Auto unions have played an outsize role in the history of the North American labor movement, dating back to the famous sit-down strikes organized by the Congress of Industrial Organizations in the 1930s that launched industrial unionism. During the postwar Fordist era, the economic gains won by the United Auto Workers came to symbolize the potential of “middle-class” prosperity.

Under neoliberalism, that success was undermined by restructuring, globalization, and plant closures. No longer the leading wedge of working-class expectations, autoworkers spent the next decades mostly trying to hang onto past gains. Real wages, pensions, and job security all suffered. The nadir was 2009, when two of the three North American automakers — General Motors (GM) and what was then Chrysler, now part of the global Stellantis conglomerate — entered bankruptcy protection, resulting in major reductions in contract terms across the industry.

This painful history underlines the historical significance of autoworkers and their unions fighting back now. Despite a smaller market share and manufacturing footprint, the North American automakers have booked tens of billions of dollars in profit in recent years. On workers’ side of the ledger, a tighter labor market, anger at the cost-of-living crisis, and a broader upsurge in union activity have emboldened autoworkers to take the initiative, advancing much more forceful demands in this year’s bargaining with the automakers.