Keith Brower Brown writes for Labor Notes:
New reform leaders in the United Auto Workers, the largest manufacturing union in the country, are organizing for a national strike this fall—in part to unionize electric car-making, batteries and all.
Beyond the workplace, one new UAW director immediately moved his region to back the New York Build Public Renewables Act. This bill would have solar and wind power built by the state, publicly owned, and union-made.
But while legislative fights are the only way many unions are tackling climate (and plenty aren’t even doing that), the UAW reformers and their Unite All Workers for Democracy caucus are clear that their strongest leverage is on the job, not in the state house.
As new UAW President Shawn Fain put it, “The founders of this union didn’t wait for the law. They didn’t worry about the law. They wanted their dignity and they wanted their fair share, and they did what the hell they had to do to get it.”
Read more in Labor Notes.