The United Auto Workers union is launching simultaneous public mobilization campaigns with more than a dozen automakers, joining Toyota Motor Corp. , Volkswagen and Tesla, in an ambitious effort to capitalize on recent contract victories and oppose the industry’s decades-long decline.
The UAW aims to unionize about 150,000 workers at 13 companies, which would double the number of unionized auto workers. Target automakers include foreign corporations such as BMW and Nissan Motor Co. , as well as electric vehicle makers such as Rivian Automotive and Lucid Group.
The union on Wednesday unveiled a site where staff can sign union cards online and contact organizers. The UAW has already hired thousands of employees at the target companies, a spokesperson said.
“To all the auto painters who paint without the benefits of a union: Now it’s your turn,” says UAW President Shawn Fain in a video posted to the site, which also includes statistics on emerging profits, executive reimbursements and vehicle costs from select automakers. “You don’t have to worry about how you’re going to pay for your contract or feed your family while the company makes billions. There’s a better life out there.
Fain said the union has noticed a big backlash from non-union staff across the U. S. in recent months, in the South.
Backed by new leadership and a new strategy, the UAW carried out closely watched actions this fall that won historic concessions from Ford Motor Co. , General Motors Co. and Stellantis, adding the recovery of cost-of-living benefits and a 25% wage increase. which in combination will increase their most reasonable wage rate by up to 33% until 2028. Since those agreements were reached, non-union competitors such as Toyota, Nissan and Honda Motor Co. They have announced that they would raise the wages of their own American workers. .
The UAW cited a crusade at a Toyota meeting complex in Georgetown, Kentucky, as one of its greatest efforts so far.
“They can give you a raise today and increase your fitness benefits tomorrow,” Jeff Allen, a 29-year-old worker at the plant, said in an email sent by the union. “A collective bargaining agreement is the only way to get the right thing. “
Under U. S. law, if a majority of an office’s staff sign union cards, the company can voluntarily recognize the union or insist that the union election be overseen by the government. These campaigns can be debatable and arduous, with companies occasionally using tactics such as mandatory meetings aimed at persuading staff not to unionize. Retaliation against staff who leave to unionize is illegal, but employers are accused of doing so anyway and do not face punitive damages if the government establishes that they have violated the law.
The UAW represents less than a third of the number of workers it had in the 1970s. Although it has swelled its ranks among academics in recent decades, previous attempts at large-scale unionization at Tesla, Volkswagen, and Nissan have either lost steam or lost steam. It ended in defeat.
In an interview this month, Fain said efforts beyond the UAW had failed because of union corruption, proximity to bosses and bad contracts. But now he says, “We can beat anyone. “
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