Posts tagged Ford
United Auto Workers president Shawn Fain easily wins re-election
October 13, 2026 // In July 2026, the Department of Justice announced it was investigating Fain over allegations he pressured Boyer, another union official, to provide benefits to his fiancee and sister and then retaliated against him when Broyer refused to cooperate. Fain denied the allegations and characterized them as an attempt to interfere in the election. Fain won his first election to serve as the union’s president as a reform candidate in March 2023. He has clashed with the union’s independent monitor, Neil Barofsky, claiming the monitor was weaponized by his re-election opponent. The monitor was also accused of pressuring Fain over the UAW’s passing of a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.
UAW rank-and-file vote to pick union leadership
October 8, 2026 // Fain, who became one of the labor movement's most recognizable figures after leading strikes against Ford Motor (F.N), opens new tab, General Motors (GM.N), opens new tab and Stellantis (STLAM.MI), opens new tab in 2023, faces multiple opponents. Union members are also electing three vice presidents, a secretary-treasurer and regional directors.
Unions Are Coming for Your Uber Driver
August 4, 2026 // The sectoral-bargaining approach made headway in 2022, when California signed the Fast Food Accountability and Standards Act, or FAST, into law. The act was replaced by a compromise agreement before going into full effect. But under the original provisions, it would have established a 10-member Fast Food Council appointed by the governor and state Legislature to set labor rules for the Golden State’s fast-food industry. The FAST Act marked a pivot toward sectoral-bargaining strategies in America, importing the tactic from Europe and Australia. For decades before the FAST Act, the United Auto Workers used tactics like “pattern bargaining” in negotiations with the Big Three automakers.
DOJ Probe Stands to Undercut UAW Election, Organizing Goals
July 22, 2026 // The investigation is something anti-union advocates could cite as evidence that the UAW won’t be a good steward of union resources, particularly in the south where there is already a more hostile environment for organized labor. Organizing southern auto plants has been a chief goal for Fain and the UAW as it battles falling membership. Current numbers stand at about 400,000, down from a peak of about 1.5 million in the 1970s.
How UAW’s Bold Leader Got Caught in New Wave of Union Infighting
July 17, 2026 // Others worry internal conflicts detract from the union’s effectiveness. “We’re in an awkward time, because everybody who was on Fain’s team, they’re divided now, and they’re fighting each other, and that’s not good for a union,” said Tony Totty, president of a UAW local in Ohio, and a candidate for a national vice presidential slot.
United Auto Workers’ Fain seeks reelection, buoyed by strike wins
June 15, 2026 // "We've done things in three years that haven't been done in 30,” Fain told Reuters in an interview. “We're just getting started.” Rivals are seeking to turn the race into a referendum on Fain's leadership. A federal watchdog, appointed in 2021 to oversee union management following a corruption scandal, has accused him of retaliating against other UAW leaders and of a lack of transparency. Labor experts said those issues, however, are unlikely to outweigh the contract gains many members associate with his first term.
The Union Organizing Boom Has a Number They Don’t Want You to See
May 14, 2026 // The Faster Labor Contracts Act, championed by union-aligned legislators on Capitol Hill, would impose a 90-day bargaining deadline. If no deal is reached, a government-appointed arbitrator writes the contract — and workers do not get to vote on the result. Critics have pointed out that this structure actually incentivizes union negotiators to stall and run out the clock, betting an arbitrator delivers better terms than good-faith bargaining would. Workers get a contract faster. They just lose the right to approve it. The dues keep coming either way.
UAW unionizing attempt defeated at Axalta plant in Mount Clemens
April 17, 2026 // An attempt to organize a UAW union for nearly 400 employees at the Axalta Coating Systems plant failed Wednesday in a somewhat close vote. The tally to certify the UAW at the plant was defeated by 51 votes, 184 to 133, excluding 34 or challenged ballots that were not resolved because even a 100% success rate for the union would not have made a difference, according to UAW officials. Voting took place Tuesday and Wednesday. “It didn’t go well for us, we ended up losing it, unfortunately,” a disappointed Region I Assistant Director Ray Pecoraro said Thursday morning. “It was an unfortunate thing. It surprised us as a collective group.”
Ford workers told their CEO ‘none of the young people want to work here.’ So Jim Farley took a page out of the founder’s playbook
November 30, 2025 // “He said, ‘I’m doing this because I want my factory worker to buy my cars. If they make enough money, they’ll buy my own product,’” Farley said. “It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy, in a way.”
Ford CEO says he has 5,000 open mechanic jobs with 6-figure salaries from the shortage of manually skilled workers: ‘We are in trouble in our country’
November 13, 2025 // Farley said the company is doing better on wages. It got rid of the lowest tier of its wage scale, and agreed to give workers a 25% salary bump over four years as part of its agreement with the United Auto Workers union in 2023. Still, part of the problem for the shortage of manufacturing jobs is the lack of education and training, according to Farley. He noted, for example, learning to take a diesel engine out of a Ford Super Duty truck takes at least five years. The current system is not meeting the standard, he added.