Pressure from union members involved in the campaign to change the way in which the United Auto Workers selects top officers are also claiming victory in raise fight to boost the strike pay for UAW members.
After a meeting of the UAW International Executive Board this week, the UAW announced it was increasing the amount of weekly strike pay for members from $275 per week to $400 per week. The money comes from the union’s strike fund.
“UAW members who strike are fighting to hold their employers accountable,” said UAW President Ray Curry, who announced plans to run for president in the union-wide election set for later this year. “Our striking members and their families deserve our solidarity, and this increased benefit will help them hold the line.”
A win for activists
UAWD, a group within the union that spearheaded the initiative calling for the direct election of the union’s top officers, noted “unprecedented increase” is a major victory for the reform movement in the UAW.
“It follows a national movement by UAWD activists to increase strike pay to $400,” UAWD noted in an e-mailed statement.
More than two months ago, UAWD members drafted a platform for the UAW’s July 25 Constitutional Convention that contains eight resolutions, including a resolution to increase strike pay to $400 per week, as well as to beginning the calculation of strike benefits on the first day of the strike. Benefits are currently calculated beginning on the eighth day of a labor dispute.
The announcement comes six weeks ahead of the Constitutional Convention, and four months before the union’s first-ever direct elections in October.
The activists from UAWD presented resolutions to the UAW membership at monthly meetings of their local unions across the U.S. The UAW membership of at least 24 local unions, representing more than 185,000 of the nearly 1 million UAW members, passed UAWD’s resolution to increase strike benefits to $400 per week.
“UAWD’s actions were designed to put pressure on the International Union to increase strike benefits and it worked. I want to thank the UAWD members for their efforts to bring to fruition the much-needed increase in strike benefits for all UAW members,” said Scott Houldieson, chair of UAWD. “Solidarity and collective action brought about this change to increase these benefits,” Houldieson reiterated.
Non-automotive members helped
The campaign was aided by a video produced by UAW members, who went on strike against John Deere last autumn. The Deere strike, which involved more than 10,000 people, was one of the largest strikes in the U.S. last year. The UAW also staged a monthlong strike with 4,000 UAW members and in 2019 struck General Motors for 40 days in another contract fight.
Nolan Tabb, a member of UAWD and UAW Local 281 who was involved in the strike against John Deere, produced a video on this subject.
“I know first-hand how impactful this is going to be right now for the brothers and sisters on strike now at Case New Holland in Racine, WI and Burlington, IA, as well as for potential strikes in the future at Caterpillar, Ford, Chrysler, and GM,” Tabb said.
The push for reform inside the UAW came on the heels of a wide-ranging federal criminal investigation that sent more than a dozen union officials and top officers to prison for a variety of federal crimes, including the acceptance of bribes from employers and misappropriation of union funds for personal gain.
