UAW workers launch unprecedented strike against all Big Three automakers

September 15, 2023 11:10 AM

The United Auto Workers union is on strike against General Motors, Ford and Stellantis, the first time in its history that it has struck all three of America’s unionized automakers at the same time.
posted by Etrigan (45 comments total)

x270A
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 11:15 AM on September 15, 2023 [3 favorites]

I’m Proud to drive a UAE made plug-in hybrid. Let’s give the workers a fair shake as we transition to electric.
posted by CostcoCultist at 11:16 AM on September 15, 2023 [6 favorites]

Well, that was a lot more clever if the full "raised fist" code showed up in markup.

Anyway...good luck brothers and sisters.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 11:16 AM on September 15, 2023 [19 favorites]

here you can use mine -> ✊
posted by ArgentCorvid at 11:19 AM on September 15, 2023 [14 favorites]

✊

(I copy-pasta'ed it from this site...)

I hope they get what they're going for. Many, many years ago I worked for a car seat factory that supplied Chrysler's plant in Fenton, MO. I was lukewarm on unions then. My dad had worked for Chrysler long before, and had been a union guy, but I wasn't really gung-ho on them.

The company I worked for was non-union. A few years after it opened there was talk about unionizing and they got twitchy. Around the same time they floated a drug testing policy. I, being pretty straight edge at the time, made a fuss about it thinking that I could squawk without much fear since I could pass a drug test anytime.

Well. Not long after they drummed up a reason to fire me. Had we been unionized I'd have had representation. I didn't, and I couldn't afford the money to hire a lawyer to sue for wrongful dismissal.

Live and learn. Support your unions, folks.
posted by jzb at 11:25 AM on September 15, 2023 [58 favorites]

In other labor news, the California Legislature has voted for extending unemployment benefits to striking workers.
posted by NoxAeternum at 11:25 AM on September 15, 2023 [33 favorites]

As a former union millwright, I salute my UAW siblings.
posted by Vigilant at 11:26 AM on September 15, 2023 [8 favorites]

The union also wants an end to forced overtime. Under the contract that expired Thursday, workers could be forced to work seven days a week for months at a time. And the union wants limits or an end to the use of temporary workers, who are paid roughly half of what senior workers are paid. - TFA

Booooo hissssssss forced overtime combined with achingly slow pay increases plus no real retirement pension? No fucking wonder they are able to organize so many people to strike! The clear evil plan is to work people to death or fire them for not being worked to death and not have to pay senior employees or care for retired ones. Absolute horseshit from an already horseshit industry.
posted by Mizu at 11:28 AM on September 15, 2023 [15 favorites]

as a Local Chair in a completely non-related field and union: solidarity!
posted by elkevelvet at 11:29 AM on September 15, 2023 [9 favorites]

good.
posted by bluesky43 at 11:35 AM on September 15, 2023 [2 favorites]

... Stellantis?
posted by rebent at 11:38 AM on September 15, 2023 [7 favorites]

Ah, Stellantis is the ghost of Chrysler
posted by rebent at 11:39 AM on September 15, 2023 [10 favorites]

wow. i grew up in saginaw, mi in the 80s and 90s when there was still some auto work there. this is huge and amazing and i hope it really stirs things up.
posted by misanthropicsarah at 11:42 AM on September 15, 2023 [1 favorite]

(if you are on Windows 10+, Win+; opens an emoji picker)
posted by ArgentCorvid at 11:59 AM on September 15, 2023 [4 favorites]

“The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, including our members in the carhaul industry, stand in solidarity with the United Auto Workers to get the best contract possible from America’s biggest automakers. Just as the Teamsters saw at UPS, record profits at any company must result in record contracts for the workers who make those profits possible.

“Ford, Stellantis, and General Motors have a choice to make about the kind of companies they want to become. Do not go down the wrong road. Do not attempt to divide or cast aside dedicated union families who have given their lives to building a resilient American auto industry. All UAW members deserve respect at work and dignity in retirement. They deserve strong wages in a new contract that rewards them for everything they do for the Big Three and to keep this country moving.

“You can be sure there is no division in America’s labor movement today. And you are urged to remember that Teamsters don’t cross picket lines.”
posted by Etrigan at 11:59 AM on September 15, 2023 [27 favorites]

✊🏼
posted by Quasirandom at 12:35 PM on September 15, 2023 [1 favorite]

✊🏼
posted by JoeZydeco at 12:37 PM on September 15, 2023 [1 favorite]

Whenever I hear Ford CEO Jim Farley on the radio he sounds so much like his cousin Chris that I want to imagine a Tommy Boy sequel where Tommy ends up running an automaker and then has to negotiate with the workers in some massive crisis. Hilarity ensues.
posted by JoeZydeco at 12:38 PM on September 15, 2023 [4 favorites]

I was lucky enough to be a Teamster for a bit. "You are urged to remember that Teamsters don’t cross picket lines."

