UAW President Shawn Fain’s Message to the Membership – May 6

UAW family,

This past month has been a very busy one for our union, and I’m excited to share what we’ve been working on. This week, I spoke directly to the membership about our progress, and our major fights ahead. If you missed it, check it out here.

The Electric Vehicle transition remains a core issue for our union. Right now, we have UAW members in Lordstown, Ohio, making batteries for a GM “joint venture” called Ultium, earning just $16.50 an hour. EVs aren’t just coming – they’re here. And we support a clean auto industry. But we need to make sure the EV transition is a “just transition.” That means it’s not a race to the bottom. That means not allowing these companies to circumvent our contracts to pay low-road wages like they’re doing at Ultium.

Outside of the Big Three, the UAW continues to fight and win:

• We had a huge victory this week in the IPS sector, where over 400 workers at Yanfeng auto supplier outside Kansas City voted in a landslide to join UAW Local 710. These workers faced low wages, racial discrimination, and no seniority rights but they fought back and won their union. I want to personally welcome these workers to the family and let them know that myself and everyone else in the UAW have your backs as you fight for a first contract.
• Congratulations to Local 588 members at Metal-Matic who recently ratified their first contract. After 65 days on the picket line Local 588 was able to negotiate an agreement that achieves equal pay for equal work, a bedrock principle of unionism. These members proved that when we stand in solidarity, we can win.
• Higher education workers continue to organize, fight, and win, with major campaigns and organizing activity from the University of Maine to the University of Southern California. From coast to coast, the UAW continues to lead the way in building power on higher education campuses.

Your elected leadership on the International Executive Board are united and hard at work implementing the changes we believe are needed to transform our union back into a fighting organization. But it’s going to take all of us to get back in the fight. Send this message along to a UAW member in your life and ask them to sign up for Member Updates at UAW.org, and follow UAW on social media. We’re just getting started.

In solidarity,

UAW President Shawn