Shawn Fain | |
---|---|
![]() Fain in 2024 | |
15th President of the United Automobile Workers | |
Assumed office March 26, 2023 | |
Preceded by | Ray Curry |
Personal details | |
Born | Kokomo,Indiana,US | October 30,1968
Occupation |
|
Shawn Fain (born October 30, 1968) is an American labor unionist who has served as president of the United Auto Workers (UAW) since March 2023. An electrician by trade, he worked at a Stellantis automotive parts plant in Kokomo, Indiana. He has been a UAW member for 29 years, and is a member of the reform caucus, Unite All Workers for Democracy (UAWD). [1] [2] [3] [4] The first UAW president directly elected by union members, Fain was a central figure in the 2023 United Auto Workers strike.
In 2023, Fain ran for the presidency of the union against incumbent Ray Curry, leading a slate named UAW Members United that focused on opposing corruption, concessions, and tiered pay structures. [5] In the first election in which members of the union directly elected the president, Fain won the election by 477 votes [6] and took office in March. [7]
In office, he advocates a more aggressive negotiating style, more member participation, and for the union to actively support politicians who share the union's agenda. [2] [3] Fain's relative labor militancy and bargaining style contributed to the UAW's decision to authorize the 2023 United Auto Workers strike. [8] The strike resulted in wage increases, cost of living adjustments, and the elimination of the tiered wage system.
Fain spoke at the 2024 Democratic National Convention on August 19, 2024. [9]
Fain was born in Kokomo, Indiana, on October 30, 1968. [10] [11] [12] He is the grandson of two UAW GM retirees. His grandfather started at Chrysler in 1937, the year Chrysler workers joined the UAW after a sit-down strike. [4] [13] His father served as the police chief of the Kokomo Police Department. [14] Fain is a graduate of Taylor High School. [15]
A few days after his election, Fain told the automakers that the UAW was "fed up with the status quo". [16] During 2023 contract renegotiations, Fain has advocated for an immediate wage increase of 20 percent for workers followed by yearly gradual increases for a total of 46 percent, which he argues would simply be a way to keep up with the enormous CEO wage increases of auto companies in recent decades. The UAW has since lowered the demanded increase to 36 percent. [17] Fain is also calling for the end of tiered wages and benefits, and the roll-back of concessions made by the UAW during the 2007–2008 financial crisis, including the reinstatement of cost-of-living adjustments and robust pensions. [18] [19] Fain's hard line stance during contract renegotiations contributed to the union's decision to begin the 2023 United Auto Workers strike on September 15. [8] It is the first time in the UAW's 88-year history that the union has launched a simultaneous strike against the Big Three automakers. [20]
Fain has garnered significant attention for his unorthodox approach to organizing, with analyst Daniel Ives telling Reuters, "This is not your grandfather's UAW ... Fain is playing this like a chess player. He's leading 21st century negotiations for unions". [21] Fain has embraced social media platforms during the negotiations, publishing short form documentary style videos. [21]
In a profile in The New York Times of October 5, 2023, he stated: "Billionaires in my opinion don't have a right to exist." He is also attributed with: "There's a billionaire class, and there's the rest of us." [10]
He appears in frequent Facebook Lives where he directly addresses UAW members, quoting from the Bible and Malcolm X. [21] [22] In a livestream from early August 2023, Fain can be seen throwing an offer from automaker Stellantis into a waste basket, stating: "That's where it belongs – in the trash – because that's what it is". [23] [24] In September 2023, he said "The September strikes are so far proving effective, and should give employers second thoughts." [25]
At the end of the 2023 United Auto Workers strike, Fain pledged to unionize more automotive companies, saying, "When we return to the bargaining table in 2028 it won't just be with the Big Three, but with the Big Five or Big Six." [26] On December 7, 2023, the UAW announced that autoworkers at the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, had begun a unionization effort, with over 1,000 members signing union cards. [27]
General Motors Company (GM) is an American multinational automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. The company is most known for owning and manufacturing four automobile brands: Chevrolet, GMC, Cadillac, and Buick. By total sales, it has continuously been the largest automaker in the United States, and was the largest in the world for 77 years before losing the top spot to Toyota in 2008.
The 1936–1937 Flint sit-down strike, also known as the General Motors sit-down strike, or the great GM sit-down strike, was a sitdown strike at the General Motors plant in Flint, Michigan, United States. It changed the United Automobile Workers (UAW) from a collection of isolated local unions on the fringes of the industry into a major labor union, and led to the unionization of the domestic automobile industry.
The United Auto Workers (UAW), fully named International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America, is an American labor union that represents workers in the United States and southern Ontario, Canada. It was founded as part of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) in the 1930s and grew rapidly from 1936 to the 1950s. The union played a major role in the liberal wing of the Democratic Party under the leadership of Walter Reuther. It was known for gaining high wages and pensions for automotive manufacturing workers, but it was unable to unionize auto plants built by foreign-based car makers in the South after the 1970s, and it went into a steady decline in membership; reasons for this included increased automation, decreased use of labor, mismanagement, movements of manufacturing, and increased globalization. After a successful strike at the Big Three in 2023, the union organized its first foreign plant (VW) in 2024.
