Jane Slaughter is a former editor of Labor Notes, a coauthor of Secrets of a Successful Organizer, and a member of the Detroit DSA chapter.
Rank-and-file autoworkers democratized their union, elected president Shawn Fain, and won a landmark strike. Now they will have to win local officer positions, dominated by the old guard, to hold bosses to their word and maintain a fighting union.
Opposed by management and politicians at every turn, Alabama Mercedes workers lost their union election yesterday. It’s a real setback — but the Mercedes workers say they won’t stop organizing until they get a union.
Today the UAW is making headlines for an energetic strike, helmed by new leadership that doesn’t shy away from the language of class war. It’s happening, in large part, because a small group of workers got together four years ago to reform their union.
With the UAW using a “targeted strike” against the Big Three, only a minority of workers are on strike so far. But many others are wreaking havoc on the companies by refusing overtime — forcing management to shut down some plants for this entire past weekend.
Jubilant pickets. Rattled managers. Here’s what the first day of the historic United Auto Workers strike looked like on the ground with rank-and-file autoworkers.
The UAW launched a historic strike this morning, with workers at three plants across the Big Three walking out and UAW leader Shawn Fain declaring that an “all-out strike is possible.” It’s the first time ever the union has struck all three major automakers.
In a stunning upset in the United Auto Workers leadership election, reformer Shawn Fain is set to win the presidency. Fain is part of a reform slate that will now control the UAW after vowing to bring democracy and militancy back to the long-calcified union.
In a historic election, the rank-and-file caucus in the United Auto Workers has won several top positions, potentially even including international president. It’s a landmark victory that anyone who wants a fighting labor movement should celebrate.
On Monday, ballots were sent to United Auto Workers members for the union’s first direct election of top officers. The vote gives rank-and-file members the chance to elect officers who will break with decades of corrupt, business-friendly union leadership.
The United Auto Workers has long been hobbled by two-tier contracts, corruption, and a lack of internal democracy. At its recent convention, rank-and-file reformers did their best to fight on all of those issues — but the old guard is still firmly in charge.
In the face of inadequate health and safety protections against coronavirus on public transit, Detroit bus drivers walked off the job Tuesday demanding management take action. They won.
Auto workers are three weeks into their strike against General Motors. One of their key demands: that the company make its temp workers permanent.
Almost 50,000 UAW workers are on strike against GM and a two-tier labor system that undermines worker solidarity. But members may need to wage a battle on two fronts — against the company, but also against their own union leadership.
General Motors workers are stuck between a greedy boss and corrupt union leaders. But neither have stopped them from striking against the auto giant — and demanding higher wages and an end to the two-tier contract system that hurts and divides autoworkers.
United Auto Workers members recently voted to strike against the Big Three automakers. But as a rank-and-file General Motors worker explains, the ongoing corruption cases within the union make it hard to prepare to walk off the job.
Bernie Sanders’s political revolution can’t be limited to election campaigns — it must be brought into our workplaces and unions too.
Bernie Sanders has introduced his long-anticipated Medicare-for-All bill. Where do things now stand in the long fight for health care justice?