United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain makes a gesture of solidarity with striking workers during a UAW Local 551 rally Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023, in Chicago.
John J. King | Tribune News Service | Getty Images
DETROIT – UAW President Shawn Fain wants to expand the union’s fight beyond Detroit automakers Tesla, Toyota Automotive and other non-union automakers operating in the U.S.
The outspoken leader plans to use record contracts recently won after contentious negotiations and U.S. labor strikes General Motors, Ford and Chrysler parent company star Assisting unions in organizing efforts that are struggling elsewhere.
“We’ve created a good example of a threat and now we’re going to build on that,” Fein said Thursday night when discussing Stlantis’ tentative agreement. “We went on strike like never before and won a historic contract as a result. Now we will organize like never before.”
Doing so would significantly assist the union’s bargaining efforts and membership, which has almost halved from about 700,000 members in 2001 to 383,000 members at the beginning of this year. UAW membership peaked in 1979 at 1.5 million.
The UAW has previously failed to organize foreign automakers in the United States.Recently, American factories Volkswagen and Nissan Failure to gain the support needed to form a union. The UAW has previously discussed forming part of Tesla’s Fremont, Calif., plant, but those efforts have made little progress.
It remains to be seen whether the latest efforts gain traction with other automakers, but Fein vowed by then to move beyond the “Big Three” — Ford, General Motors and Stratis — and expand to a “Big Five or Six.” Giant’s 4.5-year contract with the Detroit automaker is set to expire in April 2028.
The agreements include a 25% wage increase, raising the top wage above $40 an hour, reinstating cost-of-living adjustments, increasing profit-sharing payments and other important wage, health care and workplace benefits. The contract still must be approved.
Fein said the union has already received significant interest from non-union automakers given the tentative agreement. Last month, he rejected comments from Ford Chairman Bill Ford that the company and unions should work together to fight non-U.S. automakers.
“Workers at Tesla, Toyota, Honda and other companies are not the enemy — they are the future members of the UAW,” Fein said.
toyota
Fein has taken special aim at Toyota in recent days.
The automaker earlier this week Confirmed plans to raise wages at U.S. factories. The new wage would increase pay for Kentucky’s highest-paid hourly manufacturing workers by about 9 percent, to $34.80 an hour.
Fein on Thursday called the raise a “boost for the UAW” and joked that UAW representatives “welcome you” to join the union movement.
On September 15, 2023, UAW President Shawn Fain held a rally with UAW members in downtown Detroit to support UAW members’ attacks on the three major automakers .
Bill Pugliano | Getty Images
“Toyota didn’t offer the raise out of the kindness of its heart,” Fein said. “They could have easily raised wages a month ago or a year ago. They’re doing it now because companies know we’re coming to them.”
Toyota, which has 49,000 hourly and salaried workers in the United States, said “the decision to unionize is ultimately made by our team members.”
“By having honest two-way communication about what’s going on at the company, our goal is to foster positive morale and ultimately increase productivity,” the company said in an emailed statement Friday. “Working together provides stability for our team members employment and income.”
Tesla
The UAW has so far failed to garner enough support to force an organizing vote at Tesla’s factories, including one in Fremont, Calif., where the union previously worked during GM’s joint venture with Toyota. Represent workers.
pleased Thursday He told Bloomberg News that he believed forming Tesla and taking over from Musk as CEO was “doable.”
“We can beat anyone,” Fein told Bloomberg. “It will be up to the people who work for him to decide whether they want a fair share … or whether they want him to fly to outer space himself at their expense.”
Still, Musk has a history of clashing with union supporters.
Tesla paid a consulting firm called MWW PR to monitor Facebook groups and social media more broadly in 2017 and 2018 when some workers were trying to unionize at the company’s Fremont plant, CNBC previously reported. Employees in the media.
Tesla CEO and X owner Elon Musk arrives at the inaugural Artificial Intelligence Insights Forum at the Russell Building on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, September 13, 2023.
Tom Williams | Cq-roll Call Inc | Getty Images
Tesla also terminated the employment of a union activist named Richard Ortiz in 2017. In 2018, Musk said in a tweet, “Nothing is stopping the Tesla team in our car factories from voting union. They can do so if they want. But why pay the union dues? and give up stock for nothing.” Choice? “
The National Labor Relations Board later found that the tweet violated federal labor law.
An administrative court ordered Tesla to reinstate Ortiz and for Musk to delete his tweets, which the court said threatened workers’ compensation. Tesla appealed the ruling, and Musk’s offending posts remained on the social media platform Musk now owns, which has been renamed X and where he serves as chief technology officer and executive chairman.
In February, another group of organizers filed a complaint with the NLRB, claiming Tesla fired more than 30 employees at its Buffalo plant in retaliation for a union push by Tesla Workers United. Tesla said the workers’ accusations were false and said 4% of its Buffalo-based Autopilot data annotation team had been fired over performance issues.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the federal agency charged with enforcing civil rights laws and combating workplace discrimination, sued Tesla in September, alleging widespread racist harassment of black workers and retaliation against those who spoke out.
In late October, Tesla had just over 100 service employees in Sweden, all of whom were members of the Industrial Labor Organization mid frequency metal, resigned due to a brief strike.Hundreds of mechanics and technicians at non-Tesla stores also agreed not to repair any EV maker’s cars Solidarity. However, Tesla has so far refused to negotiate with IF Metall.
Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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