Shawn was an outspoken and unlikely president who led the UAW to strike
Remembering Shawn Fain and the History of Auto Workers in the ’60s: When the UAW Came to an End and the Chrysler Foundry
United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain has been in that office less than six months, and already he has launched a series of targeted strikes at factories owned by General Motors, Ford and Stellantis. At midnight, when the current U labor contract expired, workers walked off the job at three domestic car plants.
The millions of family who moved to the Midwest to work for auto companies were part of my grandparents’ group. I have inherited my Grandmother’s Bible and her faith from my grandfather and I am proud to do so.
He explained this week that he finds a lot to relate to in biblical stories of using faith to stand up to fear — something he is encouraging his membership to do now.
“He’s an electrician. He became a shop chair at the Chrysler foundry after serving as an apprenticeship. That’s among the most demanding jobs in the union in that you’re dealing with grievances and issues on the shop floor all the time,” Harley Shaiken explained. Shaiken is a professor at UC Berkeley who specializes in labor organizing.
The union officials who negotiated the national contracts were the ones who helped to bring about the staff job at Solidarity House.
But Fain was frustrated by the way the union’s top leadership dealt with corporate management. The financial crisis and bankruptcies of GM and Chrysler brought hard times for the industry but it was not the union that gave up too much. That included the tiered wage system where new hires were paid significantly less. Originally implemented in the economic downturn of 2007, it persists today.
He wasn’t alone in his views, but such dissent gained no traction in those days. Many workers were just happy to have a job. At the time, the UAW, after decades of major wins, rolled back its requests of the automakers to try to sustain the industry at a time of great upheaval.
After a four-year FBI investigation into corruption in the UAW, it found embezzlement of union dues and other offenses that ultimately sent two former UAW presidents to prison. A dozen other union officials were also convicted.
As part of a consent decree the UAW was forced to change how it elected its leader, and as a result a federal monitor was named to oversee union operations. Instead of delegates and other union officials picking the top brass, now the membership would directly vote for top officers. There was an opening for union reformers.
He wanted to end corruption and win back the concessions the union had given up in order to end the multi-tiered pay rates. He wears T-shirts with “End Tiers” printed on the front to rallies. He said that he would use strikes to achieve those goals.
“Even though this was to be the first direct election of officers of the UAW in the history of the union, he seemed to have little chance of making it,” Harley Shaiken, the union expert, recalled.
The appetite for a progressive message was found by the hard work of Fain. He believed people wanted to hear from a candidate who would hold corporate feet to the fire and one that would demand that politicians who win union endorsements actually fight for causes important to unions.
He visited local union halls and stood outside plant gates. He held campaign events on Facebook Live where he’d take questions from members who logged in for up to two hours at a time.
He started to gain on the competition. He made it to a second round of voting. On that second and final ballot, he won by the narrowest of margins, just 477 votes.
The War of the Unions: When the UAW goes On strike, What the union can do about it, and when to oppose it
“Now we’re here to come together to ready ourselves for the war against our only one and only true enemy, multibillion-dollar corporations and employers that refuse to give our members their fair share,” Fain said at that April convention.
If rhetoric like that makes some people uncomfortable, Fain says so be it. His approach is to leave no doubt that the union’s role is to be a voice and advocate for its members.
He uses Facebook Live to reach members of the union and recently he showed a trash can full of proposals in the negotiations.
That’s a message he takes out on the road too: He’s done it at plant gates and union halls. He stood in front of a crowd at a Labor Day rally and promised to stand tough.
Shawn Fain warned of the need to “amp this thing up even more” if they don’t get better offers.
On the other, are the Big three automakers — General Motors, Ford and Stellantis — who say they have put historically generous offers on the table, while also emphasizing that there are limits.
The goal is to secure a sustainable future that provides all of our UAW employees with an opportunity to thrive in a company that will be competitive during the historic transformation of the automotive industry.
The Michigan Assembly Plant’s body construction department is on strike because the parts that need to be coated quickly need to be reported to work by 600 workers.
This coming week, 2,000 workers are going to be out of work at the Fairfax Assembly plant. There is a shortage of critical materials supplied by the stamped operations at the company’s Missouri plant.
But because in this case it’s due to a strike, the companies say there is no such compensation. General Motors said it was working under an expired agreement. There are no provisions that allow for company-sponsored subs in this circumstance.
