Posts tagged UAW
Dale Buss: UAW’s Deere gamble sends a warning to Detroit automakers
October 28, 2026 // What Fain didn’t tell the employees was that Deere’s offer was better than just about anything Fain got anywhere else. Earlier this year, Fain hailed the UAW’s first contract with Volkswagen workers in Chattanooga as a historic victory. Yet that agreement provides general wage increases of just 3% in 2027, 2028 and 2029 before a final 6% increase in 2030. Deere was offering its workers 4% raises in both 2026 and 2027, on top of a $3,000 bonus and the continuation of their existing pension, health-care and cost-of-living protections. Which raises the question: was Fain’s real motive in rejecting Deere’s generous offer Deere employees or his larger 2028 general strike plans? The existing Deere contract expires on October 31, 2027. The UAW’s contracts with General Motors, Ford and Stellantis expire just six months later, on April 30, 2028.
‘Best, final’ offer sent to striking Bradford White workers
October 28, 2026 // “We’ve made that clear by standing on the strike lines, blocking the drives. We don’t block them coming in and out. They know we’re here. They know we’re serious,” Dan Snowden, UAW Local 1002 bargaining chair, said.
Catapult to Be Sold, End Operations
October 23, 2026 // The statement did not name the buyer but said the union was notified that “continued employment with the prospective buyer is not an option.” The Catapult website currently lists 25 employees, including Koch, who is CEO, and publisher Alyson Forbes. The union includes around 20 employees in editorial, design, marketing, publicity, production, operations, and rights, PW reported in April. News of a sale comes six months after they petitioned the National Labor Relations Board for a vote on unionization, citing a need for “job security, wages, and a need for greater transparency from company leadership.” An “overwhelming majority” voted to join UAW Local 2110 via an election, the union announced in June. It said Wednesday it is negotiating a separation agreement with the company.
Wall Street applauds GM stock buyback plan. The UAW is far from happy
October 22, 2026 // GM dropped pensions in 2006 in favor of other retirement savings plans. The UAW has since fought to restore them in subsequent contract negotiations.
Penn State research assistants can unionize too, state labor board rules
October 21, 2026 // The Coalition of Graduate Employees is affiliated with the United Auto Workers. Negotiations between CGE-UAW and the university began in 2026. While the vote to unionize included research assistants, the bargaining has focused only on teaching and administrative assistants.
Member Apathy and College Students Give Fain a Second Term as UAW President
October 21, 2026 // While the results from the election are currently waiting for certification, Fain appears to have been reelected with about 68 percent of the vote in an election with an abysmally-low turnout rate of nine percent. Notably, Fain performed strongest in regions that have a lower number of union members working in actual auto plants. Fain’s strongest areas were UAW Region 9A, which generally represents university students and lawyers in the northeast, and UAW Region 6, which generally represents students at the University of California. Fain took 76.65 percent of the vote in Region 9A and 75.23 percent of the vote in Region 6.
Big Labor’s bid for a red workplace
October 16, 2026 // The culmination of these policies to make the workplace red is sectoral bargaining, which structurally forces all workers in an industry under the control of union cadres in the name of class consciousness. It would be a decisive Trojan Horse, entering the American workplace blessed by certain figures on the right disillusioned by the consequences of contemporary American labor relations.
Opinion: When union leaders are not working for their workers
October 14, 2026 // The rail unions’ latest top priority, the Railway Safety Act, fits the pattern. Recently attached to the House transportation bill, its centerpiece is a federal mandate to increase freight crew sizes. Leadership loves it because every additional crew seat written into federal law is a stream of dues that cannot be bargained away for things members might actually want, such as higher pay or better schedules. Although union leaders claim this is about crew safety and cite the East Palestine, Ohio, derailment as their motivation, they have been pushing for enlarged crews for years before the Ohio disaster.
Shawn Fain Claims Victory in UAW Election Rout
October 13, 2026 // UAW Vice President Mike Booth, who ran on a ticket opposing Fain, told The Wall Street Journal that there is no doubt about the outcome. Fain faced five challengers, including a UAW vice president with whom he had feuded. Fain’s allies defeated top UAW officials whom Fain viewed as impediments to his agenda for vice-presidential slots and other key roles.
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.