Posts tagged autoworkers
Opinion: Workers say ‘I like unions, I just don’t like my union’ — here’s what they’re discovering
February 28, 2026 // "I like unions. I just don’t like my union." Time and time again, I hear this sentiment from employees nationwide. Most will express frustration with their union officials, who’ve disappointed or even mistreated them and other members. Some tell me how they tried and failed to improve their own union from within. They imagine there’s a better union out there — one where union officials actively improve the workplace and help employees achieve some measure of personal freedom.
Michigan Democratic Senate hopefuls tout their union bona fides
February 12, 2026 // Rep. Haley Stevens, state Sen. Mallory McMorrow and Abdul El-Sayed, a former Wayne County public health official, each said they would champion workers rights and manufacturing if elected to the Senate in what’s expected to be one of the most closely watched races this year. Support from autoworkers could be crucial in the race to succeed retiring Democratic Sen. Gary Peters. Senate Democrats need to net four seats to win control of the chamber, and defending Peters’ seat is key to that effort.
Beyond the assembly line: Auto workers’ labor union emerges as key player in anti-Israel activism
January 26, 2026 // A number of labor unions have seen a rise of antisemitism and anti-Israel activity since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attacks, despite many being historically supportive of Israel, dating back nearly a century, when many American unions donated money to the Histadrut, Israel’s national labor union. Multiple groups have now taken legal action against UAW branches in response to certain campaigns, which some legal experts allege were discriminatory against Israelis and Jews.
UPDATE: Union submits counteroffer after Volkswagen makes final contract public
October 21, 2025 // The contract includes a 20% wage increase over four years, a $4,000 ratification bonus, the company’s first-ever cost-of-living allowance and lower health care costs. If approved before Oct. 31, employees would receive an additional $1,500. Employees could make nearly $80,000 each year, before overtime and benefits, according to a contract fact book released by Volkswagen. Withdrawn portions of the contract include random drug testing and a tentative agreement about onsite childcare, after disagreements on a weekly subsidy amount.
Two years after the UAW strike
September 26, 2025 // Two years ago, tomorrow (September 26, 2023), then-President Joe Biden became the first president to participate in a striking worker picket line. The occasion was the United Auto Workers (UAW) strike against General Motors. Biden addressed the UAW members outside the Willow Run parts center near Detroit, Michigan.
Commentary: Ivy Leaguers Aren’t Auto Workers
July 21, 2025 // In general, NLRB decisions are fake law made by fake judges who have to interpret a poorly written statute from 90 years ago that is based on assumptions about industrial organization that no longer obtain in the United States. But the NLRB remains powerful nonetheless, and its decisions matter. That’s why Russell Burgett, a doctoral candidate at Cornell University, which is private, is asking the NLRB to overturn the 2016 Columbia ruling. He isn’t a member of the Cornell graduate students’ union, a UE affiliate, and he said in charges filed with the NLRB on Monday that his choice not to join makes it harder for him to complete his education.
A lot of US autoworkers like the idea of auto tariffs. But some are being laid off as a result
April 8, 2025 // “It’s more of the same from Stellantis, unfortunately,” he told CNN Thursday, the day the layoffs were announced. “Stellantis, which has had several months to prepare, announces it will use employees as collateral damage.” But the options for Stellantis are not good ones. If it assumes the cost of the tariffs on cars assembled in Canada and Mexico, vehicle production will become unprofitable. If it charges customers the full cost of the tariffs, it will probably price them out of the market. Alternatively, automakers could simply decide to no longer build those models.
UAW files labor charges against VW over Chattanooga worker buyouts
March 14, 2025 // The UAW said in a statement the company is attempting to cut jobs and make major changes without first negotiating with the union as required by law. UAW President Shawn Fain said that nearly a year ago, thousands of Volkswagen workers in Chattanooga voted to join the UAW to "win the respect and dignified life that union autoworkers at the Big Three have enjoyed for generations." "Since then, the company has failed to meet the basic standard at the bargaining table that 150,000 American autoworkers have won at Ford, General Motors and Stellantis," he said in the statement.
Op-ed: Biden’s Last Labor Stand: Honoring the First Female Secretary of Labor While Propping Up His Failed One
December 17, 2024 // Biden even attempted to appoint a radical progressive incompetent to the post of United States Secretary of Labor and as much as bragged about this in this speech. What Biden failed to note is that Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su was never confirmed by the Senate, because she is that incompetent. Yet, Su was there anyway, praised and introduced by the first female president of the AFL-CIO, Liz Shuler, who credited Su with turning "the Department of Labor into a true House of Labor." A house of labor that has tacitly excluded and targeted the more than 64 million independent professionals and small businesses; but, apples and oranges.
UAW’s Fain shares post-election message with auto workers: What he said
November 18, 2024 // The letter, posted on social media late Wednesday, started by acknowledging that "the people have spoken" in electing Trump to a second term as U.S. president. Fain said it was not the outcome the UAW advocated for — because the UAW endorsed Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris — but the union members must remain true to the UAW mission of fighting for their jobs and better benefits.