Fucking A right.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 12:39 PM on September 15, 2023 [10 favorites]

I assume that we can support the strike by not buying the relevant cars. Is there something else we should do?
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 12:41 PM on September 15, 2023 [1 favorite]

And it wouldn't be a real autoworkers strike unless Musk chimed in.

"By Friday morning, UAW discovered that X, the platform formerly known as Twitter—in what appeared to be a petty move by platform owner and Tesla CEO Elon Musk—had stripped their account's verified status, The Intercept reported."

(it's back now)
posted by JoeZydeco at 12:47 PM on September 15, 2023 [7 favorites]

> dances_with_sneetches: "I assume that we can support the strike by not buying the relevant cars. Is there something else we should do?"

I have not heard of any calls for boycott yet. Honestly, I'd be a little surprised if one was being called for at this stage.
posted by mhum at 12:54 PM on September 15, 2023 [3 favorites]

I read that Twitter automatically removes checks after a profile pic change, pending a review. I wouldn't put it past Musk to do something so petty, but this is too subtle for him.
posted by credulous at 1:03 PM on September 15, 2023 [1 favorite]

✊🏼
posted by tofu_crouton at 1:17 PM on September 15, 2023 [1 favorite]

When auto workers stand up, here's how to stand with them.
posted by latkes at 1:59 PM on September 15, 2023 [10 favorites]

@latkes (and whoever else might know):
Reading the article linked to at labornotes.org, it notes that "...Vanguard are finance giants who are top shareholders across the Big 3". I have $ in Vanguard. How to protest? Move the money elsewhere? If so, where to and how to I let Vanguard know why I'm moving it? Or are there other ways?
posted by falsedmitri at 2:47 PM on September 15, 2023 [3 favorites]

Labor Notes suggests that the IRL Vanguard offices are a nice place to host your next protest.

I would say that LN (and me) probably think moving your money (boycotting) or other individual actions are less impactful than collective action. So posting on socials that Vanguard is contributing to bad working conditions for auto workers is a little easy thing to do - why not, good to spread the word! If you want to take it to the next level, research 'social funds' to invest in outside of Vanguard - great! But bigger impact is going to take bigger actions with more participants, with outreach and coordination with UAW organizers and the larger labor movement. Unfortunately I don't think there's a quick-or-easy answer to how to impact this from the outside. For me, that means getting involved with the labor movement myself. If you are interested in organizing a union at your own workplace, DM me! Or call EWOC.
posted by latkes at 3:15 PM on September 15, 2023 [6 favorites]

Every Vanguard fund is owned by its shareholders (ie, you). And IIRC the funds together own Vanguard (so you are a shareholder in Vanguard).

You can find a mutual fund that does not invest in the Big 3, if you like. I don't think that the union has called for boycotts though. I think that article is calling for you to make your voice heard.

Vanguard shareholders have been making moves in the ESG realm recently so it's not unthinkable for Vanguard funds to pressure corporate boards.

(ESG is a movement to consider environmental, social, and governance factors in investing).
posted by muddgirl at 3:21 PM on September 15, 2023 [5 favorites]

Vanguard doesn’t have local offices and is mostly broad based index funds. They are not nessecarily the activist shareholders that boards are answering too, even though they own a huge %. Despite being member owned in theory, vanguard don’t really listen to their member-owners in the way a co-op grocery store or even a credit union does.
posted by CostcoCultist at 3:45 PM on September 15, 2023 [1 favorite]

Stellantis?

It’s the end result of the merger of Chrysler, Fiat, and Peugeot that occurred over the last 15 years or so.
posted by jmauro at 3:47 PM on September 15, 2023 [4 favorites]

It’s more that Vanguard isn’t activist in individual shares because that costs money and they’d rather just pass the savings on to their fund holders and let others in the market do the work.
posted by jmauro at 3:49 PM on September 15, 2023

This came to mind.
posted by y2karl at 3:51 PM on September 15, 2023

I have not heard of any calls for boycott yet. Honestly, I'd be a little surprised if one was being called for at this stage.

There's a kind of boycott happening, by default. Stellantis has back inventory it can work through, but Ford and GM have little. They are largely selling what cars and trucks they make for the US market.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 3:53 PM on September 15, 2023

UAW, automakers to resume talks as strike starts to create parts shortage.

