Posts tagged United Auto Workers
Commentary: Nation’s Largest Teachers Union Doubles Down on Its Progressive Agenda
August 21, 2023 // Pringle turned her attention to Florida. "We have come here to Florida—our nation's ground zero for shameful, racist, homophobic, misogynistic, xenophobic rhetoric and dangerous actions," Pringle said. "We stand ready to lift up and protect our colleagues and their students. Right here in Florida, we will preserve and strengthen a democracy that was steeped in the power of 'We the People'!" Didn't Pringle know that the people of Florida had an election in 2020 and reelected Governor Ron DeSantis by a 20-point margin? And with 56 percent of Hispanic voters turning out for the Republican candidate? Pringle didn't get that memo, but it didn't stop her. "In this moment when voting rights hang in the balance and reproductive rights remain at risk, we are required to fight for fair and free elections and a woman's right to control her own body," she said. "NEA, this is that moment. With the residue of the pandemic lingering and with our psyches still fragile, we must try to make sense of all we have lost and all that we have learned."
Unions hate Biden’s EV push, Schumer & Co. vs. democracy and other commentary
July 6, 2023 // An “alignment between the United Auto Workers and former President Trump over electric vehicles threatens” the “alliance between the union and the Democratic Party,” notes Axios’ Nathan Bomey, with the UAW “withholding an endorsement for Biden’s 2024 campaign.” Already, “one in three UAW members voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020.” And “UAW President Shawn Fain ripped” Biden after “the Energy Department announced a $9.2 billion loan to Ford to build battery plants in the South,” since “EV factories won’t employ as many people as traditional assembly plants” and the likely “lower wages at new battery-making joint ventures.” As “Democrats need the Midwest to preserve political power, the president’s commitment to promoting EVs is testing his support among longtime allies
Biden’s push for electric cars alienates longtime union allies
June 29, 2023 // The union initially backed many of Trump's protectionist trade policies when he was president, including renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which they blamed for allowing U.S. manufacturing jobs to go to Mexico. Biden's re-election campaign, meanwhile, points to the historic early endorsements from the AFL-CIO and 17 others unions as proof of the president's pro-labor stance. The bottom line: At a time when Democrats need the Midwest to preserve political power, the president's commitment to promoting EVs is testing his support among longtime allies.
USC housing workers unionize in hopes of boosting pay, benefits
June 21, 2023 // Mike Long, a spokesman for SEIU Local 721, said the climate is good for union action. “You can’t ignore the regional context with the Hollywood writers out on strike,” he said. “And there has been a flurry of activity across Southern California with hotel workers.” More than 15,000 Southern California hotel workers voted earlier this month to authorize a strike as they bargain for a $5-an-hour pay hike, more affordable health care, a secure pension plan and “safe and humane” workloads. Unite Here Local 11, which represents the room attendants, cooks, dishwashers, front desk agents, servers and food service workers, said it would be “the largest hotel worker strike in modern U.S. history” and could happen as early as the July 4 weekend.
Opinion: The green movement is a jobs killer. Are unions finally figuring this out?
May 15, 2023 // Even now, as Biden cozies up to the Sierra Club and Greenpeace and places a metaphorical blade at the neck of the blue-collar union workers, the union bosses are reluctant to call for a divorce with “lunch bucket Joe.” After acknowledging the threat that Biden posed to the livelihoods of tens of thousands of union members, the UAW’s Fain warned that “another Donald Trump presidency would be a disaster.” How? Union workers saw huge job and wage gains when Trump was president. Fain even muttered some disingenuous mumbo jumbo about getting "behind a pro-worker, pro-climate agenda" for the working class. That’s an oxymoron.
In NC, no worker has to join a union. My constitutional amendment will keep it that way.
April 21, 2023 // The ability to work freely without coercion is an integral part of our workforce ethos in North Carolina. We have been a right-to-work state since 1947, and the facts show that this status has benefited our workers and helped grow our economy. Right-to-work refers to the ability of workers to choose whether or not they want to join and pay dues to a labor union. In other words, workers are not coerced into joining a union by being required to pay dues as a condition of employment. Instead, people have the ability to choose whether or not they wish to join a union when seeking a job in which the employer is affiliated with a union. In the words of national labor expert F. Vincent Vernuccio, senior policy advisor with Workers for Opportunity, “Right-to-work simply means a union cannot get a worker fired for not paying them.”
New union head for auto workers promises militant contract bargaining and activism
April 7, 2023 // FAIN: We're here to come together to ready ourselves for the war against our only one and only true enemy - multibillion dollar corporations and employers that refuse to give our members their fair share.
United Auto Workers union membership rose 3% in 2022 to 383,000
April 5, 2023 // Membership in the United Auto Workers union rose 3% in 2022 to 383,000 as it works to organize workers in battery plants and other electric vehicle components. Last month, Shawn Fain won a closely contested race against incumbent Ray Curry for UAW president by fewer than 500 votes out of about 140,000 cast. Fain said last week the union was ready to go to war against "employers who refuse to give our members their fair share."
Will Michigan politicians force workers to pay corrupt unions?
March 3, 2023 // The UAW in Michigan has lost about 10,000 members in the past decade, despite job increases in manufacturing. Why? Michigan lawmakers passed a right-to-work law in 2012 that freed workers from being forced to contribute to labor unions. That may soon change. Democrats control the state Legislature, and labor unions are their largest political funders. Forcing the more than 140,000 Michigan workers who have left their unions to contribute dues or fees would bring tens of millions of dollars in additional revenue to organized labor. When it comes to the United Auto Workers, its former members had some good reasons to leave. The past decade has seen rampant corruption in the UAW.