Many longtime observers of North America’s autoworker unions expressed bewilderment at the United Auto Workers’ announcement in August 2023 that it would strike the Big Three automakers all at once this fall. How could this possibly work?

It’s true that it’s a major departure from the union’s long-established approach. Since the 1940s, and certainly since Walter Reuther negotiated the 1950 Treaty of Detroit with General Motors (GM), the United Auto Workers (UAW) have used pattern bargaining to set the sectoral standard, first targeting one company and then spreading the pattern collective agreement reached there to the others. A strike might be needed at one of the companies, to either establish or spread the pattern, but never all three at once. That practice was replicated in Canada and is still being used by Unifor, the union built out from the Canadian Auto Workers, in bargaining that is also now underway.

As the UAW strike enters its third week, the shape of the union’s strategy and tactics has come into greater focus. No contract agreements have been reached, so we are still talking about the as-yet unrealized promise of the UAW’s approach. But a few elements are worth noting, since they signal some interesting lessons for other unions.