The UAW Has Had a Big Year. They’re Preparing for an Even Bigger One.
From launching a historic strike at the Big Three automakers to calling for a cease-fire in the war on Gaza, the UAW has had a big year. And 2024 might be even bigger: the union is pushing to organize 150,000 workers at nonunion automakers across the US.
United Auto Workers president Shawn Fain speaks at a rally with union members after marching in the Detroit Labor Day Parade on September 4, 2023 in Detroit, Michigan. (Bill Pugliano / Getty Images)
The United Auto Workers (UAW) has had a historic year.
Coming into 2023, the union had held its first-ever direct elections for leadership, and when the year began, the race for the top seat was too close to call. Shawn Fain, the candidate for the UAW Members United reform slate and a member of Unite All Workers for Democracy (UAWD), a recently formed reform caucus, was vying with incumbent Ray Curry for the international presidency.
The results of the runoff came in mere days before the union held a special bargaining convention in Detroit, Michigan, to determine priorities for the upcoming negotiations with the Big Three automakers, who employ some 150,000 members. When the ballots were tallied, Fain had won by less than five hundred votes. He was sworn in as UAW president on March 26, the day before the convention kicked off. It proved to be one of the most important political developments in the United States all year.
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