Luis Feliz Leon

Toyota Workers at Critical Engine Plant Launch UAW Union Drive

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Thirty people, many with fists raised stand behind a banner that says “Stand Up, for safe jobs, for fair pay”
March 06, 2024

Auto workers at a Toyota engine plant in Troy, Missouri, have signed up 30 percent of their 1,000 co-workers to join the United Auto Workers (UAW)—a first at Toyota, the world’s largest automaker, on the heels of the union’s announcements of organizing campaigns at Volkswagen, Hyundai, and Mercedes-Benz.

Strike Threat at Allison Transmission Strips Out Tiers

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Forty workers in red t-shirts pose together outside a building with a blue awning.
February 07, 2024

Fifteen hundred auto workers in Indianapolis made their New Year’s resolution public: unless Allison Transmission agreed to eliminate tiers in wages, benefits, shift premiums, and holidays, they would hit the bricks.

“The fight plan throughout negotiations was ending tiers,” said Phil Shupe, a 10-year assembler on tier two and bargaining committee member. “We weren't going to accept anything from the company that had any more division. We stood firm that we all needed to be equal.”

The South, Where Automakers Go for a Discount

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A blue box shows with the notation: “Photo license expired”
February 02, 2024

In 1978, Volkswagen became the first foreign-owned company to manufacture cars in the United States since Rolls-Royce in the 1930s, setting up shop in Westmoreland, Pennsylvania.

“This is one of the most important organized victories in years for the UAW,” said United Auto Workers President Doug Fraser after VW workers voted 865 to 17 to join the union. “We believe that there will be other foreign automakers deciding to open plants in the U.S. and we intend to organize those workers as well.”

Hyundai Workers Roll the Union On in Alabama

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Three smiling men, two African American, one European American, face the camera
February 01, 2024

Auto workers at Hyundai in Montgomery, Alabama, have signed up more than 30 percent of their nearly 4,000 co-workers in an ambitious drive to unionize.

The Auto Workers (UAW) announced the organizing breakthrough with a new video, “Montgomery Can’t Wait,” where workers link the labor and civil rights movements: “Montgomery, the city where Rosa Parks sat down, and where thousands of Hyundai workers are ready to Stand Up.”

Amazon Concedes an Earbud

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About 25 people walk along a sidewalk, some carrying signs.
December 14, 2023

Sometimes workers just want to listen to music to escape the drudgery of repetitive work. But until recently, Amazon prohibited workers in all its facilities to use earbuds while stuffing boxes—and handed out write-ups to workers who defied the ban.

Sure, managers would blast music on the loudspeakers—but then workers couldn’t hear each other talking across the conveyor belt. And what if workers wanted to hear their own music, or an audiobook on organizing?

Inspired by Strike Wins, 1,000 Volkswagen Workers Sign Union Cards

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A masked worker in overalls place a seat into a car on an assembly line.
December 07, 2023

Today workers at Volkswagen's Chattanooga, Tennessee, assembly plant announced their third bid to unionize plant-wide with the Auto Workers (UAW).

Riding the momentum of its strike of the Big 3 automakers, the UAW now wants to double its numbers in the auto industry by adding 150,000 workers at companies that have long avoided unionization. Thirteen non-union automakers are on notice: Honda, Toyota, Hyundai, Nissan, Subaru, Mazda, Mercedes, Volvo, BMW, Volkswagen, and electric vehicle producers Rivian, Tesla, and Lucid.

Auto Workers Direct Momentum Toward Organizing Plants Across the U.S.

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A determined-looking woman with a crowd behind her wears a red shirt saying UAW, Back in the Fight
November 30, 2023

“The company knows that Toyota workers are watching,” said Auto Workers President Shawn Fain on November 3. “And when the time comes, Toyota workers and all non-union auto workers are going to be ready to stand up.”

That time has come—yesterday the UAW announced its plan, already in motion, to organize the whole auto sector. “Workers across the country, from the West to the Midwest and especially in the South, are reaching out to join our movement and to join the UAW,” said Fain in a new video.

Auto Workers Halt Stellantis’s Biggest Moneymaker

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A Black man in sunglasses with an exuberant expression exits a factory turnstile with his right arm raised.
October 23, 2023

Today 6,800 Auto Workers (UAW) struck the most profitable Stellantis plant in the world.

At 10 a.m. workers streamed out of the Sterling Heights Assembly Plant (SHAP), near Detroit, where they build the Ram 1500 pickup.

“It’s just real now,” said Crystal Pasarcik, the sergeant-at-arms at Local 1700, which represents the plant.

It’s Working: Auto Workers’ Strike Strategy Is Forcing the Big 3 to Pony Up

Luis Feliz Leon
A group of people in red shirts, one man carrying a child march past the camera with signs saying Stellantis is barganing in bad faith.

The Auto Workers (UAW) have thrown the Big 3 on the back foot.

For the first time in recent history, the union is playing the automakers against each other—departing from its tradition of choosing one target company and patterning an agreement at the other two.

And its gradually escalating Stand-Up Strike strategy has multiplied the pressure that can move the companies off the dime.

Every Friday for four weeks, the CEOs waited with bated breath for UAW President Shawn Fain to announce strike targets.

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