Posts tagged Detroit Three
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.
Volkswagen Breaks Off Talks With UAW Local in Tennessee
September 18, 2025 // Volkswagen VOW -1.85%decrease; red down pointing triangle made its “last, best” offer Wednesday to hourly workers represented by the United Auto Workers at its Tennessee assembly plant, and it is up to the union whether to put the proposed contract to a vote, the German automaker said. Volkswagen is offering an immediate pay hike of 5% and subsequent annual increases of 3% to 6% over four years, according to a company official. VW says a worker at its top hourly wage would earn nearly $80,000 in 2026, including an attendance bonus, before overtime and profit-sharing. Over four years, wages would rise by 20%, the company estimated.
Michigan’s auto jobs drive South from 8 Mile to I-65
July 23, 2025 // The biggest winner was North Carolina, which added 1 million+ jobs in other industries over the period. But the Tarheel State lost 12% of its auto jobs in that time. Even auto winner Alabama added five times more jobs in other sectors than it did in auto jobs. The number of overall jobs in North Carolina from 2000 to 2023 increased by more than 27%, while the number of jobs in Tennessee grew by 23.7%. The overall national average of jobs growth during those years was 18.3%.
Ex-UAW President Ray Curry calls on Reuther Administration Caucus, criticizes current leaders
July 22, 2025 // Curry deferred questions regarding UAW leaders and the state of the union to his comments in the letter. It said "outsiders" who supported Fain's campaign are in leadership positions without having worked in a UAW facility or paid dues. "Their leadership style is based on fear, intimidation and retaliation," Curry wrote.
Exclusive-UAW investment blunder cost the union an estimated $80 million, documents show
June 24, 2025 // The board voted to liquidate about $340 million in stock investments in August 2023 to pay strike costs, according to a union document reviewed by Reuters. The wording of the vote stipulated that the money be reinvested according to union policy after the strike ended and the labor contracts were ratified, though it didn't specify how quickly. But almost none of its portfolio was invested in stocks during the year after the strike began in September 2023, according to the records reviewed by Reuters. The news agency was unable to establish why the stock investment wasn't made. The issue of why the union did not reinvest the funds for more than a year is now being investigated by the federal monitor which was appointed as part of a 2020 settlement between the UAW and the U.S. Department of Justice to resolve a union corruption scandal, according to a statement from a majority of UAW board members.
Bernie Moreno, former car dealer elected to Senate, says Fain is a hack not helping workers
November 12, 2024 // Moreno did try to save jobs back in 2018 when General Motors announced it would permanently close its Lordstown Assembly plant in northeast Ohio, which built the Chevrolet Cruze sedan. As the Free Press reported in 2019, Moreno met with GM leaders, proposing to buy 150,000 to 180,000 Cruze cars to start a global ride-hailing company similar to Uber. GM CEO Mary Barra rejected the idea. GM shuttered Lordstown that spring.
Opinion: The Dangers of Union Expansion in Missouri
September 25, 2024 // Consider the fact also that the UAW has spent lavishly on travel, hotels, and executive salaries over the past several years. For example, from 2013 to 2018, the UAW spent $43 million on hotels and resorts and $4 million on restaurants and bars. Two past UAW Presidents have been convicted of felonies involving financial mismanagement. Meanwhile, current President Shawn Fain is under investigation by a federal court-appointed watchdog. Fain has been accused by two union officials of retaliating against them when they refused to take actions that would have benefited Fain’s fiancé and her sister.
Shawn Fain’s DNC Bombast And Trump/Musk Lawsuits Show UAW’s New Political Power
August 23, 2024 // A company statement said market conditions have caused it only to delay its production plans for the plant. It went on to say, “The Company has not violated the commitments made in the Investment Letter included in the 2023 UAW Collective Bargaining Agreement and strongly objects to the Union’s accusations. In fact, the UAW agreed to language that expressly allows the Company to modify product investments and employment levels. Therefore, the Union cannot legally strike over a violation of this letter at this time.”
The Cases Against Sectoral Bargaining: The Practical Case
August 11, 2024 // The effect of sectoral bargaining on union corruption would be unclear. Scholars of union corruption have blamed enterprise bargaining combined with union monopoly representation for America’s unusually high levels of labor racketeering. There is truth to this, but it is also not the case that American unions involved in industries with more-sectoral-style approaches are “cleaner.” The New York City garment industry, which was exempted from various Taft-Hartley regulations on union conduct, was believed by the federal government to have been Mob influenced as recently as the 1990s. More recently, the United Auto Workers, which conducts a sort of pseudo-sectoral bargaining with the unionized Detroit Three automakers by “patterning” its contracts, was forced into a regime change after the largest union corruption scandal of the 21st century. Putting more power in the hands of America’s long-standing class of union officials, who are known for having their hands in the cookie jar, certainly is not an obvious approach to reducing or surveilling corruption in organized labor.
Exclusive: UAW considering next steps on worries Trump could beat Biden, sources say
July 12, 2024 // United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain met with the union's executive board late on Thursday to discuss his deep concerns with President Joe Biden's ability to defeat Donald Trump in the November election, three sources familiar with the matter said. Fain called together top officials at the nearly 400,000-member union to discuss concerns and what the union's options are, according to the sources, who asked not to be identified. The union is considering its next steps, the sources said.