UAW Autoworker strike comes to California
When the United Auto Workers (UAW) and the Big Three auto companies failed to reach a contract agreement by September 14, the union-imposed deadline for negotiations, the union struck three large production plants on September 15, sending 13,000 workers onto picket lines and idling their factories.
Since there are no Stellantis, Ford or General Motors plants in the Golden State, DSA members here could only cheer from the sidelines.
That changed a week later, when the UAW spread the strike to three dozen parts distribution centers across the country, including in Rancho Cucamonga and Ontario in southern California.
Within hours of the announcement, members of DSA-LA and Inland Empire DSA had mobilized to join the Stellantis lines in Ontario. The next day DSA strike supporters came out to the GM lines in Rancho Cucamonga as well.
Background
This year, for the first time in decades of UAW history, negotiations were an open experience, with leadership of the union communicating directly with membership through Facebook Live, traveling rallies, and other social media. This change in direction comes from the UAW executive board comprising a majority of UAW reformers who ran on a platform committed to shifting the UAW away from business unionism and back toward a militant union empowered by the rank and file.
Shawn Fain, the reform president of the UAW, has impressed workers with his tough talk and aggressive attitude toward the companies, and his refusal to back down on applying political pressure to the Democratic Party leadership, who have offered the Big 3 subsidies for the electric vehicle (EV) programs. Auto workers are demanding 40% higher wages, an end to the tiered pay and benefits system that has plagued the UAW since the recession concessions of 2007-2009, the guarantee that EV jobs will be union jobs, the restoration of the Cost Of Living Adjustment (COLA), the reinstatement of defined benefit pensions, and for an end to the exploitation of temporary workers.
In the runup to the strike, the UAW revealed that it had filed Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) charges against Stellantis and GM, and President Fain introduced the Ford offer to his now-legendary trash can where the Stellantis offer also resided. Following the example of Teamster locals developing a credible strike threat before the recent UPS negotiations reached a settlement, UAW members throughout the Big Three conducted practice pickets and 10 minute educational meetings hosted by rank and file activists. With the strike authorization vote 97% in favor, high levels of activation among the workers should have been clear to the companies.
DSA for its part constructed an operation modeled on the UPS Strike Ready campaign, and prior to September 15, 109 captains across 58 chapters nationwide prepared for picket line support, canvassing, informational dealership picketing, and more. DSA recently hosted a town hall with several hundred attendees, where the audience heard from rank and file organizers about the fight inside their plants.
California DSA members were encouraged to pass the strike ready resolution in their chapters, appoint solidarity captains, and, due to the lack of UAW manufacturing plants in California, get prepared to participate in informational pickets near auto dealerships or solidarity pickets outside parts distribution centers (PDCs), of which California has many. PDCs are warehouses that store parts for repairing Big 3 automobiles, and the workers there are UAW members.
Join a picket line!
Which is why DSA members were ready to step up when the PDCs were struck in Ontario and Rancho Cucamonga. Among the LA-DSA comrades coming out was Mark Masaoka, a retired auto worker from GM Van Nuys, a plant that was shuttered in the 1990s, and the site of a lengthy labor-community coalition fight by UAW Local 645 to keep the plant open.
In explaining his actions, Masoaka said, "I was able to retire with a pension. We had cost-of-living benefits there. And we had a single tier, so everyone made the same wage. And now what they did was horrible. So I'm here to support [the union] in trying to restore a single, good wage for all auto workers.”
Also in attendance were members of Inland Empire DSA. Said derek [who goes by a small “d”—ed.], “The wave of solidarity felt, listening to and speaking with UAW members fight for one another, was overwhelming.”
derek’s solidarity included getting a gun pulled on them by a man in an unmarked Sprinter van while picketing in front of a Mira Loma parts facility, Custom Goods LLC. They were standing in the road with UAW organizer and DSA member Henry Salazar when the car tried to go through a gap in the line. derek and Salazar moved in front of the car to prevent that, and the man drew his gun on them, bumping them with his car in the process. Luckily no one was hurt. The man sped off.
Later Salazar had a conversation with a sheriff who said he had talked with the man, who claimed that the picketers had assaulted his car (!) and threatened him. Salazar told California Red that he found it strange that the main concern that law enforcement had shown during the day was trying to prevent the picketers from stopping delivery trucks. Now that the sheriff had a chance to actually do his job and keep the peace he sided with the wrong party.
Another strike supporter, Anthony DePice said, “Holding the line with the great folks from UAW Local 230 and my IE DSA comrades meant everything to me. I’ve been a labor organizer for years but to finally walk my first picket line with #StandupUAW was transformative.” He added, “I saw how our good vibes/cameraderie and willingness to wave at every passerby on foot or in vehicle actually got lots of folks who otherwise might not know or care about labor honk, wave, smile and even sometimes stop to see what all the fuss was about.”
Inspiration throughout the country
If you are in southern California, don’t miss the opportunity to help out in this historic action. UAW members are striking for fairness for themselves, but they are also striking for the entire working class. A solid victory in this struggle will send a message to workers laboring in non-union auto plants across the country that organizing with a union means better workplace conditions, better pay and better lives. A renewed organization of the automobile sector will serve as an inspiration to workers throughout the economy. What was true in 1937 with the UAW sit-down strikes and recognition of the union might be coming true again today: UAW members lead the way.