United Auto Workers members this month are casting ballots in a historic referendum that could change the union’s decades-old system for electing leaders — and they’re doing so as workers across the country push for better wages, benefits and working conditions amid a tight labor market and a pandemic that has laid bare long-standing inequities.
“Everybody’s talking about all the stuff that’s going on in the labor movement,” said Jeremy Steffen, 42, who works at the agricultural equipment manufacturer’s Waterloo, Iowa, drivetrain operations plant. “I haven’t had anybody say anything other than direct elections is a no-brainer, that the current system, the status quo, ain’t working for the rank-and-file membership.”