Robert Kuttner writes for the American Prospect:
The UAW’s stunning victory with Ford, which will soon translate into similar terms as the other two large automakers settle, is not only a win for the union’s audacious new leader Shawn Fain. It’s a win for union democracy.
Fain is already the first union leader maybe since Walter Reuther or Jimmy Hoffa whose name is a household word. He demonstrates both how a great union leader gives a rousing speech to rally the rank file and devises astute tactics to outplay management and build worker solidarity. This win will further energize a labor movement already on the upswing.
None of this would have been possible had not the previous corruption at the UAW led to a consent decree with the federal government in 2022 that provided, for the first time, that the union president be elected directly by the membership. It was this victory for union democracy that allowed rank-and-file reform caucus called United All Workers [for Democracy] to elect a slate of officers led by the militant Fain.
Read more in the American Prospect.