Toledo, Ohio — United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain on Saturday warned autoworkers on strike not to let messaging from the Detroit Three automakers give up their fight for “justice.”
“They’re trying to cause doubt between the membership and the leadership; They’re trying to cause division. This is how they operate. This is how people in power operate. We try to divide everybody so they can get done what they want to get done. They say complete b——-, and it won’t work. We’re smarter than that.” The Detroit News, September 30, 2023
One thing is sure – when any labor leader warns, “They are trying to divide us!” he knows he’s already lost the trust of a troubling share of his membership. Recent comments on posts to the UAW’s Facebook page seem to bear this out, with auto workers looking less than united as Fain’s “stand-up strike” stumbles on. The turnout for UAW events, including picket lines, has been relatively anemic, and most picketers have been reluctant to speak to the press. Remember, too, that UAW officials, stewards, and staff are required to walk those picket lines, and only designated union boosters are allowed to speak to reporters. It’s also difficult to recall a UAW strike that needed “advocates” like these to apply pressure for the union.
At least a few autoworkers must be wondering – along with the rest of us – why Fain is treating truly historic offers from all three companies like trash. They have offered to eliminate tiers and, according to Ford, its proposed pay boosts would take a worker now earning $60,000 a year to over $100,000 in 2027 without any cuts to benefits. (Making this public is presumably how the evil corporations are sowing division.) GM CEO Mary Barra has accused Fain of trying to “make history for himself” in lieu of reaching a settlement, and that sounds about right. It also bears mention that Fain has not polled bargaining unit members on these offers; its more unifying if he just decides for them.
There are also nagging doubts about the “stand-up strike” strategy. Many autoworkers would prefer to strike everywhere all at once, but they may be divided as to why. Socialist dilettantes are grousing about being forced to continue to make product and profit for the corporate overlords while their comrades have the privilege of making history. In contrast, the silent minority of old timers may be missing the good old days, when being on strike meant walleye fishing for a month, with a weekly trip in from the cabin to picket. For them, this whole “this week you’re working, but maybe next week you’re not” strategy does take all the real joy out of strike season.
Certainly, more than a few autoworkers out there – those that don’t read Politico – thought they were voting to strike over their core pocketbook issues, as they had so successfully in years past. They were not asked to approve a strike “for the good of the entire working class,” nor did they authorize months of “recurring reputations damage and operation chaos” for their employers in order to finally restructure society, competitiveness be damned. This revolutionary zeal gets a little tricky when many members of the working class with no say in any of this, many of them friends or family of autoworkers, are now suffering the most and will benefit the least. And one must wonder if these strike theatrics and the concessionary suffering of unit members over the last 15 years were worth it if the plan is now to choke the golden geese to death anyway.
