Posts tagged autoworkers
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.
Commentary: The UAW Puts Academics Ahead of Autoworkers
September 29, 2024 // Nor are autoworkers heading to the picket line for student-loan forgiveness. But the UAW thinks that topic matters, once again at the insistence of graduate students who have never been to a factory. Last year, after the Supreme Court struck down the Biden-Harris administration’s first scheme to “cancel” student debt, UAW leaders oddly called it an “anti-worker decision.” That’s news to workers at the Rawsonville plant, many of whom have already repaid thousands of dollars in college tuition and have no desire to work overtime to pay off the student loans of those who chose to go to college and willingly took on debt.
UAW’s rift with Stellantis raises fear that some US auto jobs could vanish
September 12, 2024 // U.S. autoworkers warn that a dispute between their union and Stellantis over delays in reopening a shuttered factory in Belvidere, Illinois, is much bigger than that one plant.
Auto workers protest outside Stellantis plant as UAW threatens strike
August 28, 2024 // Over 100 workers, UAW representatives and supporters from other plants came to the Stellantis Sterling Heights Assembly plant on Van Dyke Avenue in Sterling Heights on Friday, August 23, 2024. They rallied in front of the plant calling on Stellantis to honor the union contract and the Keep The Promise campaign to maintain product and investment commitments in Belvidere, Illinois and across the country.
Commentary: Unions are bad for cities
August 16, 2024 // The truth is that unionization doesn’t even increase wages for all union members. Single-salary schedules ensure that senior members earn the most and new members the least, regardless of value or merit. While union leaders may brag about the union member premium — the ostensibly higher wages that unionized workers earn — it only exists for older members, where it exists at all. What’s more, unions’ seniority layoff system protects longer-serving union members before anyone else. The most junior employees are the first to be let go and the last to be rehired. Last-in-first-out layoffs do nothing to improve productivity, but they do a lot to protect senior members.
Autoworkers at Lear Seating Plant in Wentzville strike for safer working conditions
July 25, 2024 // The strike put 4,000 people out of work at the Wentzville GM plant on Monday because they had to stop production due to a shortage of parts. Wentzville's GM plant is also part of the UAW, but their members are with local 2250. Hugebeck said 2250 has been very supportive.
Daimler workers have been demanding significant raises, reviving the “record profits mean record contracts” slogan of last year’s strike.
April 28, 2024 // Once part of the same company, Daimler Truck split with Mercedes-Benz in 2021. Still, an outcome seen as favorable to workers in North Carolina could give the UAW a boost not only in the upcoming Mercedes-Benz election, but also union drives underway at Hyundai, Toyota, and Honda, other foreign-owned auto plants in the South. The UAW pledged earlier this year to spend $40 million on organizing efforts through 2026, with a focus on the South.
Liz Shuler Wants AI to Reinvigorate the Labor Movement
April 2, 2024 // Fast forward a few years, and the world has evolved. Shuler is now the president of the AFL-CIO, having moved into the top spot in the summer of 2021, following the death of the organization’s longtime leader, Richard Trumka. Thanks to artificial intelligence, anxiety about technology’s impact on job security has only increased — not only among kitchen workers, but also white-collar professionals who long saw themselves as immune from disruption: writers, lawyers, health care professionals, marketers, financial analysts.
Going on strike: Why some unions have more leverage than others
February 25, 2024 //