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UAW Statement on the EPA’s New Greenhouse Gas Emissions Rule

The UAW has a strong commitment to protecting the environment and fully supports efforts to create a cleaner domestic auto industry. The climate crisis has taken a heavy toll on working people, who have had to endure the consequences of corporate America’s decisions to put profits before a clean environment and a fair economy. That needs to change. The UAW is proudly leading the fight for a just transition so the shift to electric vehicles truly benefits workers and the environment, not just the auto industry and Wall Street.   

The EPA has made significant progress on its final greenhouse gas emissions rule for light-duty vehicles. By taking seriously the concerns of workers and communities, the EPA has created a more feasible emissions rule that protects workers building ICE vehicles, while providing a path forward for automakers to implement the full range of automotive technologies to reduce emissions. This rule does not require Ford, General Motors, Stellantis or any other domestic automaker to do anything beyond the commitments they’ve made to shareholders to capitalize on the growing EV market. We reject the fearmongering that says tackling the climate crisis must come at the cost of union jobs. Ambitious and achievable regulations can support both. We call on the Biden Administration to hold automakers accountable so that this rule is not used as an excuse to cut or offshore jobs.  

The billionaire class and their allies in government expect workers to bear the brunt of the crisis. When it comes to the EV transition, corporations see an opportunity to collect taxpayer subsidies, increase profits, lower job quality and leave workers behind. Reaching our climate goals requires massive public investments. Government subsidies must create quality union jobs by including strong labor standards that require employers to meet or exceed industry standards, protect workers’ right to organize, and invest in communities impacted by the transition.    

This moment calls for a whole of government approach to ensure the next generation of vehicles are made in the United States and the auto industry supports quality union jobs for American workers. This transition should be a clear victory for working people, not another reason to look over our shoulder, wondering when our plants will close or our jobs will be cut. From trade policy to new legislation to environmental regulation to clean energy implementation, all policies must point in the same direction toward a just transition for autoworkers.   

The transition to cleaner technologies cannot be used to intensify the global race to the bottom through offshoring and low wages. We need to see movement by the administration to protect these jobs. The nascent EV industry needs tariff protections – otherwise we are going to be awash in imports.  The stakes of the transition are high for American workers. We will continue to work with the Administration and fight to get these policies right for American autoworkers.   

UAW members are doing our part by fighting for and winning important Just Transition provisions through bargaining and organizing at new EV and battery plants across the country. UAW members at the Big Three used their power to win critical investment commitments, job security provisions, and job quality standards to ensure workers are not left behind in the transition to cleaner vehicles. And just this week, over 4,000 workers building ICEVs and BEVs at Volkswagen in Chattanooga, Tenn., announced they are standing up and filing a petition with the National Labor Relations Board for a vote to join the UAW. But UAW members should not have to shoulder the burden of a just transition on our own. We need policymakers who will support these efforts, from the halls of Congress to the picket line.  

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Volkswagen Workers File for Union Election to Join UAW

Chattanooga, TN – Volkswagen workers in Chattanooga, Tenn., have filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board for a vote to join the UAW, after a supermajority of Volkswagen workers have signed union cards in just 100 days.

In a new video, Volkswagen workers speak out on why they’re voting yes to join the UAW.

“Today, we are one step closer to making a good job at Volkswagen into a great career,” said Isaac Meadows, a production team member in assembly. “Right now, we miss time with our families because so much of our paid-time-off is burned up during the summer and winter shutdowns. We shouldn’t have to choose between our family and our job. By winning our union and a real voice at Volkswagen, we can negotiate for more time with our families.”

“We are voting yes for our union because we want Volkswagen to be successful,” said Victor Vaughn, a logistics team member at VW. “Volkswagen has spent billions of dollars expanding in Chattanooga, but right now safety is a major issue in our plant. Just the other day, I was almost hit by four 500-plus pound crates while I was driving to deliver parts. That incident should’ve been followed up within the hour, but even after I clocked out no one asked me about it. VW has partnered with unionized workforces around the world to make their plants safe and successful. That’s why we’re voting for a voice at Volkswagen here in Chattanooga.”

