President Fain’s Speech at the 2025 Financial Officers’ Conference

Financial Officers Conference Atlanta Ga. 3/10/25 

Hello UAW Family! 

It is an honor to be with you today, for the very first time at this conference, as your President.  

The first Financial Officers conference I attended was in the late 90’s, right here in Atlanta when I was CAP chair of my local and a Trustee on our Local CAP Council. 

I want to start out by thanking you all for your service to our great union and to our membership. 

The fact is, without all of you, this union would not run. Our locals would not be able to fight for economic and social justice. 

Our members would not be able to stand up to corporate America and win their fair share. 

Like all of you, I got my start on the local level and learned quickly what an honor – and what a hell of a hard job – it is to represent and serve our membership. 

We are all gathered here today for that purpose. 

To make our strong union even stronger. 

To fight like hell for our members. 

And to leave a better UAW for the next generation. 

Since I became UAW President it will be two years the 26th of this month, we’ve changed how we do things, from top to bottom. 

We have transformed how we bargain. 

No more top-down deals, no more predetermined outcomes. 

We took the fight to the Big Three and won record contracts that sent shockwaves through the industry.  

We took a new approach to how we communicate, how we mobilize, and even how we strike.  

The Stand Up Strike caught the companies off guard and showed the entire working class that the UAW stands for economic and social justice, for our members and beyond. 

We took the lessons from our Big 3 contract campaign, and Stand Up strike and the IEB made the decision to create the Department of Bargaining Strategies,  

so we can take that same strategy and energy and continue to build our power throughout every sector of our union. We took it to Daimler Truck, to Cornell University, to Allison Transmission, to Rolls-Royce. 

Across every contract we’ve won, we’re raising the bar—not just for autoworkers, but for all workers.  

 

We’re fighting for General Wage Increases in every single year of our contracts. 

We’re refusing to settle for one-time lump sums that don’t keep up with inflation. 

We’re winning Cost-of-Living Adjustments (COLA) for the first time in industries that never had them before, from auto to higher ed. 

We’ve secured profit-sharing, more paid time off, and recognition of holidays like Juneteenth—because time with family isn’t a luxury, it’s a right. 

We bargained for retirees, something that many people said we couldn’t do! 

And we’re not stopping there. 

We’re living our values, making sure equal pay means equal work and dismantling tiered pay structures wherever they exist. 

Like subsystems workers at GM who we bargained to bring to production wages,  

Just like at Daimler, when the company tried to claim that Thomas Built Bus workers should make less than those building heavy trucks, we called their bluff. 

Whether it’s a truck or a bus, diesel or electric, the workers who build them deserve the same pay—period. 

This is what real power at the bargaining table looks like, and we’re just getting started. 

Everywhere we fight, we are setting new standards. We are proving that when workers stand together, we win. 

We have transformed how we organize. 

They told us battery plants were out of our reach. 

They said we couldn’t bring them under our master agreements. 

Well, we proved them wrong. 

We won a standard setting contract at Ultium in Ohio, and members just ratified a groundbreaking contract at Spring Hill,  

and we’re on the path to securing a first contract in a place they said it couldn’t be done – at Volkswagen in Chattanooga. 

The Volkswagen workers in Chattanooga sent shockwaves through the labor movement last April 

They showed that the tide is turning. 

Their historic victory was the first domino to fall, and they have shown it is possible to organize in the South. 

 

For the past six months VP Browning and his team along with the Department of Bargaining Strategies have been working with the 20 elected bargainers to win a strong first contract that is on par with what we’ve won at the Big Three. 

VW, of course, has been making money hand over fist. $24.4 billion in profits in 2023 and their CEO making $10 million in a year  – yet they’re crying poverty now. 

It’s been a great deal for VW in Chattanooga. 

Exploiting those workers for more than a decade by paying sub-par wages 

and forcing workers to shell out an average of $12,000 a year for healthcare that should be fully covered. 

But the Chattanooga workers aren’t backing down. 

They’re demanding the dignity, wages, and benefits they deserve—and they won’t stop until they win. 

Their fight is bigger than one factory; it’s a battle for the future, a fight to raise the standard of living of all autoworkers – including battery workers. 

Now I say all that because the fact is, we’re doing bigger and bolder things than we’ve ever done before. 

And because I know you all are financial officers, the question is: how does this affect our bottom line? 

Some of these gains cannot be calculated on a spreadsheet. 