"We’re not going to wreck the economy. The truth is we are going to wreck the billionaire economy," UAW President Shawn Fain said."

from Micheal Moore's hometown: "Man is charged with threatening UAW President Shawn Fain on the eve of its strike against automakers"
posted by clavdivs at 4:07 PM on September 15, 2023 [5 favorites]

Talk of a boycott is interesting. The other carmakers are all non-union. It seems odd to buy a non-union car over a car made by a union on strike.
posted by hermanubis at 8:09 PM on September 15, 2023 [1 favorite]

Honestly, I've felt a little chilly toward auto unions for some years. When I was at a newspaper in Indiana, our editorial page editor ran a cartoon which was mildly (and correctly, in that day) critical of American auto production. The safe thing would have been to self-censor, of course, but that editor didn't think it was all that cutting, and those of us who saw the page before it went to press didn't see a problem, either.

The union local lost its collective alleged mind. Over a fucking cartoon. The paper lost a lot of circulation (for a while). Local businesses were sharply "encouraged" to stop buying ads with us. And the topper was that all of us were being followed home from work at night. I was glad that major parts of my car, bought before I had heard of that city and union, had been made at the local plant; I felt safer from the mob mentality.

But I know that corporate executives across the board have to be brought to heel, and that the people making the wealth for them must be treated better than they presently are. So, go UAW.
posted by bryon at 8:53 PM on September 15, 2023 [2 favorites]

Seconding what latkes said--the best way to help if you are not near a picket line is probably to get your union to make a solidarity statement to support the strike. And if you are not in a union, EWOC is a great place to talk to someone about how you might go about starting one. They are responsible for many of the new unions you are seeing forming at smaller businesses.
posted by tofu_crouton at 5:50 AM on September 16, 2023

✊🏼 solidarity forever!
posted by peppermind at 7:47 AM on September 16, 2023 [1 favorite]

I suspect this sentiment is more widespread that we might hope.
posted by 2N2222 at 9:29 AM on September 16, 2023

A politico piece about three Trump-supporting Biden skeptics? How is that "widespread?"
posted by klanawa at 10:18 AM on September 16, 2023 [1 favorite]

Weird piece. Biden supports the strikers and even helped limit EV tax breaks to cars with American-made components, which seems obviously good for American auto workers when people buy new cars to get to places. Biden's infrastructure package is putting billions into constructing new roads and highways, which is good for American auto workers when people buy new cars to get to places.

I hate to sound like a cheerleader, but I do wonder what fantasy land are Trump voters living in. Despite the folksy Reaganesque rhetoric, Trump hated/hates unions of all kinds and he cut deals with union-busting companies when he was in office. His cabinet members regularly tried to overturn, limit and openly break labor laws. The Trump brainwashing runs deep in these folks, seems to be the only real takeaway.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 1:18 PM on September 16, 2023 [6 favorites]

You'll never go broke writing articles about how Trump voters are sticking with Trump, especially if you can get one of them to claim that he hasn't really made up his mind yet.
posted by Etrigan at 2:20 PM on September 16, 2023 [3 favorites]

✊🏼 Solidarity, from a board member of my educators' union and proud descendant of USW members and leaders.
posted by DingoMutt at 3:31 PM on September 16, 2023

I assume that we can support the strike by not buying the relevant cars. Is there something else we should do?

I think if you need a vehicle, buying a union made vehicle increases demand for union made products regardless if it is new or used. Anyway, the vehicles you buy as a consumer have already been sold by the manufacturer to the car dealer. If the dealer runs out of vehicles that also puts more pressure on the manufacturer.
posted by wigner3j at 7:38 PM on September 16, 2023 [4 favorites]

Weird piece. Biden supports the strikers and even helped limit EV tax breaks to cars with American-made components, which seems obviously good for American auto workers when people buy new cars to get to places.

Most people don't pay attention to what parties have recently done, which is why you can still hear people say things like "the Republicans are better on budgets."

In this case, autoworkers are disinclined to trust Democrats because the Democrats have been in between weak and terrible for labour for decades - Carter was bad, Clinton was worse, Obama's first term was not good and his second not much better, and Biden being relatively strong on labour is coming late in the game. If you don't pay attention to recent political events - like most people do not! - then an autoworker looks at a Democratic President and is not inclined to trust them.

And to be clear, Biden is only relatively strong on labour right now. He supports labour harder than any Dem president since Johnson, but the NLRB is still effectively toothless - which means the landscape is still corporate-friendly to a ridiculous extent - he's wary of taking forceful executive action to support workers, and even though the railworkers action ended up getting the railworkers most of what they wanted in the end as a result of after-the-fact negotiations, a lot of union folks were not happy about Biden's involvement in the deal.
posted by mightygodking at 11:58 PM on September 17, 2023