“I come from a UAW family, so I’ve seen how having our union enables us to make life better on the job and off,” said Yolanda Peoples, a production team member in assembly. “We are a positive force in the plant. When we win our union, we’ll be able to bargain for a safer workplace, so people can stay on the job and the company can benefit from our experience. When my father retired as a UAW member, he had something to fall back on. VW workers deserve the same.”

The milestone marks the first non-union auto plant to file for a union election among the dozens of auto plants where workers have been organizing in recent months. The grassroots effort sprang up in the wake of the record victories for Big Three autoworkers in the UAW’s historic Stand Up Strike win.

The Chattanooga plant is Volkswagen’s only U.S. assembly plant and employs over 4,000 autoworkers. It is the only Volkswagen plant globally with no form of employee representation.

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UAW President Fain Testifies at U.S. Senate HELP Committee Hearing on a 32-Hour Workweek

Statement by UAW President Shawn Fain before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions for a hearing on Workers Should Benefit from New Technology and Increased Productivity: The Need for a 32-Hour Work Week with No Loss in Pay.


President Fain’s full remarks:

Good morning, Chairman Sanders, Dr. Cassidy, and members of the Committee.


I’m here to talk about one of the most important issues to any union leader and any working-class person, any US senator, and any human being: our time.

As president of the United Auto Workers, I represent four hundred thousand working-class people and six hundred thousand retirees. I know when my members look back on their lives, they never say, “I wish I would have worked more.” When people reach the end of their lives, they never say, “I wish I made more money.” What they wish for is they wish they had more time.

That’s what work does. We are paid for our time, and when we work, we are sacrificing time with other people, with family and friends, and time for other things we wish to do. But time, just like every precious resource in our society, is not freely given to the working class.

Since the industrial revolution, we’ve seen productivity in our society skyrocket. With the advance of technology, one worker is now doing what twelve workers used to do. More profit is being squeezed out of every hour, every minute, and every second.

There was a time when this phenomenon was supposed to lead to workers getting their time back — getting some of their lives back. Nearly a hundred years ago, economist John Maynard Keynes spoke of the future of workers’ time. His worry was that, with all the gains in productivity, we wouldn’t know what to do with ourselves. He predicted a fifteen-hour workweek.

In my own union, I go back into our archives and I read about the fight for the thirty-hour workweek, an idea that was alive and well with our union back in the 1930s and ’40s. But today, deep in the twenty-first century, we find these ideas unimaginable.

Instead, we find workers working longer hours. We have workers working seven days a week, twelve hours a day. There are workers, union or not, working multiple jobs, and they’re living to work, they’re scraping to get by, and they’re living paycheck to paycheck. We find workers today working deep into their sixties, seventies, and eighties because they can’t afford to retire.

We find associated deaths of despair, from addiction and suicide, of people who don’t feel a life of endless, hopeless work is a life worth living. Workers have been sacrificed at the altar of greed, and they’ve been stripped of their dignity.

We have a mental health crisis we talk about a lot in this country. But we never talk about the causes of that. There have been studies: increases in stress from working seven days a week, twelve hours a day — you’re sacrificing family life and things you want to pursue — it causes increases in cortisol levels, which leads to heart disease, cancer, strokes.

Given all those facts, if someone is lucky enough to retire — typically after they’ve worked themselves to death their entire life — they face knee replacements, shoulder surgeries, and spend the rest of their lives figuring out how they’re going to survive.

It’s sad to say that in 1933, the US Senate passed legislation to establish the thirty-hour workweek, but due to intense corporate opposition, that legislation failed. But in 1940, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Fair Labor Standards Act establishing a forty-hour workweek — eighty-four years ago. Eighty-four years ago, the forty-hour week was established. Since then, we’ve had a 400 percent increase in productivity, but nothing’s changed.

That was why, in our Big Three campaign and our stand-up strike, we raised the flag for a thirty-two-hour workweek. This isn’t just a union issue, contrary to what some people want to talk about. This is a working-class issue. That’s why 75 percent of Americans stood with us in our contract fight. Because they’re all living the same reality.

