by Peggy Wang
Massachusetts Teachers Association, Assoc. of Professional Administrators (personal capacity)
Boston, MA
This is an updated version of our online article, published in Issue 15 of Socialism Today.
Following six weeks of selective strikes against the “Big 3” American automakers, the United Auto Workers (UAW) have ratified 4.5-year-long contracts with Ford, GM, and Stellantis. The 150,000 union workers at the major US automakers won immediate wage increases of 11%, with a total of 25% over the lifetime of the contracts. Starting wages for temps have increased to around $21/hr and full-timers will begin at $25/hr. Other gains include the return of cost-of-living-adjustments (COLA), a shortened progression to reach top pay rate for all workers, the reopening of the Belvidere Assembly Plant, and the addition of some electric vehicle (EV) positions.
The Big 3 contracts are important: they cover nearly 40% of UAW membership. But the number of UAW auto workers has halved over the last 20 years due to plant closures, reduced market share of the Big 3 (from 71% in 1998 to 40% in 2021), and the union’s failure to break into non-unionized auto companies in the United States. UAW leadership gave massive concessions to the Big 3 during the 2008-2009 financial crisis. This included wage freezes, plant closures, and removal of pensions, retiree healthcare, and equivalent pay for those hired after 2007. Workers have also made record profits for the companies in the last decade: a combined $250 billion. Big 3 CEOs make salaries of $21-29 million a year. Yet many workers were only making $15-17/hr, with some trapped in temp positions for years. Many rank-and-file auto workers were ready to wage a serious battle against the auto companies.
The UAW began negotiations demanding a 46% wage increase over four years, the return of pensions and retiree healthcare, the removal of tiered pay and benefits, a 90-day progression to full-time status, and a 32-hour work week with no reduction in pay. On September 15, the union began its rolling strikes against all three automakers with walkouts at three assembly plants, escalating in the following weeks to include five additional plants and 38 parts distribution centers (PDCs). These included the Big 3’s largest moneymakers, notably Ford’s Kentucky Truck Plant, where 8,700 workers generate $48,000/min in revenue for Ford–the equivalent of $25 billion a year, or nearly half the company’s US earnings. Yet new hires were making only $37,523/year. In the final count, the nearly 50,000 total UAW workers on picket lines cost the companies over $5 billion.
The strikes pushed the corporations from their original “final offer” of a maximum 20% in wage increases over 4.5 years and a $20/hr starting wage for temps. Though the final contracts are significant improvements compared to past concessionary contracts, there are still important unresolved demands and issues. Wage increases aren’t enough to make up for pay losses due to inflation and give-backs during the Great Recession. Pensions, retiree healthcare, and other benefits and protections are not restored for all workers. All EV production jobs still don’t automatically fall under the national agreements. And the contracts accept the closure of many facilities and subsequent job losses. The UAW could have fought for more, especially considering only a third of their Big 3 members were called out on strike. General support for unions is the strongest it’s been in 60 years, and there was overwhelming public support (by a 4-1 margin) for the strike.
The Independent Socialist Group (ISG) walked picket lines in solidarity with UAW members during the strike. We advocated for members to continue their fight for more improvements by voting down the tentative agreements, bringing the full weight of the UAW membership out on strike, building more support from working-class communities, and organizing active solidarity from the rest of the labor movement.
The UAW gains, while important, do not go far enough.
Wages
UAW members had prepared for a fight to regain much of the wage losses they had suffered in the aftermath of the 2008-2009 auto bailouts. At the time, in the name of avoiding layoffs, Ron Gettelfinger—then president of the UAW—pushed members to accept wage freezes, the introduction of temp workers and second-tier full-timers, the loss of cost-of-living-adjustments (COLA), and hits to pensions and retiree healthcare. Meanwhile, the Big 3 received $83 billion in bailouts from the Bush and Obama administrations.
Not only have the Big 3 made a combined $250 billion over the last ten years, but CEO pay has also increased by an average of 40% in the last four years. Vehicle prices went up by 36% and general inflation by 20%. Yet UAW auto workers made $10/hr less in real wages than they did in 2007. Auto workers on the whole have seen a 30% decline in pay over the past two decades.