The National Automobile, Aerospace, Transportation and General Workers Union of Canada, commonly known as the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW), was one of Canada's largest labour unions. In 2013, it merged with the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada, forming a new union, Unifor. While rooted in Ontario's large auto plants of Windsor, Brampton, Oakville, St. Catharines, and Oshawa, the CAW has expanded and now incorporates workers in almost every sector of the economy. The presidents of the CAW were Bob White (1985–1992), Buzz Hargrove (1992–2008), Ken Lewenza (2008–2013), and Jerry Dias (2013–2022) when the CAW became UNIFOR.
Douglas Andrew Fraser was a Scottish–American union leader. He was president of the United Auto Workers from 1977 to 1983 and an adjunct professor of labor relations at Wayne State University for many years.
The Belvidere Assembly Plant (BVAP) is an idled automobile production facility owned and operated by Stellantis North America. The factory opened in 1965 in Belvidere, Illinois, United States, and last assembled the Jeep Cherokee.
Owen Frederick Bieber was an American labor union activist. He was president of the United Auto Workers (UAW) from 1983 to 1995.
In the United States automotive industry, the term Big Three is used for the country's three largest motor vehicle manufacturers, especially indicating companies that sell under multiple brand names.
Reuther's Treaty of Detroit was a five-year contract negotiated by trade union president Walter Reuther between the United Auto Workers (UAW) and General Motors in 1950. The UAW reached similar deals with the other members of the Big Three automakers, Ford Motor Company and Chrysler. The UAW agreed to a long-term contract, which protected automakers from annual strikes, and it gave up the right to bargain over some issues in exchange for extensive health, unemployment, and pension benefits; expanded vacation time; and cost-of-living adjustments to wages.
Ronald A. Gettelfinger is an American retired labor leader. He served as president of the United Auto Workers from 2002 to 2010.
Neil M. Barofsky, a partner in the Litigation Department of national law firm Jenner & Block LLP, focuses his practice on white collar investigations, complex commercial litigation, monitorships and examinerships.
Robert Thompson King is an American lawyer and labor union activist and leader. He was elected president of the United Auto Workers (UAW) on June 15, 2010. His term of office ended in June 2014, and King announced his retirement, being succeeded by Dennis Williams as head of the UAW.
The Autoworker Caravan is an advocacy group dedicated to promoting the interests of Unionized American Autoworkers. It is primarily based in Detroit Michigan, but has a network of activists covering virtually every major American facility operated by the Big Three automobile manufacturers. The Caravan is composed of both active and retired UAW members. It is also sometimes referred to as the AWC.
Jerome "Jerry" White is an American politician and journalist, and is the Labor Editor reporting for the World Socialist Web Site. He is a member of the Socialist Equality Party of the United States, and was a member of its predecessor the Workers League, joining the movement in 1979. White was the SEP's nominee for the United States presidential elections four times, running in 1996, 2008, 2012 and 2016.
The tool and die strike of 1939, also known as the "strategy strike", was an ultimately successful attempt by the United Auto Workers Union (UAW) to be recognized as the sole representative for General Motors workers. In addition to representation rights, the UAW, working jointly with the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), sought to resolve existing grievances of skilled workers.
The 2019 General Motors strike began September 15, 2019, with the walkout of 48,000 United Automobile Workers from some 50 plants in the United States. Demands by workers included increased job security, gateway for temporary workers to become permanent, better pay and retaining healthcare benefits.
The 2021 Virginia Volvo Trucks strike was a labor strike involving workers at a Volvo Trucks production facility in Dublin, Virginia, United States. The strike began in April and ended in July with the ratification of a new labor contract.
Gary Jones is a former American labor union leader, who was convicted of embezzlement.
The 2023 United Auto Workers strike was a labor strike involving automobile workers in the labor union United Auto Workers (UAW) and the three unionized automakers in the United States—Ford Motor Company, General Motors, and Stellantis. These three automakers' factories combined employ about 145,000 UAW members and produce about 50 percent of the vehicles manufactured annually in the US, accounting for 1.5 percent of US GDP. The strike began on September 15, 2023, when the union was unable to reach a deal with the three automakers. It was the first trilateral strike against the three automakers in the union's history.
A rolling strike, also known as a rotating strike, is a targeted strike where some union workers strike while others continue to work. These strikes can spread to other departments or locations as negotiations escalate. Rolling strikes are used to conserve strike funds and to make strike action unpredictable for the employer.
The deal UAW President Shawn Fain closed on his 55th birthday is modeled on the ones agreed to with crosstown rivals Ford and Jeep-maker Stellantis, and would give workers higher raises than they've received in years.