Who’s going to act to fix this epidemic of lives dominated by work? Are the employers going to act? Will Congress act? How can working-class people take back their lives and take back their time?

I know what people, and many in this room, will say. They’ll say, “People just don’t want to work,” or “Working-class people are lazy.” But the truth is, working-class people aren’t lazy. They’re fed up.

They’re fed up with being left behind and stripped of dignity as wealth inequality in this nation and this world spirals out of control. They’re fed up that three families in the United States have as much wealth as the bottom 50 percent of citizens in this country. That is criminal. America is better than this.

I agree there is an epidemic in this country of people who don’t want to work. People who can’t be bothered to get up every day and contribute to our society, but instead want to freeload off the labor of others. But those aren’t blue-collar people; those aren’t working-class people.

It’s a group of people who are never talked about for how little they actually work and produce, and how little they contribute to humanity. The people I’m talking about are the Wall Street freeloaders, the masters of passive income. Those who profit off the labor of others have all the time in the world, while those who make this country run — the people who build the products and contribute the labor — have less and less time for themselves, for their families, for their lives.

Our union is going to continue to fight for the right of working-class people to take back their lives and take back their time. We ask you to stand up with the American workers and support us in that mission.

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Saving Butler: UAW Members Fight for the Future of a Pennsylvania Steel Town

Workers at the Cleveland Cliffs Butler Works steel mill in Butler, PA, are speaking out about a proposed Department of Energy rule that threatens good union jobs at the mill.

In a new video, UAW Local 3303 members describe the fight to save jobs for the 1,100 workers at the plant who produce grain-oriented electrical steel (GOES) used for electric vehicles and EV chargers.

The video, “Saving Butler,” can be accessed here, and the media is invited to use the footage. “My grandfather worked at the plant, as did my father, and many, many families throughout our community,” said UAW Local 3303 President Jamie Sychak. “It’s generational.”

“This plant is the very heart and soul of this community,” says Steven Gilliland. “This is one of the biggest employers and certainly one of the best-paying employers around here. This is a good-quality union job.”

The proposed regulation would lower demand for grain-oriented electrical steel (GOES), threatening job loss at the Butler Works. 

A bipartisan bill sponsored by Senator Sherrod Brown was introduced in January that would freeze the implementation of the DOE’s proposed rule.

“A strong domestic supply of transformers is crucial to our electric grid and our energy independence,” said Brown. “We need to meet increasing demand for transformers, while keeping this critical supply chain in the U.S. and making sure the Department of Energy gets it right.”

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Nearly 7,000 UAW Members at Daimler Truck Vote to Authorize Strike, If Necessary

On Friday, March 8th, 7,000 Daimler Truck North America workers voted by a resounding 96% to authorize a strike if necessary. The contract covers 7,000 parts and assembly workers in North Carolina, Georgia, and Tennessee, and expires on April 26th.

The workers who build Freightliner trucks, Western Star trucks, and Thomas Built Buses are facing declining real wages and job security against a backdrop of rising cost of living and massive profits and shareholder payouts by Daimler Truck.

In a video released by the UAW last week, Daimler workers spoke out on the declining standards at the company that have led to their willingness to stand up and fight for better wages, benefits, and job security.

Daimler amassed nearly $6 billion in 2023. In addition, the company plans to spend billions of dollars on stock buybacks over the next two years while lavishing millions of dollars on its shareholders. In a recent interview, Daimler Truck CEO Martin Daum boasted that the company’s profits are “red hot” and claimed that any “leftover money certainly belongs” to the company’s stockholders. Daum received over $7.5 million in total compensation last year alone.

Daimler workers are the latest UAW members standing up to corporate greed. Thousands of UAW members have won record contracts in the last year, including autoworkers at the Big Three automakers, and Allison Transmission workers in Indianapolis, IN.

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A Message from Laura Dickerson, TOP Department/Region 1A Director

As the first African American woman in the history of the UAW to be elected to the International Executive Board, I come before you with immense gratitude and a deep sense of responsibility.

My journey to this historic achievement has been guided by the wisdom and support of incredible mentors like Liz Jackson, Dottie Jones, and Eunice Stokes. Their unwavering belief in me and their commitment to lifting as they climbed have shaped my path and instilled in me the importance of paying it forward.

