Posts tagged Shawn Fain
Record UAW Contracts = Record UAW Layoffs
June 10, 2024 // Mapped out, the numbers are staggering. Thousands of employees missed paychecks or were forced to find new jobs across five states as automakers cut shifts and pared back production. A 25 percent pay raise sounds good in theory, but if Ford cuts a third of its 150 Lighting shifts at the Rouge to cover that expense, then the auto workers affected may be worse off than they were before the new contract. Although no automaker has escaped unscathed, the blow has fallen hardest on UAW members at Stellantis. Since the UAW and Stellantis came to the new contract agreement, over 1,300 UAW members at the company have permanently lost their jobs, alongside thousands more temporarily laid off as the company tries to control rising labor costs.
Biden appoints UAW president to White House advisory council
June 3, 2024 // The President’s Export Council serves as the main national committee advising the White House on matters of international trade. The group discusses and works to resolve trade-related issues around business, agriculture and labor. The appointment of Fain is the latest instance of the UAW leader emerging as one of Biden’s closest allies in organized labor. Biden walked the picket line with UAW members in Michigan during a strike last year, and Fain and the group endorsed Biden’s reelection bid in January, citing the president’s solidarity with workers.
Mercedes workers in Alabama reject union, dealing setback to UAW
May 19, 2024 // VW workers twice voted against the UAW before last month's win, and Nissan workers at a plant in Mississippi rejected the UAW by a wide margin in 2017. In 2021, workers at an Amazon.com warehouse in Alabama voted against forming a union by a more than 2-to-1 margin. The loss complicates the story of how the UAW can market its influence, especially in the South, but it likely will not deal a significant blow to the rest of the UAW's organizing efforts, labor experts said.
Mercedes-Benz Workers in Alabama Facing Unionization Pressure
May 13, 2024 // Just as foreign countries shouldn’t interfere in U.S. presidential elections, foreign actors shouldn’t interfere in American union elections. Foreign unions don’t have American workers’ best interests at heart. If Mercedes wants to operate in America, it should follow American law and not cave to IG Metall.
UAW chief slams mass arrests of pro-Palestinian protesters on college campuses
May 3, 2024 // The leadership at UAW 4811, the union chapter representing postdoctoral scholars and researchers of the University of California campuses, voted on Wednesday to hold a strike authorization vote as early as next week should the “circumstances justify.” “Should the university decide to curtail the right to participate in protected, concerted activity; discriminate against union members or political viewpoints; and create or allow threats to members’ health and safety, among others, UAW 4811 members will take any and all actions necessary to enforce our rights,” UAW 4811 wrote in a statement.
Bernie Sanders’ 32-hour work week hypocrisy
April 30, 2024 // the UAW has several career opportunities available. Nearly all the full-time jobs note that these are “Monday to Friday” for an “8-hour shift.” In other words, if you want to work for the United Auto Workers, you better be ready to work five days a week for at least 40 hours. As for Sen. Sanders, his public job applications are vague about how many actual workdays and hours he requires from his employees. But it’s notable that recent reviews from staff members frequently cite “long hours” and “long workweeks” among the cons of working for him. It’s not uncommon for Capitol Hill offices to have 40-, 50- or even 60-hour workweeks. If Sanders and Fain believed fewer hours for the same pay makes sense, they would do it for the jobs they offer. They want to force others to do what they refuse to do. That’s hypocrisy.
The “Troublemakers” of the Labor Movement Gather in Chicago
April 26, 2024 // To learn about strategies to combat union busting, Johnston attended a workshop on “inoculation,” or how to prepare coworkers for fear tactics from the boss. It gave him an idea—a bingo card with common anti-union talking points he could hand out for coworkers to fill out during captive-audience meetings, mandatory meetings managers can hold with workers to convey anti-union messages.
How Big Government and Big Labor Colluded to Get VW to Unionize
April 24, 2024 // Failure to meet government sales mandates will be met with massive fines that increase by leaps and bounds after 2026. California, the nation’s biggest auto market, will, for example, require that 35 percent of automaker sales be of battery-powered vehicles by 2026. Failure to meet that number will cost them $20,000 per vehicle for every vehicle below the threshold. The percentage jumps to 43 percent in 2027, 51 percent in 2028, 59 percent in 2029, and 68 percent in 2030 on the way to outlawing the sales of gasoline cars in 2035. Federal penalties are similarly harsh. Tesla aside (as an EV-only seller, it is not only exempt from penalties, but also receives generous subsidies), just 5 percent of sales today are electric, with 50 percent of EV buyers returning to a gas car when they go back to market.
UAW wins big in historic union vote at Volkswagen Tennessee factory
April 20, 2024 // Workers at Volkswagen's Tennessee plant have voted to join the United Auto Workers, in a seismic victory for the union as it drives beyond its Detroit base into the U.S. South and West. A majority of eligible workers cast ballots in favor of the union, with the final tally on Friday at 2,628 to 985, or 73% for joining the UAW. The landslide win will make the Chattanooga factory the first auto plant in the South to unionize via election since the 1940s and the first foreign-owned auto plant in the South to do so.
Volkswagen union vote in Tennessee to test UAW’s power after victories in Detroit
April 18, 2024 // More than 4,000 VW workers are eligible to vote, beginning Wednesday and ending at 8 p.m. EDT on Friday. The organizing vote, which is being overseen by the National Labor Relations Board, will need a simple majority to succeed. Fain and others see this week's vote as the union's best shot at organizing the VW plant following the record contracts and strikes at the Detroit automakers, which launched Fain to international prominence as the face of the union last year.