UAW chief aims to expand membership

DETROIT (AP) — Entering contract talks with Detroit’s three automakers, Shawn Fain set lofty expectations for what he could gain for his union members — and delivered on many of them. He secured significant pay raises, improved benefits, the right to strike over plant closures and a raft of other concessions.

But to the United Auto Workers president, the agreements that emerged from talks that were marked by six weeks of strikes were merely the start of a victory streak and a renaissance for the 88-year-old union. Now, Fain has set his latest ambitious goal: To gain UAW membership in nonunion companies across the industry — from foreign automakers with US operations like Toyota to electric vehicle makers like Tesla to EV battery plants that will likely represent a sizable share of auto jobs in the decades ahead.

Already, Fain asserted in an interview with The Associated Press, the contracts have benefited workers in nonunion auto companies: Soon after the UAW won major pay raises for its workers, Toyota, Honda, Hyundai and Nissan — all nonunion operations — raised their own workers’ pay in what Fain characterized as an obvious bid to stop the UAW from unionizing those workforces.

Last week, workers at General Motors, Ford and Stellantis collectively voted 64% to ratify the new settlement deals, which are among the richest contracts in the UAW 88year history. The agreements ended many wage tiers, gave temporary hires better pay and a path to fulltime work and boosted from around 6% to 10% the annual 401(k) contributions for those without pension plans.

According to Fain, workers at some nonunion plants, including the electric vehicle sales leader, Tesla, have contacted the UAW about joining the union, which hasn’t even begun its organizing efforts. Fain noted that the nonunion companies didn’t raise pay for their workers until after the UAW won general and costof-living raises, which should reach 33% by the time the contacts expire in 2028.

“Companies play their workers as fools sometimes,” he said in the interview. “They care about keeping more for themselves and leaving the employees to fend for themselves.”

Fain, who took office just eight months ago in the first direct election of UAW leaders in its history, said the time is right for labor unions to grow as they did in the 1930s and 40s, before they began a steady decline beginning in the 1950s. American workers, he said, are fed up with stagnant wages while corporate executives earn ever-growing multiples of median worker pay.

Companies, Fain said, will spend “limitless amounts” to try to stop the UAW, but the union can point to its Detroit contracts to show workers they will have a voice. In that way, he said, the union is a “great equalizer.”

Fain declined to say which nonunion companies the UAW would target first. But high on the list is Tesla, whose biggest shareholder is CEO Elon Musk, the world’s wealthiest man and an outspoken opponent of the union.

“The world’s richest man is the richest man for a reason,” Fain said. “They get this kind of wealth by exploiting other people.”

Musk, who also runs the rocket company SpaceX, is talking about shipping Tesla production to Mexico and other low-cost countries.