Today, as I reflect on my journey, I am humbled. Deeply humbled to be surrounded by incredible women who are making a difference in Michigan and across America. Together, we possess the power to lead and affect change in every sector we engage in. But let us never forget that our successes are built upon the foundation laid by those who came before us. It is our duty to honor their legacies by extending a hand to lift others as we continue to climb higher.

In recent years, we have seen a notable increase in women assuming leadership positions. In Michigan we elected women to the positions of Governor, Attorney General, and Secretary of State. These women serve as shining examples of what can be achieved when barriers are broken, and progress is fostered.

However, our work is far from finished. We must persist in sharing information, encouraging one another, and empowering our fellow sisters. Women from all walks of life recognize that an uneven playing field will never yield equality or justice. It falls upon us to raise our voices and double down on our efforts to promote fairness in our institution as well as others that we belong to.

I urge each of you to engage with your local standing committees, participate in women’s organizations supported by this International Union, and become politically active. Remember, a woman’s place is in her union, advocating for the rights and well-being of all workers. I encourage to find your seat at the table.

Together, let us continue to drive progress, champion equality, and stand in solidarity with one another on the journey towards a more just and equitable future.

In solidarity,
Laura Dickerson
TOP Department Director,
Region 1A Director

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“We Keep Toyota Running”: Workers at Critical Toyota Plant Launch Campaign to Join the UAW

TROY, Mo. – Workers at a critical Toyota plant in Troy, Missouri have launched their public campaign to join the UAW after more than 30% signed union authorization cards. It is the first Toyota plant and the fourth non-union plant nationwide where workers have gone public with their campaign to win their union.

In a new video, “We Keep Toyota Running,” workers at the plant — which makes the cylinder heads for every Toyota engine made in North America — describe the toll of the work on their bodies.

The video announcing the campaign can be accessed here, and the media is invited to use the footage. More information on the campaign is available at uaw.org/toyota-tmmmo.

Dawn Ellis, a worker featured in the video, tore her rotator cuff on the job, a common injury at the plant. She had surgery on a Friday and, in a common practice at the plant, was ordered to report to work the following Monday. In a separate injury, Ellis suffered a fractured skull and has struggled with migraine headaches ever since.

“The plant is not safe,” said Jaye Hochuli, a team leader at the plant. “They had me crawl under a deck to clean out the sand and silica dust and chemicals that come out of the machines. It was a confined space. I should’ve been in a respirator and a hazmat suit. All they gave me was a KN-95 mask. I came home and that dust was in my hair, on my clothes, in my underwear. How can the richest car company in the world not follow basic safety practices? We’re organizing to fix what’s wrong and win the protection we need.”

Wages at the plant are far below the rate that UAW members make in equivalent Big Three facilities. Even after Toyota increased pay in response to last year’s record UAW contracts – the “UAW Bump” — production workers in Troy make over $4 an hour less than their UAW counterparts.

“Seeing the new contracts with the Big Three, that’s when I realized we needed a union,” said Charles Lashley, a team member in support. “It was incredible that UAW members could bargain for those benefits and that pay. I don’t see why we should be paid differently. Toyota makes more money than all the Big Three. So, there’s no reason why we should be so far behind. The company can’t run without us. We should get paid like it. We can by organizing our union.”

“When I was hired two and a half years ago, I came in with 24 people. I’m the last one left,” said Jessica Clay a team member in die changes. “The overtime we worked was too much. Overtime now isn’t the problem it was, but there’s still no sick time. We still have to use PTO [paid time off] during shutdowns. I came from Ford; I came from UAW. The union was a better fit for your life. In our union, we have more control. We have a better life.”

“The company has a slogan they like to use: One Toyota,” said Jarred Wehde, a production team member. “We’ve got the Toyota sign out front, just like they do in Kentucky and Indiana. But our pay is nowhere near what theirs is. We know what the company makes. We know they can afford to pay us. By organizing our union, we can win our fair share.”

