United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain speaks outside the UAW Local 900 headquarters across the street from the Ford Assembly Plant in Wayne, Mich. The union announced the start of a strike at three factories just after midnight on Friday.
Matthew Hatcher/AFP via Getty Images
United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain has been in that office less than six months, and already he has launched a series of targeted strikes at factories owned by General Motors, Ford and Stellantis. The current UAW contract with the domestic car companies expired at midnight, and that’s when workers at three plants walked off the job.
The strikes aren’t a surprise. Fain has taken a far more militant tone with management than his predecessors going back decades. He says it’s the only way to ensure that workers get their fair share as car companies continue to enjoy huge profits.
An autoworker outside the Ford Michigan Truck plant shows a pin on his fluorescent yellow and orange vest reading “I don’t want to strike but I will” on the first day of contract talks for the UAW with major U.S. automakers on July 19.
Don Gonyea/NPR
The UAW leader has a long history with the automobile industry. Fain often talks about his family members who began working in car plants in the earliest days of the United Auto Workers union: one of his grandfathers was hired by Chrysler in 1937 — that’s the year the UAW was officially recognized. Fain carries around one of his grandfather’s old pay stubs in his wallet.
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