When our members feel PRIDE, feel POWER, and feel UNITY, that’s not reflected on any balance sheet. 

When companies are afraid to mess with the UAW, or think twice about violating our agreements – that’s what union is all about. 

That’s COLLECTIVE power. 

And that’s why our members pay dues. 

For an autoworker or any working class person to go up against major multinational corporations and have a fair shot, we have to join together and we have to STAND together. 

We have to pool our resources. 

The lesson of the union is if everyone gives a little bit, we’re a hell of a lot stronger together. 

Our members TRUST us with their money because they want to see RESULTS. 

We aren’t a bank. 

We aren’t a business. 

We are a trade union. 

And we put our members’ dues money to WORK. 

And one thing we found when we came into office, is this union had not been using members dues money effectively. Some of that is wasteful spending, and we work tirelessly to find ways to be more efficient and more effective. 

But the biggest waste is letting our members’ dues money sit and collect dust. 

While they bust their asses hoping their union is able to get them a leg up, and a little bit of dignity on the job, whether in factories or on a college campus, and anywhere in between, 

Our members trust each and every one of us with their dues money so that we can go win some POWER. 

And from the Big Three, to Daimler, to Cornell, to Rolls Royce, to Volkswagen, that’s exactly what we’ve been doing as an International Union. 

The results speak for themselves.  

Two and a half years ago, our union had a total of $79 million in the bank, between our operating fund and our emergency fund. 

 Today, we have $124 million. That’s a 57 percent increase. 

In 2022, our union brought in $106 million in dues income.  

In 2024, we brought in $128 million in dues, thanks to our organizing and bargaining victories. That’s a 21% increase. 

That’s financial power, and that’s bargaining power. That’s putting our members’ dues money to WORK. 

Now, a lot of that has relied on putting our strike fund to work, too. Whether at the Big Three, Blue Cross, Mack Truck, the University of California, Alamo Drafthouse, or beyond. 

But our strike fund also remains extremely healthy, at around $774 million. Just for perspective, we could run an all-out strike at the Big Three for two months if we had to, and still have plenty in the bank. 

That’s because when we INVEST our dues money in our MEMBERSHIP, we not only build our power, we also bring in income. 

At the Big Three, we ran a contract campaign for less than $1 million dollars. Those contracts ended up bringing in over $10 million dollars in additional dues money annually. 

Or look at Daimler. We put in around $150 thousand in terms of contract campaign investment. The gains we saw were 27 percent in average raises, plus COLA and profit-sharing. 

 We saw a 17 percent jump in membership because Daimler workers – in right to work states – wanted to sign up and get involved with a fighting badass union like the UAW. 

So the picture is clear. 

Our members don’t pay their dues so they can sit in a bank account. 

They don’t pay their dues so we can never spend them. 

Our members pay their dues as an investment in themselves, in their future,  in their union and in the future generations of union members! 

Our job as stewards of that sacred dues money is to put it to WORK and to build our POWER. 

Our job is to deliver RESULTS, not just SAVINGS. 

And just like we revolutionized how we bargain and organize, we are changing how we operate internally. 

Your IEB has directed the President’s office to work with the Secretary Treasurers office to lead the way in developing a process that should have been done years ago—creating a real budget for this union. 

A budget that reflects our priorities:  

bargaining good contracts. Organizing to grow our union.  

And providing the best representation in the labor movement to our hundreds of thousands of members. 

It is a shame to say, but the UAW has never had a formal budget. That changes now. 

The good news? Our finances are strong. We are positioned better than ever to keep fighting, keep organizing, keep winning. 

But we cannot afford to let our guard down. We all learned during the last election how important an accurate membership list is. That is one of the primary responsibilities of everyone in this room! 

Each and every one of you in this room plays a critical role in ensuring our union is organized, accountable, and ready for whatever comes next.  

There’s been a lot of headlines since the election and January 20th when the new administration took office.  

Although the result wasn’t one the majority of our membership desired, let me be clear about one thing, no matter who’s in power in DC, our mission doesn’t change!  

While there is a long list of things we disagree with the Trump administration on such as attacks on Diversity Equity and Inclusion, attacks on Government employees such as members we represent at the National Institute of Health, attacks on the DOL, NLRB, OSHA, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and the list goes on,  

there is one area that we share a common interest and have been having lots of dialogue with the new administration and that is where it concerns our broken trade laws and tariffs!  

