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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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.
Join fellow UAW members from across the country this Thursday (8/31) for a Big Three online training session to organize practice pickets and rallies at your Local! You can register for the Zoom event here. Start: Thursday, August 31, 2023 at 4:00 PM CT End: Thursday, August 31, 2023 at 5:00 PM CT A link to attend this virtual event will be emailed upon RSVP. The Big Three have made massive profits for more than a decade. But while CEOs got rich, UAW members got left behind. Our message to the Big Three is simple: record profits mean record contracts. ...
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LOUISVILLE, Ky. – UAW President Shawn Fain announced today that the union’s strike authorization vote passed with near universal approval from the 150,000 union workers at Ford, General Motors and Stellantis. Final votes are still being tabulated, but the current combined average across the Big Three was 97% in favor of strike authorization. The vote does not guarantee a strike will be called, only that the union has the right to call a strike if the Big Three refuse to reach a fair deal. “Our union’s membership is clearly fed up with living paycheck-to-paycheck while the corporate elite and billionaire ...
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LORDSTOWN, Oh. – The UAW announced today that union workers at Ultium Cells, a joint venture between General Motors and LG Energy Solution, have won a breakthrough agreement to immediately raise wages by $3 to $4 an hour, as well as thousands of dollars of back pay for hundreds of workers. Ultium workers will vote on whether to ratify the interim deal in the coming days. The interim deal follows months of negotiations and a public UAW campaign to win justice for electric vehicle workers at Ultium and across the country. “After months of public pressure and worker organizing, Ultium ...
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