The new Ford, GM, and Stellantis contracts provide wage increases of 25% over 4.5 years, including an immediate 11% increase—this is more than double the 9% total increase the companies initially offered, but still only averages out to less than 6% per year. Full-time starting wages will move to $25/hr while temp work will increase from a new $21/hr starting wage to $25/hr after nine months of service.
Back in July, the UAW had originally called for a 46% wage increase over a four-year contract. If the union had won this, it still would’ve left workers’ real wages 5% lower than before the bailouts. While the wage gains in the new contracts are a move in the right direction, they still leave workers far behind where they’d been prior to the Great Recession.
Ending Tiers
The UAW sought to eliminate the second-tier workforce created by the auto bailout concessions. Those hired after 2007 were paid less (as little as $15/hr) than their “legacy” counterparts (those hired before 2007) and were excluded from the pension and retiree healthcare. In addition, the Big 3 hired more workers as temps who have lower pay, fewer union protections, and more precarious positions. The Big 3 have benefited greatly from this far cheaper labor force. The UAW had originally demanded a 90-day progression for all lower-tier workers to gain full-time “legacy” status so they could receive pay and benefits equal to more senior workers. The final contract secured a three-year progression instead and does not bring back pensions and retiree healthcare for post-2007 workers. It grants full-time conversion for temps after nine months of work.
Retirement
The contracts will increase employer contributions to 401ks and pensions and offer limited bonuses to retirees. But workers hired after 2007 aren’t provided either a pension plan or retiree healthcare, meaning both will eventually be phased out. 401ks are not equivalent to high-quality retiree healthcare benefits and pensions, especially given skyrocketing health and elder care costs.
Electric Vehicle Production, Plant Closures, & Job Security
The UAW had set its sights on including EV workers in its contracts as a crucial part of its fight for a “just transition” for autoworkers. The Big 3 have been developing their EV productive capacity with the help of billions of dollars in federal loans. Yet these new EV jobs are not automatically union, and EV sites are predominantly built under joint ownership schemes in order to avoid falling under existing union contracts. Last December, the first EV battery plant voted to unionize with the UAW. These workers at Ultium Cells in Lordstown Ohio will now be covered under the GM contract.
Moreover, the new Big 3 contracts do not cover all EV jobs. Big 3 EV positions will only be union if a UAW member elsewhere takes it and only at certain locations where workers have transfer rights (among them, Marshall, MI; BlueOval City, TN; Memphis, TN, opening in 2025; Belvidere, IL, opening in 2028). This leaves out current and future EV workers if they’re not already UAW. The contracts will only cover an entire EV site once the majority of the workforce there is UAW. This means enough UAW members have to transfer to these EV facilities, or the UAW has to unionize those sites from scratch. UAW membership at the Big 3 will likely shrink as EV production increases unless the union can organize new locations. Companies are hoping that as UAW members with top pay and pensions retire, they will leave behind a workforce far less costly to maintain—especially since they hope to eliminate jobs with EV production.
The Stellantis contract does reopen the Belvidere assembly plant that the company had closed early this year, restoring 1,350 jobs. But it also accepted the closure of 18 facilities, including 10 Parts Distribution Centers (PDCs) where 5,600 workers had spent five weeks on picket lines. Workers will have to relocate in order to keep their UAW pay and benefits or leave their jobs entirely. Though transfer rights do buy workers some protections, workplace closures and layoffs are an attempt by auto companies to cut jobs, union bust, and drive down wages and benefits. They’re not inevitable and union leadership should fight against any closures.
Shorter Work Week
The UAW called for a 32-hour work week with no reduction in pay. This is an important demand that unions have raised before. Shorter work weeks greatly improve workers’ quality of life, provide them with more personal time, and improve safety. Fewer working hours with no cut in pay is a demand the labor movement has put forward in the past to combat understaffing and forced overtime, as well as to create new high-quality jobs for the unemployed. While the UAW raised the idea of a shorter work week, union leadership did not organize a serious fight for this change.
The UAW has undergone important changes this past year. In March, members voted in new president Shawn Fain in the union’s first one-member-one-vote election. This new leadership bargained and led a strike against all three auto companies simultaneously and doubled weekly strike pay from $250 to $500. Negotiations were more visible for members and the public, with regular updates on social media. The contract fight with the Big 3 was linked to new union organizing of non-union auto companies, as well as to a broader fight for the working class.