There is no single issue that has caused massive devastation to the American economy, our communities, our families and the entire working class more than NAFTA and the current version the USMCA.  

Back in 1992, when I was 23 years old, I remember watching the presidential debate between Clinton, Bush and Ross Perot.  

In that debate NAFTA was a big topic, as it had yet to be approved by congress and Ross Perot stated that there would be a “giant sucking sound to the south” as our manufacturing base disappeared!  

At that moment I decided to vote for Ross Perot because of that one reason.  

A year later, in 1993, there was a debate about NAFTA between VP Gore and Ross Perot hosted on Larry King Live.  

In that debate Perot again stated that the United States would see a drastic loss in our good paying manufacturing jobs and the suppression of our wages and buying power.  

VP Gore stated that 4 previous living presidents, Secretaries of States, and Nobel winning Economists all agreed that the U.S. would see a huge increase in jobs, they predicted 400,000 new jobs in the first year of NAFTA.  

33 years later, 90,000 factories and millions of good paying jobs have disappeared,  

think about that for a minute, 90,000 factories divided by 50 states is an average of 1800 factories per state GONE,  

that is thousands of communities ruined, hollowed out towns and cities with empty buildings, workers left with nothing or working 7 days a week or 2 or 3 jobs just to survive paycheck to paycheck, and we find ourselves sitting here with the powers that be and talking heads, debating whether tariffs are a good or bad thing??  

One thing I know for sure, Al Gore was wrong, Ross Perot was right, NAFTA sucks! I don’t need an economist to tell me that, all I have to do is look around communities all over America to see it! 

So I want to be clear why we take the position that tariffs, particularly in auto are a necessity.  

We have been in a crisis for decades and no one in DC has been willing to acknowledge there is a problem! 

Tariffs aren’t the end all be all, tariffs are a form of triage on a hemorrhage that has been bleeding America dry for 33 years!  

The talking heads and economists are saying tariffs will cause price increases and inflation, but let’s be clear, the corporations don’t have to pass those costs on to the consumer, ITS A CHOICE, and on the flip side if that’s their analogy, then why when these same companies shift products to Mexico and they pay workers $3 per hour, why doesn’t the company pass those savings on to the consumer??  

We all know why, because of two words CORPORATE GREED, whether a vehicle is made in America or Mexico these companies still charge $50k to $100k per vehicle!! 

It’s the same shit the companies and talking heads were saying when we were making our bold demands in the Big 3 strike, that if we got those record contracts, the companies wouldn’t be able to survive and they’d have to raise the price of vehicles! Again that’s the company’s choice not a necessity! 

And guess what, we got record contracts, and the companies paid out BILLIONS in buybacks and dividends and they still made record profits!! 

The ultimate cure to fix our ailing working class and communities in America is addressing the broken trade laws in America, particularly NAFTA/USMCA!  

And tariffs one of the tools to push the companies in that direction!  

There’s been a lot of comments about the UAW and Trump, and us changing our position.  

To all of those comments I say this, we haven’t changed our position, our principles or our mission, and we don’t give a damn about party politics, we will support candidates who support us and we will work with politicians of any party when they will join us to fix the broken trade system!!  

Our members and working class Americans don’t care about party politics, they expect leaders to lead and to put the bullshit party politics aside and deliver results! And that’s what we are doing in the UAW.  

Looking forward, we’ve been meeting with other national unions and groups and laying the groundwork for May Day 2028.  

When we withhold our labor, nothing moves. 

We have the power. 

if we’re going to shift the balance of power back to the working class, we have to harness that power and labor unions have to lead the movement!  

That is what May Day 2028 is about, it will take lots of planning and work to get contracts aligned as close as possible. 

I’d like to close by saying, the days of complacency are over in the UAW!  

 I said it when I ran for office and I’ll continue saying, “Bargaining and Organizing go hand in hand, when you bargain great contracts people want to be a part of that!”  

Also We can’t sit back and do nothing while jobs and plants are threatened, in all of these situations, we have to run campaigns and those campaigns take people and money! 

If we’re going to fight for great contracts and continue to organize workers and grow our union, it takes adequate resources to make it happen!  

With attacks on the DOL and NLRB, organizing and bargaining won’t get any easier, we have to invest for a strong future!  

And the great majority of the IEB is committed to making that happen! 

This is a new UAW. We fight harder. We fight smarter. 

And most importantly—we win.  

Thank you, it’s an honor to be in the fight for economic and social Justice with you, so Let’s get to work.