Keith Brower Brown

UAW Reformers Muster Forces to Hold Bosses to Their Word

A year after the United Auto Workers’ Stand-Up Strike, the union caucus that helped make it possible is setting out to transform locals still stuck in the mud. Their first step is to fight a new onslaught of layoffs, broken promises, and retaliation from CEOs.

Marathon Petroleum Teamsters Strike

For the first time in 30 years, Teamsters at the Marathon oil refinery in Detroit are on strike. Close to 300 workers walked out September 4. Welders, firefighters, and heavy equipment operators in the union are demanding a raise that keeps up with cost of living, along with better hours. See a great video here.

Beat the Heat: How Workers Are Winning Fans, AC, and Even Heat Pay

If you’re dreading summer on the job this year, you’re not alone.

Every month last summer was the most scorching on world record. Trapped under heat domes, dozens of metro areas busted their longest streaks ever of highs over 100 degrees. Phoenix afternoons were over 110 for a month straight.

On asphalt yards nearly hot enough to melt, bonus-hungry managers forced workers to keep up the usual pace. The results were lethal.

How Solar Ironworkers Zapped Tiers

California’s solar power plants now rival the scale of any in the world. What stands out most is how they were built: under union contracts.

Across the U.S., nearly 90 percent of solar workers had no union last year. In California, the situation was different—at least on paper. The vast majority of its solar power plants have been wrenched in place by unionized construction workers.

Auto Workers Debate Contracts: Tall Gains, Taller Expectations

On breaks between harnessing wires and bolting fenders, Auto Workers across the country are debating the contract offers their strike wrenched out of Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis.

Just a fraction of plants have voted, with the rest set to cast ballots in the next two weeks. Contract details are here.

Despite Intimidation, Union Voices Get Louder for Ceasefire in Gaza

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Author(s): 
Keith Brower Brown
Caitlyn Clark

In the U.S. and across the world, hundreds of thousands of people have taken the streets to protest Israel’s assault on Gaza, which has killed at least 8,300 Palestinians, including 3,300 children, since October 7. On October 27, the United Nations called for an “immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce.”

In the U.S., those protesting Israel’s attacks have faced a wave of repression by employers.

After GM Boasts Higher Revenue, Auto Workers Strike Its Cash Cow

General Motors CEO Mary Barra started her day boasting to company investors how much car sales and revenues have recently climbed.

Two hours later, Auto Workers reminded her who made those revenues happen. The Auto Workers (UAW) struck GM’s most profitable plant, the massive Arlington Assembly, just outside Dallas.

Auto Workers Power Up Fight for an Electric Future

The highest stakes of the United Auto Workers’ strike could be for workers not yet hired, at plants not yet built.

In the last few weeks, the Stand-Up Strike has wrenched breakthrough offers out of all three automakers—Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis—that will have big implications for the transition to electric vehicles (EVs).

Moving beyond the dead-end job security strategies of the past—concessions and corporate partnership—the union is digging footholds to fight for an electric future on workers’ terms.

Auto Workers Escalate: Surprise Strike at Massive Kentucky Ford Truck Plant

Every Friday for the past four weeks, Big 3 CEOs have waited fearfully for Auto Workers (UAW) President Shawn Fain to announce which plants will strike next.

But without warning on Wednesday afternoon, the union threw a haymaker: within 10 minutes the UAW would be shutting down the vast Kentucky Truck Plant.

This plant, on 500 acres outside Louisville, is one of Ford’s most profitable—cranking out full-size SUVs and the Superduty line of commercial trucks.

Slow Walks and Tough Talk: Auto Workers Turn the Screws

The 18,000 Auto Workers on strike have lit up the labor movement. But the strike is only the most visible side of auto workers’ leverage.

The less visible side is on the shop floor, where organized refusals of voluntary overtime have shut down multiple lines and whole factories for entire weekends since the strike began.

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