Luis Feliz Leon writes for Labor Notes:
Two days before their contract expires at midnight Thursday, the Auto Workers (UAW) are poised to strike the Big 3 automakers—General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis—to recoup concessions made over the past two decades, end tiers, boost wages, and fight for a shorter workweek and other quality-of-life demands.
The auto companies are preparing for a strike, given the UAW’s new fighting spirit, on display in rallies and on the shop floor.
UAW President Shawn Fain was elected in March on a slate backed by the reform movement Unite All Workers for Democracy (UAWD), on a platform of “no corruption, no concessions, no tiers,” ending nearly 80 years of one-party rule in the union. […]
Chris Viola, who works at GM’s electric vehicle plant in Detroit, Michigan, has seen a big shift among his co-workers in UAW Local 22. “In my plant, it’s a 180,” he said. “People are coming up to me to tell me what’s going on, instead of the other way around.”
UAWD member Dawnya Ferdinandsen has been an auto worker since 2006. She worked for GM parts supplier Delphi until it went bankrupt. In 2016 she was rolled over to work directly for GM in Toledo, Ohio.
“I lost everything,” she said: 10 years of seniority and her entire pension. She hopes the new contract will make the former Delphi workers whole.
Ferdinandsen credits the union’s new leaders with a more transparent and militant approach to negotiations. “President Fain reaches out to the membership and gets us involved,” she said. “He keeps us updated on what’s going on. That has never happened—at least not in my lifetime.
“And I have family who have been UAW, so I have deep roots in the union ever since I was little. I’ve never seen such militant action.” […]
Nick Livick, a UAWD member and GM worker in Kansas City, says his co-workers are refusing to help management as they normally would—instead they are waiting for direct orders, and stopping the line when management starts it up early after a break. […]
Livick reported from his GM plant that managers are getting ready: they have stopped stocking vending machines and removed some ice machines. “My plant is nervous but excited,” he said, “because we know from 2019 the cost to us for a strike, but everyone is optimistic, especially now that we know what we are fighting for.”
Read more in Labor Notes.