At first glance, Shawn Fain (52), head of the largest US auto union, the UAW, seems rather inconspicuous with his glasses and blue sweater from which a white shirt collar peeks out. But his rhetoric is relentless: “By God, if workers demand their fair share, it’s the end of the world. This has to stop, we’re better than this, America,” he says in an interview.
With his demand for a fair share, Fein has the UAW members behind him, who are demanding a wage increase of 36 percent over the next four years due to high inflation and mostly good profits for car manufacturers. Fein initially even predicted 40 percent, because that’s how high the recent income increases in the industry’s top management had been. The car manufacturers offered 20 percent – but that is not what Fain means by “fair share”.
The UAW boss, who has only been in office for six months, responded quickly, harshly and with support to the failure of collective bargaining USA a first-of-its-kind step: the UAW struck the factories of all three at the same time for the first time major US car companies GM, Ford and the Stellantis brand Chrysler. Initially only three plants with a total of 12,700 employees were affected. But the signal is clear: this time the strikes can escalate quickly, Fain leaves no doubt about that.
If the collective bargaining dispute is not resolved quickly, this could lead to significant disruptions to automobile production in the United States – with immediate consequences for the US economy. According to Mark Zandi, chief analyst at the rating agency Moody’s, the USA is even threatened with a recession if US car production is slowed down by a month-long labor dispute by the end of the year, according to the New York Times.
“Longer than the corporations can endure”
There is so much at stake in the conflict that even President… Joe Biden (80) intervened in the power struggle and called on both sides to reach an agreement. Fain, however, is unfazed and ready to go all out. When asked how long the strike should last, he said: “As long as we have to – and a day longer than the companies can endure.” Fain is determined to use his entire war chest if necessary: The fund from which the UAW pays strike pay for members contains $825 million.
UAW members aren’t just interested in significantly better pay. The UAW is also calling for a four-day, 32-hour work week – a demand that seemed unthinkable in US industry just a few months ago. The employers are horrified by the trade unionists’ large catalog of demands: If wage increases of 36 percent were imposed, Ford would be threatened with bankruptcy, said Ford boss Jim Farley in an interview with CNBC in mid-September. Fain countered coolly by pointing out that the Ford boss earned around $21 million last year.
Restarting the UAW after various scandals
Fain is ready to fight, even though he is still new to the job of champion. At the end of March, he narrowly won the election against incumbent UAW boss Ray Curry (58), after months of campaigning. The UAW members’ decision to favor Fain is also seen as a realignment for the union, which has made headlines in recent years due to various corruption cases.
Investigators had discovered that high-ranking members had embezzled millions of dollars from the union’s treasury. Two of the last three UAW bosses, Gary Jones and Denis Williams, went to prison. The union has been under the observation of an auditor since 2021. The elections in which Fain won were the first in which all members of the union could directly elect the president.
“Fight when the occasion calls for it”
Fain attacked his opponent Curry harshly during the election campaign and called for a new beginning. He openly denounced “abuses on the part of the management committee” and promised a confrontational course towards employers: “That doesn’t mean that we argue about every issue. But it does mean that we fight when the occasion calls for it,” promised Fain in a video
.
Fain was supported by the group Unite all Workers for Democracy, which raised tens of thousands of dollars for the election campaign, according to the New York Times. He can demonstrate the necessary stable smell for the union leadership: Fain started at Chrysler in 1994 as an electrical engineer, has been a member of the UAW since then and has been active in various positions there, including as a negotiator during the Chrysler bankruptcy in 2009 and 2011. In 2012 he became more international Representative of the UAW, in 2015 he chaired a subcommittee.
Three of his grandparents were in the union, and he says he always carries a payslip from one of them with him. “To never forget the sacrifices made by those before us.” As president, Fain now represents both the union’s nearly 400,000 active members and the approximately 580,000 retirees who also belong to the UAW. The 54-year-old must now keep his promises and take a new, confrontational course.
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Class struggle made in USA: With Fain the tone becomes rougher
In the USA, long-lasting and hard labor disputes are the exception; trade unions are traditionally viewed with skepticism. Now Fain is taking the dispute between employers and employees to a new level, not only with his substantive demands, but also verbally. “The existence of billionaires shows us that we have an economy that is geared towards the well-being of a minority – and not the well-being of the majority,” he says, for example in a video
, which is circulating on the platform X (formerly Twitter). “Why is that? Just so some asshole can make enough money to shoot himself to the moon?”
The Democrats don’t need a long labor dispute
The political dimension of the strike should also not be underestimated: according to media reports, US President Biden, who is considered pro-union, spoke to Fain on the phone shortly before he called for the strike. Biden is running for re-election next year and is vying for the support of unions and their members; he can use their support, especially in the important swing states. However, the Biden administration is promoting the change to electric mobility with tax breaks and electric car loans. Fain, in turn, is critical of this; he fears that jobs will be cut in traditional factories. Despite all their sympathy for the unions, the Democrats have absolutely no use for a strike lasting several months that would hinder the recovery of the US economy.
Fain doesn’t want to take that into account. “It’s up to the companies whether they come and take care of their workers,” he says. And on this topic he becomes fundamental again: “This is about America, it’s about getting better for everyone.”