DETROIT—“We are at a crossroads,” United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain told the nearly 900 delegates assembled in the Motor City for the union’s 39th Constitutional Convention last week. “One road is a righteous struggle for economic and social justice, and the other is devastation for our members and the entire working class.”
The convention met under the slogan “Our Generation’s Defining Moment” and was held as the UAW prepares for 2028—a year that will see coordinated contract bargaining with the Big Three automakers as well as the pivotal national elections.
In his keynote address, Fain called out the big monopolies responsible for exploitation, layoffs, and declining standards of living—the same forces, he said, who are promoting political division among the working class. He highlighted recent UAW battles in auto plants, including the Stand-Up Strike against the Big Three and the numerous walk-outs and strikes across the country, such as at Local 900 at Ford Michigan Assembly plant, Local 12 at Stellantis Toledo, and Local 2250 at GM Wentzville Assembly.
Fain acknowledged that there will be an uphill battle for the labor movement as it approaches 2028. In addition to the enemies labor faces in the workplace and at the ballot box, it also has to contend with internal contradictions within the union movement, including in situations where organizing wins still wait to manifest in contract wins. Other issues that remain include the reopening of the Belvidere Assembly plant in Illinois, and the threat of fresh plant closings across the country remain a significant risk.
Fain also called attention to the threat of artificial intelligence—AI—and technological advancements driving up shareholder value while simultaneously threatening the labor value of workers and driving up unemployment.
“Productivity and the value produced by our labor has gone off the charts, while wages that workers earn from that labor have stayed flat,” Fain remarked. “The fruits of our labor have multiplied like never before, but workers aren’t reaping the harvest. That’s theft.”
Continuing on themes he discussed at the AFL-CIO Constitutional Convention a few weeks ago, Fain also highlighted the necessity of building and developing labor’s political independence.
“Just how we’ve changed how we bargain and how we organize, we’re changing how we do politics,” he said. “We’re going to invest in candidates that have our backs, that share our ideals and principles. We’ve got enough billionaires and businesspeople in Congress that are bought and paid for—we need working-class people in the halls of Congress.”
The connection of domestic struggles to international labor battles was another theme of both his speech and the proceedings overall. “We are building a global movement of workers everywhere!” Fain declared.
Building upon that principle of international working-class solidarity, IndustriALL General Secretary Atle Høie, one of the convention’s guest speakers, called for joint efforts to combat the growing billionaire—now trillionaire—capitalist class in their egregious wealth accumulation.
“International solidarity is the only thing that can beat multinational companies,” Høie pressed. “We need a strong U.S. in this fight, but first and foremost we need a strong UAW. The international trade union movement will stand shoulder to shoulder with you forever.”
Abdul El-Sayed, a progressive candidate for Michigan U.S. Senate, also spoke at the UAW convention. The UAW recently endorsed his campaign. He spoke indignantly about how the cost-of-living crisis for workers is directly caused by big corporations and the billionaire class accumulating wealth off the labor of working people, further lining their own pockets, while also continuing to supply weapons to Israel and investing in never-ending wars.
“We pay more for the stuff we need to buy and get paid less for the work we do and watch as our tax dollars get misappropriated to buy bombs and tanks for other countries instead of for schools and healthcare for our own,” El-Sayed asserted.
“The disease [of our politics] is the system that allows big corporations and billionaires and special interests to buy and sell our politicians in ways that leave them rigging the system against us,” he continued.
El-Sayed’s point about the spending of U.S. taxpayer dollars on weapons for Israel also carried over into the issue of investment of UAW members’ money in the same cause. Among the noteworthy resolutions passed by delegates was one mandating the divestment of UAW funds from Israeli government bonds, a historic victory for international labor solidarity made possible by the movement for Palestine that took root in labor as the genocide in Gaza unfolded.
On a vote with two-thirds support, the UAW also voted to increase budget allocations designated for organizing efforts and to build up the union’s strike fund, increasing the amount striking workers receive up to $550 weekly.
The UAW also bestowed Social Justice awards on a number of honored delegates and workers, including the Volkswagen workers in Chattanooga, Tenn., who just won their first contract after a long fight to organize their plant, and Local 1268 member Maria Medina, who dedicated her career to helping Spanish-speaking workers understand their rights and translated the UAW Constitution into Spanish for the first time earlier this year. A Social Justice award was also issued posthumously to civil rights and labor icon Rev. Jesse Jackson, who died earlier this year.
The next order of internal business for the UAW will be officer elections, with ballots mailed out starting on Aug. 21 and counting concluded by Oct. 6. Candidate forums are scheduled for July and August. Fain, the incumbent president, will be running on the United UAW slate, which includes candidates from his previous administration but also some top officers who were not in his camp during the last election.
The race for president features five other candidates: current Vice President Rich Boyer, Brian Keller, Tricia Geiger, Greg Mooney, and Will Lehman. None of these candidates are part of any slate as of yet. UAW slates must be declared by July 10.
Conventions such as this always have their debates, but there seemed to be acknowledgement from leadership, guests, and rank-and-file workers that unity and solidarity will be needed for the struggles the UAW will be taking on in the coming years.
The current anti-union, anti-democratic political landscape facing working-class people, along with the constant, accelerating wealth accumulation of the capitalist class, provide immense challenges for organized labor. The UAW delegates in Detroit, however, appeared ready for the fight.
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