Josh Welton: My take on UAW's historic strike against the Big Three

Luigi Morris

What many people didn’t understand when the 2023 UAW/Big Three negotiations popped off was that it’s not just about making gains that union workers (and all workers) deserve in the current market. It's also about what was given to Ford, GM, and Stellantis (previously FCA) by UAW rank and file and what was taken away from workers during the recession to help the companies move forward in a difficult time. The moves facilitated record profits almost immediately that are still going strong 15 years later.

This contract is about a $3 total raise since 2008. It's about wholly losing cost-of living-adjustment (COLA). It's about getting rid of a two-tier wage system that was supposed to be temporary. It's about stopping the abuse of the temp worker system, where they bring in people and then let them go at 89 days, right before they’d be eligible for full-time employment. It's about the UAW taking on substantial logistical and financial responsibilities for retirees. It’s about stripped-down health care benefits. It’s about pensions. All of these things were either implemented or torn apart at the expense of every blue-collar employee, to give the Big Three a helping hand.

This all happened 15 years ago during the recession. Since then, we’ve seen “leadership” from the UAW and the auto companies imprisoned for stealing funds meant for the rank-and-file UAW members. A good faith, up-and-up signed contract has not existed since I joined the union in 2001.

UAW leadership has been bought and paid for (literally, they’re now dead or locked up or hiding in disgrace) and we got stuck with whatever the corporations wanted to shove down our throats. March 2023 saw the 372,000-member union's first direct election of its 14-member International Executive Board. It looks like current UAW President Shawn Fain is different. And I hope he is, because there are certainly more Alphons Iacobellis out there willing to pay union leadership to get the Big Three’s agenda hammered through

The Center for Automotive Research did the only comprehensive study on labor costs per vehicle recently and found that about 5% of the cost to build a vehicle is labor related. It was around 10% in 2008.

Why do Ford and GM come up with wildly different numbers? They include the billions required to build their factories; the R&D, engineering, and design of vehicles; and then the union and nonunion workers' total compensation.

They base their numbers mainly on things that are immaterial to the people they’re attributing this cost to. They do it for headlines, to sway ignorant masses in the court of public opinion. It's a contract year tradition. But currently, Big Three leadership is playing with fire, getting way more pushback this time around.

A few Ford execs are trying to be cute on social media, but instead are receiving virtual stonings. High-profile interviews and debates in the national spotlight have Mary Barra (GM chair/CEO) and Jim Farley (Ford president/CEO) looking entirely out of touch. Yet, they keep spewing nonsense numbers because they are desperate to hold onto the tens of millions they make yearly

Rising tides raise all ships. Companies like Toyota, Honda, and Nissan pay good money to keep unions out, and they’ll have to compete with whatever gains we make. Eventually, suppliers will have to pay more as well. We already have inflation. We may as well get the wages that allegedly would have caused it.

Of course, we still hear misguided posturing like, “Now my truck will cost more!” Trucks have gone from $20K-$45K to $50K-$120K in the last decade without paying workers more. It's all profit. They’ve been raising prices exponentially, and it won’t stop whether we make gains or not.

Martin Chavez / iStock / Getty Images Plus

These union contracts and others across the country remain our shot to hold on to an ever-shrinking middle class. That’s no longer a clichè. Numbers show that 1% of the U.S. population is considered the super elite class, roughly 20% are considered upper class, and then 80% of us fighting for their leftovers amongst ourselves. A single mom working a full-time job and two part-time jobs to feed her family and a small business owner hustling to get a piece of the pie have way more in common with one another than either of them has with the top 20%.

No more leftovers. It's time we all stick together to take what’s been stolen from us over the last four decades. This isn’t me against you; it's us against them.

Stay informed, stay vigilant, stay outspoken. These contract negotiations aren’t the endgame. It’s just an early battle in a long war.

Let’s freaking go.