United Auto Workers Elects New Hardline President

[Haganham]

https://theintercept.com/2023/03/07/uaw-union-election-shawn-fain/

IN A HISTORIC election that could dramatically reshape the 400,000-member United Auto Workers union, insurgent challenger Shawn Fain currently leads incumbent Ray Curry by a margin of 645 votes for the union’s top leadership role.

The election of Fain and the Unite All Workers for Democracy slate would bookend years of corruption investigations into the old guard of UAW leadership. The scandals, the insurgent faction contends, distracted from multiple major contract negotiations with America’s largest auto manufacturers and soured rank-and-file members against leadership.

The victory would be another notch in the belt of progressive labor reformers in some of the nation’s most influential unions.

“A Fain victory is the difference between solidarity unionism — rank-and-file unionism — and the company unionism that we’ve been experiencing in the UAW for several decades now,” Scott Houldieson, a leader of Unite All Workers for Democracy, told The Intercept. “Look no further than the last set of negotiations when GM workers were on strike. There was a complete information blackout. The workers on the picket line knew what they wanted out of the contract: no more tiers, no more pensions bleeding dry, and bringing back cost-of-living adjustments. There was none of that messaging coming out of negotiations from past leadership.”

A FAIN VICTORY would follow on the heels of another leadership upset in one of America’s most powerful unions, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. In 2021, a ticket led by Sean O’Brien defeated the incumbent slate led by James Hoffa, who, like his father, led the union for decades. After their victory, the new Teamsters’s leadership assumed an aggressive posture and has since committed to massively expanding on-the-ground organizing to combat consolidation and wage deflation in the transportation and shipping industry.

Fain hammered UAW’s incumbent leadership for failing to take an aggressive negotiating posture toward large auto manufacturers and blasted the tiered employment system, which splits auto workers into different classes of employees, weakening union benefits in the process.

He’s also attacked the UAW’s failure to take an aggressive stance on auto manufacturers’ planned expansion into nonunionized plants in the South for building electric vehicles.

“For too long, the UAW has been controlled by leadership with a top-down, company union philosophy,” Fain said in a press release. “Ray Curry and the Administration Caucus have been unwilling to confront the companies, and as a result we’ve seen nothing but concessions, corruption, and plant closures. We now have a historic opportunity to get back to setting the standard across all sectors, and to transform the UAW into a member-led, fighting union once again. The future of the working class is at stake.”

As of a few hours ago Fain has defeated Curry.

This looks to me like another step in the right direction. A strong labor movement requires strong unions, and we can't have that if leadership is more interested in cutting backroom deals then in fighting for workers.

[Fahran]

Based.

[Alcala-Cordel]

Shawn Fain's election gives me hope that the UAW will do its job and support its local unions because the people before him did not. Last year I organized and picketed with UAW members, and the UAW put more pressure on the rank-and-file to end the strike than the company did. They even spent workers' union dues on an internal campaign to end it, something they aren't supposed to do. I think they wanted a quick victory so they'd look good without worrying too much about expenditures and strike pay.

With renewing momentum in the labor movement, it's especially important that the big unions represent the interests of working people. A better UAW will certainly help things improve.

[HISPIDA]

we're getting dangerously based.

[Drongonia]

This is definitely good. I just hope it doesn't provide more faux justification for the likes of Stellantis to accelerate their shift to overseas manufacturing.

[Haganham]

Shawn Fain's election gives me hope that the UAW will do its job and support its local unions because the people before him did not. Last year I organized and picketed with UAW members, and the UAW put more pressure on the rank-and-file to end the strike than the company did. They even spent workers' union dues on an internal campaign to end it, something they aren't supposed to do. I think they wanted a quick victory so they'd look good without worrying too much about expenditures and strike pay.

With renewing momentum in the labor movement, it's especially important that the big unions represent the interests of working people. A better UAW will certainly help things improve.

Yep. Many think that Americans are against unions, but American support for unions only ever dipped below 50% in the early 2010's and is generally strong. The weakness of the American labor movement can be attributed to the corruption of our largest unions, which were more interested in backroom favors for management and politicians, then actually representing workers; and the poor state of American labor law, which makes unionizing harder, makes union leadership more beholden to the state then their members, and allows management to bypass labor rights by going through the legislature.

[Toronina]

This is what happens when Unions let corruption fear for decades while in bed with the bosses. Eventually the workers get sick of it and sick of their leaders getting down on bended knee to please the bourgeoisie, and they get radical.

[El Lazaro]

Shawn Fain's election gives me hope that the UAW will do its job and support its local unions because the people before him did not. Last year I organized and picketed with UAW members, and the UAW put more pressure on the rank-and-file to end the strike than the company did. They even spent workers' union dues on an internal campaign to end it, something they aren't supposed to do. I think they wanted a quick victory so they'd look good without worrying too much about expenditures and strike pay.

With renewing momentum in the labor movement, it's especially important that the big unions represent the interests of working people. A better UAW will certainly help things improve.

Yep. Many think that Americans are against unions, but American support for unions only ever dipped below 50% in the early 2010's and is generally strong. The weakness of the American labor movement can be attributed to the corruption of our largest unions, which were more interested in backroom favors for management and politicians, then actually representing workers; and the poor state of American labor law, which makes unionizing harder, makes union leadership more beholden to the state then their members, and allows management to bypass labor rights by going through the legislature.

What we really need to do is prioritize pro-union legislation in progressive economic policies. Expanding public services like health insurance addresses the consequences of a lack of social mobility and deepening wealth gaps, but building back the middle class, closing racial and generational wealth disparities, and putting some power back into the hands of workers is necessary if we want to see any long term change. Unions are a great place to start.

[Cannot think of a name]

During the financial collapse when the auto companies were hit super hard I was at the NUMI plant (where Teslas are now made) in the union hall across the street its last day of operation as part of an Italian documentary film crew (I was their American...and assistant cam-did I do audio on that one? You know what, doesn't matter.) Before it was a Tesla plant it was a joint GM/Toyota plant before GM quietly went, "MMMMmmmnnnn nah. Turns out everyone hates Geos and we a bunch of bad decisions, so...we out." Then it was just Toyota and had the best quality record of any Toyota factory (or some variation of that, it was a long time ago). It was also the only plant that Toyota had that was union. You know, until they closed it but totally not because it was union...That was the second time I met Robert Reich. That's my humble brag. Anyway...

The point is, the UAW people were pissed. Not as much at Toyota but at their own leadership. Very mad. This has been brewing for a while.

[Risottia]

This is definitely good. I just hope it doesn't provide more faux justification for the likes of Stellantis to accelerate their shift to overseas manufacturing.

Stellantis is a Dutch company with mostly Italian and French capital. They're ALREADY manufacturing overseas by having plants in the US of A.

[Drongonia]

This is definitely good. I just hope it doesn't provide more faux justification for the likes of Stellantis to accelerate their shift to overseas manufacturing.

Stellantis is a Dutch company with mostly Italian and French capital. They're ALREADY manufacturing overseas by having plants in the US of A.

I moreso meant the Detroit-based subsidiaries of Stellantis moving all of their manufacturing outside of the United States.

[Gupta Bharat]

The growing militancy of American organized labor is one of the few positive signs for this country's future. If only we could repeal Taft-Hartley, who knows? But I don't dare to hope for that yet. At least Michigan has dumped right to work. Maybe my birth state, West Virginia, will return to its blue-collar roots and abolish it someday, but I'm not holding my breath. What a shame. My grandfather is spinning in his grave with what has happened to the UMWA, for instance.