and will also push for passage of eight priority amendments and resolutions in an effort to chart a new, progressive course for the union, and to empower UAW members to fight the companies. This includes beginning strike pay on the first day of the strike, organizing in the emerging electric vehicle industry, and eliminating tiered wages and benefits in contracts. In May, the IEB voted to adopt UAWD’s proposal to increase weekly strike pay from $275 to $400, after UAWD organized to pass the resolution in over 25 local unions representing 200,000 members.
This Convention is being held in stark contrast to the 2018 UAW Convention. Since the last convention, twelve top UAW leaders, including two former International Presidents, have been convicted in a federal court for the embezzlement of union funds. The resulting corruption led to a court order called a Consent Decree between the Department of Justice and the UAW.
As part of the Consent Decree, the parties held a referendum of the UAW membership to decide how to elect the IEB, the governing body of the UAW. UAW members overwhelmingly rejected the traditional convention delegate system, instead choosing to elect IEB members directly by a vote of the entire union membership, also known as “One Member, One Vote.” UAWD mounted a national grassroots campaign to win One Member, One Vote, which passed with a 63% majority of the union’s membership.
The Consent Decree also installed a Monitor charged with cleaning up the corruption in the beleaguered union, as well as overseeing the direct election of the IEB. One key task of the UAW Convention will be to codify the One Member, One Vote IEB election process into the union’s Constitution. Namely, the Monitor has asked delegates to vote on whether the election should use the costly and time-consuming traditional run-off system or adopt ranked choice voting, also known as “instant run-off” voting, the method which UAWD supports. Candidates for the IEB will also be nominated at the Convention, and voting will begin in October 2022.
About Unite All Workers for Democracy (UAWD) — UAWD is a political caucus in the UAW and a grassroots movement of UAW members united in the common goal of creating a more democratic and accountable union. If you would like more information, please contact UAWD staff organizer Lisa Xu (510-449-8949), [email protected].