The president of the United Auto Workers (UAW) union, Shawn Fain, declared this Sunday that the agreement reached by Ford to end the strike that began on September 15 is “a historic victory” and a turning point “in the class war.” “who live in the United States.
Fain detailed in a message through Facebook Live details of the collective agreement agreed by Ford and which must now be ratified by the auto workers. But he did not talk about the strike that is still going on at rival General Motors (GM).
The union leader noted that the collective agreement “is a reversal of the class war that has ravaged the country for the past 40 years.”
On September 15, UAW declared a progressive and simultaneous strike at GM, Ford, and Stellantis, which has never happened in the country, due to the lack of agreement for the signing of a new collective agreement.
After a six-week strike, the UAW and Ford reached an agreement Wednesday. Three days later, Stellantis agreed to the same union demand to end the strike.
But on the same Saturday, the UAW announced that in the case of GM, it extended the strike to the assembly plant in Spring Hill, in the state of Tennessee, because of the company’s refusal to accept an agreement similar to the one reached with Ford and Stelantis.
Fain said Sunday that the concessions extracted from Ford constituted “a historic victory that for many years was believed to be impossible to achieve,” with record wage increases, recognition of the right to strike once workplaces are closed, the inclusion of new plants for electric vehicles in the collective agreement, and other achievements.
“We know that the transition to electric vehicles (EV) is an important moment for our union. We have been saying for months that we will not allow the transition to EVs to be a race to the bottom, that business doesn’t force us to choose between good jobs or green jobs,” Fain added.
The union leader concluded by pointing out that with the agreement with Ford, American workers “won a great battle for a better world. Billionaires cannot save the American dream. The class—the worker and the people—will save the American dream.”
