UAW

  • Machinists Strike as Caterpillar Demands Non-Union Wage Rates

    Do workers need a union to negotiate “market-based” wages? Machinists at a Caterpillar hydraulic parts factory in Joliet, Illinois, struck May 1 to tell the heavy-equipment giant they deserve better. They're hampered by the fact that Cat workers represented by the United Auto Workers accepted wages pegged to an annual employer survey back in 2004.

  • Tax-Dodging GE Takes Union Fire
    Jim West
    Apr 25 2012 - 4:04pm

    At least 2,000 people assembled in downtown Detroit this morning outside the General Electric shareholders meeting to demand that the giant multinational pay its fair share of taxes. Signs read, "We pay taxes, why don't you?"

  • Michigan Amendment Would Block Anti-Union Legislation
    Theresa Moran
    Apr 23 2012 - 3:30pm

    Rather than waiting for a right-to-work law to pass, Michigan unions are mounting a petition drive to make anti-union bills unconstitutional. They need 322,609 signatures to get on the November ballot .

  • Autoworkers under the Gun

    The blockheads we curse daily on the factory floor are transformed by Gregg Shotwell's “large-caliber pen” into a bureaucracy “organized like a totem pole—one empty wooden head on top of another.” Such gems are found on every page of this selection of Shotwell’s Live Bait & Ammo shop floor papers.

  • In Brazil, GM Cost-Cutting Kills

    A Brazilian General Motors worker, Teodoro Antonio Pereira, was killed in late March while moving a die. Pereira was working Saturday overtime and working alone on a two-person job. To protest his death, on the next work day his co-workers shut down production for two hours for an in-plant meeting.

  • Getting Members Involved in Occupy’s Next Phase
    Joe Berry and Helena Worthen
    Feb 29 2012 - 9:53am

    The idea that the 99% can actually stand up to the 1% is contagious. How can stewards build on this moment of opportunity? Several unions are drawing members into home defense actions.

  • Michigan Unions Look to Amend Constitution to Block Anti-Labor Bills
    Jane Slaughter
    Feb 20 2012 - 9:25am

    Michigan’s top union leaders are deciding whether to attempt to amend the state constitution to block emergency managers and a "right to work" law through a ballot initiative this November.

  • Ontario Caterpillar Workers Locked Out for Refusing Half Pay
    Jane Slaughter
    Jan 30 2012 - 1:00pm

    “They issued an ultimatum, I wouldn’t call it bargaining,” said union negotiator Bob Orr. Caterpillar, despite $4.9 billion in profits, is trying to force 50 percent wage cuts by locking out 465 skilled locomotive builders.

  • Protesting Speed-Up, Korean Auto Worker Sets Self on Fire

    A South Korean Hyundai Motor worker set himself afire Sunday after management responded to his request to slow the pace of production by stepping up discipline. The 44-year-old unionist, Shin Sung-hun, is in critical condition.

  • Clericals Say UAW Should Practice What It Preaches

    Clerical workers at United Auto Workers headquarters in Detroit are protesting layoffs that will take effect Friday. They picketed this month carrying signs that read “What about shared sacrifice?” and “Justice for ALL workers.”