The announcement marks the latest major breakthrough in the national movement of non-union autoworkers organizing to join the UAW in the wake of the historic Stand Up Strike victory at the Big Three auto companies. Over 10,000 non-union autoworkers have signed union cards in recent months, with public campaigns launched at Volkswagen in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Mercedes in Vance, Alabama, and Hyundai in Montgomery, Alabama, while workers at over two dozen other facilities continue to organize.

For more information, visit uaw.org/join.

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Academic Student Workers at The New School Set March 6 Strike Deadline

New York, NY – After more than six months of bargaining their successor contract, teaching fellows, teaching assistants, course assistants, research assistants, and tutors at The New School, represented by United Auto Workers (UAW), will go on strike this coming Wednesday. Having authorized their strike with 94% voting yes, and a historic 77% of members participating, academic student workers have a powerful mandate for its work stoppage. For over half a year the workers have bargained continuously and in good faith with The New School. The university, meanwhile, has dragged its feet, and offered insulting poverty wages in a time of skyrocketing inflation. The strike will proceed unless the university comes back to the table before March 6 with an acceptable offer.

Less than one year after their professors walked off the job for 25 days, academic student workers began negotiating the terms of their new union contract. The workers are asking for higher wages and improved health care, alongside workplace and standard of living reforms like access to a childcare fund and better support for international students. Unlike many graduate students in the U.S., most at The New School pay tuition and do not receive stipends. The average academic student worker makes about 11K per year, and none make more than 24K. This is a special hardship for international students who are restricted from most forms of off-campus work. Academic student workers do not earn a New York City living wage and none make enough to afford even a shared apartment within a 90-minute commute from campus. To be an academic student worker at The New School is to be in a state of near constant financial anxiety.

Union members regularly report delays in pay and disbursement of stipends due to bureaucratic mismanagement by the university, which has left several members scrambling to figure out how to pay for basic necessities like housing and transportation. Workers have been forced to draw down from savings or rely upon the goodwill of friends, with little to no clarity from the university on when these issues will be resolved.

These experiences are not exclusive to research assistants. Non-academic student workers in a range of campus locations including dorms, libraries, wood and metal shops, admissions offices, Human Resources, Information Technology, and more are prepared to walk off the job with their colleagues. The predominantly undergraduate workforce is awaiting a ruling from the National Labor Relations Board about their ability to form a wall-to-wall student worker union with the striking academic student workers.

Academic student workers are 6.5% of the total workforce at The New School. They are asking for a compensation and health care package that would be worth less than 1% of the university’s operating budget. The university’s last insulting compensation offer for the over 500 workers, which wouldn’t even begin to address their financial hardship, is for less than what New School executives made in bonuses alone in 2022. While academic student workers experience both housing and food insecurity, New School executive salaries continue to bloat, with pay packages, including bonuses, on par with those at far wealthier Ivy League institutions. Perpetually strapped for cash, The New School still spends big on executive salaries by keeping its labor force—the workers that actually keep the school going—in abject poverty.

At a university founded on progressive values, and once a sanctuary to scholars fleeing the spread of fascism in Europe, the union believes that The New School can do better not just for its academic student workers, but for its workforce and student population as a whole. Academic student workers are merely picking up where their professors left off. Barring an acceptable offer from the university, the workers will strike for higher wages and for the betterment of the university community as a whole.


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About ACT-UAW 7902: Founded in 2002, ACT-UAW Local 7902 represents over 5,000 part-time and adjunct teachers, student educators, and healthcare workers. It consists of four units: the NYU Adjuncts, New School part-time faculty, student employees at The New School, and New School student health service employees.

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“We Stood Together”: Workers at Auto Supplier GNS North America Vote to Join UAW Local 900, Region 1A

The 100 workers at GNS North America in Canton, Michigan voted to join UAW Local 900, Region 1A on February 20th. These workers make hot stamping and conventional stamped parts for GM, Tesla, and Stellantis. This includes structural parts, roof enforcements, bumper components, B-pillars, and door beams.

“My coworkers, the VOCs, and I wanted to form and start a Union. We felt a change was much needed,” said Weld Operator, Gwendolyn Green. “I am very honored and excited to be a part of this group and most of all a part of the UAW once again.”