While these gave UAW members stronger tools at their disposal in the contract fight, the union still took on the Big 3 with one hand tied behind its back. But more importantly, union leadership didn’t capitalize on the favorable conditions it had at hand to fight to the fullest extent for membership’s demands. Much more could’ve been won by calling all UAW auto workers out on strike. A stronger contract would be an even better launching point to organize non-union auto workers into the UAW.
The union could have also drawn upon its allies internationally: auto workers in other countries such as Brazil and Canada were also fighting their own battles with the Big 3 during the UAW strikes. In October, GM metalworkers in Brazil opposed the company’s mass layoffs of over 1,200 workers by walking off the job. Within three weeks’ time they’d won back all the positions. In Canada, Big 3 workers unionized with Unifor did one-day walkouts and won 20% wage increases over three years. These were missed opportunities for unionized auto workers to coordinate and to press for more.
All working people have a stake in seeing union fights succeed. Union contracts can set the standard in a given industry and can put pressure on employers to offer better wages and improved conditions. It’s telling that on the heels of the UAW contracts with the Big 3, other auto companies with non-unionized American workforces are voluntarily increasing wages for workers. Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, Subaru, Nissan, and Volkswagen have all announced wage hikes for their US workers nearly matching those won by UAW members. If corporations are willing to concede greater wage increases, what more can be demanded from them with stronger organization, coordination, and pressure?
Already, Tesla workers at the Fremont, CA facility have formed an organizing committee with the UAW, which has publicly stated its intent to organize at non-union US auto companies. But the union will need to be more democratic and militant if it hopes to achieve these aims and more.
Some members pushed back against the contracts, demonstrating the need for the union to go further. Though Ford and Stellantis workers largely approved the contracts (by around 70%), 45% of GM workers rejected their contract terms. Members at key large facilities, including Ford’s Kentucky Truck Plant, several of GM’s large assembly plants, and Stellantis’ Toledo assembly plant, also voted down the contract by margins of around 60%.
While Big 3 union workers were on strike, 4,000 of their UAW siblings at Mack Trucks voted down by 73% a tentative agreement negotiated by union leadership that offered 19% in wage increases over five years. Workers subsequently struck for six weeks. Shawn Fain initially supported the Mack workers, saying “I’m inspired to see UAW members at Mack holding out for a better deal.” UAW leadership eventually pushed membership to accept the same contract that they had rejected earlier. Many Mack Truck workers were dissatisfied and wanted to push past leadership’s insistence that there were no tools left to use against the employer, but they were told that a no vote would bring the contract to arbitration which could result in worse terms. The membership were at a loss of what could be done, facing a leadership that claimed their fight was a lost cause.
But it is not. Unions need to be clear that these corporations are among the largest and most powerful companies that the world—and history—has ever seen. The likes of Ford, GM, and Stellantis have immense resources, powerful politicians, and the legal system on their side. In the Big 3 contract fight, big banks handed the car companies $10 billion in credit lines to weather the strikes. The UAW’s $850 million strike fund paled in comparison. In addition, billions in bailouts and federal loans have been given to the Big 3 over the last 15 years.
Both corporate parties readily hire police to break picket lines and ensure scab labor gets through. Both corporate parties assist companies in finding cheap labor and undermining union jobs, whether by outsourcing work abroad or driving down wages at home. Both corporate parties have cut benefits and social safety nets while driving up inflation and the costs of living.
The Democratic Party’s presence on UAW picket lines and at UAW rallies and events during (and even after) the strike is no accident: it’s an attempt to court working people and channel the energy of the labor movement into voting blue. Ahead of an election year, and with an eye on his low approval ratings, Biden is looking to prop up his image as a “pro-labor” president. But many workers across the country are dissatisfied with both parties and want an alternative. Polls show that 63% of Americans want a third party. The two corporate parties and the corporate media will do all they can to convince workers that it’s dangerous to look outside the two-party system.
Rank-and-file members will have to revitalize the UAW and push their union to confront the capitalist legal and political system, both of which are in the pockets of the corporate class. Just as these behemoth companies are organized against working people, we too must be organized against the capitalist class. Central to this fight will be the formation of an independent workers’ party in the US that can win living wages, a green economy, more jobs, good retirement, and a future for working-class people.
Independent Socialist Group 