Shortly after the United Auto Workers (UAW) secured historic new deals with General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis, the union is pushing forward with plans to try and organize the entire non-union automotive sector in the United States.
The union has revealed that thousands of nonunion employees have signed support cards and want to organize and join the UAW. Unionizing efforts are being made at Tesla, BMW, Hyundai, Honda, Mercedes-Benz, Mazda, Lucid, Nissan, Subaru, Rivian, Volvo, Volkswagen, and Toyota, which cumulatively employ around 150,000 people in manufacturing roles.
“To all the auto workers out there working without the benefits of a union: Now it’s your turn,” UAW president Shawn Fein said in a recent video. “Since we began our stand-up strike, the response from auto workers at nonunion companies has been overwhelming. You don’t have to live paycheck to paycheck. You don’t have to worry about how you’re going to pay your rent or feed your family while the company makes billions. A better life is out there.”
The UAW website has been updated to include dedicated pages for each of the 13 aforementioned car manufacturers. These pages mention all the recent profit increases reported by the companies while also noting increases in vehicle prices that have been made as well as rises in executive compensation. It specifically points out the extraordinary net worth of Tesla chief executive Elon Musk as well as the $379 million that Lucid chief executive Peter Rawlinson raked in last year.
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At least 30% of workers at a single automotive manufacturing plant need to sign an authorization card to publicly announce an organizing committee. If 50% of workers at a plant sign the card, Fain says the UAW will hold a rally there and if the plant reaches 70%, the union says it would demand voluntary recognition from the carmaker and if refused, will file to hold an election with the National Labor Relations Board.