“Although the organizing process has been very rewarding; it was exhausting. Being under management’s microscope throughout the campaign and not knowing what new union busting tactics they would throw at us the next day,” said Laser Automation Technician, Roberto Garcia. “In spite of the company’s efforts to suppress our Union, we stood together in the face of adversity, supported each other, rallied others and ultimately, got the win! Looking forward to the much-needed change and a brighter future for all of us at GNS.”

Weld Automation Technician, Brian Herbst said, “Forming a union now gives us workers a voice that will be heard.”

“We welcome the GNS workers to the UAW and Local 900,” said UAW Local 900 President Dwayne Walker. “UAW Local 900 has a long tradition of standing with workers and the community to make people’s lives better. Congratulations on this hard-fought win!”

Region 1A Director, Laura Dickerson said, “We’re very excited to have the members of GNS as part of Local 900 and Region 1A. Workers are exercising their rights and making sure their voices are heard.”

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MASS MoCA Workers Announce March 6 Strike Deadline

NORTH ADAMS, MA — Unionized employees of MASS MoCA will go on strike starting Wednesday, March 6 if no agreement on wages is reached with the Museum before then. Employees will begin picketing the Museum starting 8 am on Wednesday, March 6 and will picket daily until an agreement is reached.

The employees’ union, part of Local 2110 UAW, was originally formed in April of 2021. After a one day strike in August of 2022, employees reached an agreement on a first contract which allowed them to re-open the agreement in October 2023 to negotiate further wage increases. Negotiations on the wage reopener have been ongoing for four months but no agreement has been reached.

Fifty-eight percent (58%) of the 120 employees are earning just $16.25 per hour. Average pay for full-time employees is $43,600. According to The Economic Policy Institute’s family budget calculator, for a modest living in Berkshire County, a single individual with no children needs to earn approximately $47,000 per year while a family of four needs about $118,000. The Union is seeking to raise the hourly minimum rate to $18.25 by October of 2023 and is also seeking a minimum 4.5% increase this year.

MASS MoCA sent out a March 1 email to union members characterizing its rejection of the Union’s offer: “The Museum cannot agree to terms that will diminish our mission or operational sustainability, upend vital partnerships, reduce our programs, or fundamentally change our creative workplace culture. Simply put, MASS MoCA has been and will continue to be moved to adopt proposals that are balanced, fair, sustainable, and honest.”

The Union says the difference between its and the Museum’s base wage proposal is only an additional $150,000 for this year, and that workers need the money just to make ends meet. Moreover, the Union asserts that the Museum has increased the number of higher-paid management positions at the expense of the unionized staff.

“MASS MoCA seems out of touch with our needs and concerns as employees,” said Meg Labbee, a 25 year employee of the Museum who works in Artists Services. “They say the arts and artists come first but they need to show some regard for the people who work here. We love the work, but we deserve respect and fair conditions.”

Labbee, who is from the nearby town of Adams, adds, “Many of us live locally and our pay has not kept pace with the cost of living. By raising pay to something more livable, MASS MoCA would not only be supporting its employees, but helping lift the community, MASS MoCA’s rejection of our reasonable proposal has left us with no choice but to strike the institution we love.”

The March 6 strike deadline is not the first time bargaining with the Museum has been contentious. In 2022, during initial contract bargaining, the Union filed unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board over the Museum’s bad faith bargaining, and employees engaged in a one-day strike. Then, this past November, the Union filed a complaint against the Museum with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) when the Museum ordered workers to remove flooring contaminated with loose asbestos without proper equipment or training. OSHA has since issued test results confirming the presence of asbestos, cited necessary corrections to the Museum and is conducting an ongoing investigation.

In April 2021, the MASS MoCA staff voted overwhelmingly to unionize with UAW Local 2110. The bargaining unit includes approximately 120 employees who work as educators, curators, custodians, museum attendants, box office staff, art fabricators, technicians, and other administrative and professional staff. UAW Local 2110 is a technical, office and professional union that represents many museums and cultural institutions in the northeast including the Museum of Modern Art, the MFA, Boston, the Portland Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Guggenheim, the Jewish Museum, the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and other non-profit and educational institutions.

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