UAW family and allies — A few minutes ago, thousands of UAW members at Ford, GM, and Stellantis walked out, marking the beginning of the Stand Up Strike. UAW members at GM Wentzville Assembly, Local 2250 in Region 4 are ON STRIKE. UAW members at Stellantis Toledo Assembly Complex, Local 12 in Region 2B are ON STRIKE. UAW members at Ford Michigan Assembly Plant – Final Assembly and Paint, Local 900 in Region 1A are ON STRIKE. This fight is our generation’s defining moment. Not just at the Big Three, but across the entire working class. We will stand up for ourselves. We will stand up for our families. We will stand up for our communities. Join us.
UAW Local Union 1781 (Region 1), UAW Local Union 2500 (Region 1), UAW Local Union 2145 (Region 1D) and UAW Local Union 2256 (Region 1D), entered into negotiations with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan earlier this summer. Their objective: to secure job stability and equitable pay for all dedicated union members who tirelessly provide customer service for the healthcare giant. We provide essential service to retirees Medicare Advantage members, the general public and federal employees. These services include and are not limited to pre-authorization, claim support, explanation of benefits, billing, customer call centers, and provider services. Our primary goal was ...
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DETROIT – On Sept. 7, the UAW released a new video that shows how some in the corporate media are parroting pro-company talking points in their reporting on negotiations between the union and the Big Three automakers. In the video, UAW President Shawn Fain debunks a Sept. 5 NBC Nightly News story claiming that autoworkers taking action will drive car prices higher. Fain notes that over the last four years the average price of a new car has increased by 30 percent while autoworker wages have risen only 6 percent. During that time, the Big Three have made massive profits. They made a ...
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In response to GM’s proposal submitted on September 7, UAW President Shawn Fain released the following statement: “After refusing to bargain in good faith for the past six weeks, only after having federal labor board charges filed against them, GM has come to the table with an insulting proposal that doesn’t come close to an equitable agreement for America’s autoworkers. GM either doesn’t care or isn’t listening when we say we need economic justice at GM by 11:59pm on September 14th. The clock is ticking. Stop wasting our members’ time. Tick tock.”
BELVIDERE, Ill. – Today the UAW released a new video, “Justice for Belvidere,” that captures the heartbreak and the hope of workers at an Illinois assembly plant idled by Stellantis in February. Despite making $14.7 billion in North American profits in 2022, Stellantis suspended operations at Belvidere Assembly, laying off more than 1,300 workers. Multiple reports indicate that the Big Three automaker is moving production to Toluca, Mexico. “You’re destroying families, you’re destroying relationships,” says Dawn Simms, a 24-year assembly worker at Belvidere and member of UAW Local 1268. “You got your record profit, you know. But at what cost?” Over the last two ...
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This Labor Day, the UAW released “Prosperity,” a new video showing how the union has helped lift millions of American families into the middle class. One of those families was UAW President Shawn Fain’s. In the video, partly filmed at two practice pickets last month in Louisville, Fain tells of the poverty his grandparents endured in Kentucky and Tennessee and the prosperity they found in the UAW-organized auto plants of Kokomo, Indiana. “As the companies prospered, so did my family,” Fain says in the video. “That didn’t just magically happen. It happened because of the UAW. It happened because they and ...
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This week, 600 graduate student researchers and instructors (the WPI Graduate Workers’ Union) ratified their first contract at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) with a 97.5% yes vote. Workers at the university achieved a very strong first contract that includes: 20% raises in the first year with salary increases that bring workers’ salary up from $32,000 to a minimum floor of $39,000. Many workers will make over $40,000 for the first time at WPI through the life of this agreement. Raise in the hourly minimum rates by $3-5/hour for hourly administrative workers, instructors, and researchers. Annual raises to the minimum rate ...
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UAW President Shawn Fain held a Facebook Live on Thursday evening to update our membership on the current state of Big Three negotiations. He addressed a number of issues during the stream, including a response to Ford’s contract proposal. On the criticism that the UAW is demanding too much from the Big Three: “I know that our demands are ambitious, but I’ve told the companies repeatedly, I’m not the reason that members’ expectations are so high. What’s driving members’ expectations are the Big Three’s profits. You cannot make $21 billion in profits in half a year and expect members ...
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The UAW held a Big Three online training session via Zoom on Thursday, August 31. Panelists discussed various topics regarding practice pickets and contract rallies they’ve held at their locals, and shared how they engage with local members to encourage them to get involved in the contract campaign. Panelists for the event included: Luigi Gjokaj (Vice President at Local 51), Kristian Graham (Recording Secretary at Local 228), and Jessica Merz (Financial Secretary at Local 160). UAW organizers Tom Ziegler and Krista Szafranski facilitated the discussion.
On September 7, General Motors finally submitted their first counterproposal to the economic demands that we put on the table more than a month ago. As UAW President Shawn Fain said, it is “an insulting proposal that doesn’t come close to an equitable agreement for America’s autoworkers.” Click here for a comparison of our Members’ Demands to their unacceptable offer.