It’s been a year since the United Auto Workers went on strike against the Big Three automakers in Michigan. UAW president Shawn Fain trumpeted the resulting contracts as a major win for workers.
But increasingly, the evidence points to the opposite conclusion: The UAW failed its members, who are suffering because of union leaders’ foolish actions and divided focus.
When the UAW pushed the strike, the automakers warned that it would do lasting damage, especially to their ability to invest in Michigan. That has proven true. While the strike resulted in generous new contracts for workers, their employers have begun making painful decisions — cutting and moving jobs, canceling production and scaling back future plans.
Stellantis is laying off 2,450 workers in Warren and cutting hundreds of jobs in Sterling Heights. Over at General Motors, 945 workers in Orion and 350 in Lansing have been let go. Ford’s “Blue Oval” factory has been dramatically downsized. All told, since the UAW strike ended, Michigan has lost auto jobs while the rest of the nation has gained them.
The UAW’s strike last year made all this suffering more likely, since the resulting contracts were too expensive and inefficient for the automakers. But it also doesn’t help that UAW leaders haven’t been as focused on autoworkers as they should be.
Union president Fain is now being investigated by an independent federal monitor. This comes on the heels of a massive corruption scandal that saw 11 convictions of former UAW leaders, including two former presidents. It’s hard to fight for autoworkers when you’re fighting allegations of impropriety.
The UAW is also fighting for issues that have nothing to do with autoworkers at all. The union’s leadership team is being advised by socialist activists with little background in the industry or other blue-collar employment. These activists pushed the strike strategy that has since backfired, and they are also spending more and more time focused on issues like student loan forgiveness and the war in Gaza.
The focus on a foreign conflict is especially galling. Last year, just days after autoworkers signed their new contracts with automakers, the UAW adopted a formal statement that called for a ceasefire in Gaza. UAW leaders have since boasted that they’ve spent months advocating about the war and controversial campus protests. But every minute they spend on those issues is a minute they could and should have spent figuring out how to support a vibrant auto industry.
Part of the problem is that a quarter of the UAW’s membership is now in higher education, not in the auto factory. Union leaders have to represent them both, even when their interests diverge. Some of the UAW locals that represent graduate student assistants are supporting pro-Palestinian protests and occupations on college campuses.
Others have called for ending all government support for Israel and companies doing business with them while criticizing Israel’s “apartheid, ethnic cleansing and genocide.” When the UAW leadership tries to placate these members, it invariably ignores the needs of the autoworkers it was formed to represent.
Michigan autoworkers can expect more pain. The Big Three will likely continue to cut costs, which means laying off workers and scaling back or closing plants. The UAW will no doubt oppose these moves, but its efforts will likely be ineffective because union leaders don’t have a coherent strategy to support the manufacturing industry for the long term. The UAW’s current calls for yet another strike are proof. The union is doubling down on a failed approach while simultaneously trying to placate anti-war activists.
If only Michigan autoworkers had an escape. Alas, they don’t, because Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and her fellow Democrats in the Legislature repealed the state’s right-to-work law last year. They’ve forced thousands of workers back into the UAW against their will.
These workers will have to keep paying dues or fees to the UAW, even if they don’t agree with its politics or its lack of focus on them. Michigan autoworkers’ situation looks bad a year after their strike, but it’s only going to get worse, and their union is to blame.
Jarrett Skorup is the vice president for marketing and communications at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a free-market research and educational institute headquartered in Midland, Mich.