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The International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace, and Agricultural Implement Workers of America, better known as the United Auto Workers (UAW), is an American labor union that represents workers in the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...
(including
Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated ...
) and
Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tota ...
. It was founded as part of the
Congress of Industrial Organizations The Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) was a federation of unions that organized workers in industrial unions in the United States and Canada from 1935 to 1955. Originally created in 1935 as a committee within the American Federation of ...
(CIO) in the 1930s and grew rapidly from 1936 to the 1950s. The union played a major role in the liberal wing of the Democratic Party under the leadership of
Walter Reuther Walter Philip Reuther (; September 1, 1907 – May 9, 1970) was an American leader of organized labor and civil rights activist who built the United Automobile Workers (UAW) into one of the most progressive labor unions in American history. He ...
(president 1946–1970). It was known for gaining high wages and pensions for auto workers, but it was unable to unionize auto plants built by foreign-based car makers in the South after the 1970s, and it went into a steady decline in membership; reasons for this included increased
automation Automation describes a wide range of technologies that reduce human intervention in processes, namely by predetermining decision criteria, subprocess relationships, and related actions, as well as embodying those predeterminations in machines ...
, decreased use of labor, movements of manufacturing (including reaction to
NAFTA The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA ; es, Tratado de Libre Comercio de América del Norte, TLCAN; french: Accord de libre-échange nord-américain, ALÉNA) was an agreement signed by Canada, Mexico, and the United States that crea ...
), and increased
globalization Globalization, or globalisation (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English; American and British English spelling differences#-ise, -ize (-isation, -ization), see spelling differences), is the process of foreign relation ...
. UAW members in the 21st century work in industries including autos and auto parts, health care, casino gambling, and higher education. The union is headquartered in
Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...
,
Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...
. As of February 24, 2022, the UAW has more than 391,000 active members and more than 580,000 retired members in over 600 local unions, and holds 1,150 contracts with some 1,600 employers. It holds assets amounting to $1,026,568,450.


History


1930s

The UAW was founded in May 1935 in Detroit, Michigan under the auspices of the
American Federation of Labor The American Federation of Labor (A.F. of L.) was a national federation of labor unions in the United States that continues today as the AFL-CIO. It was founded in Columbus, Ohio, in 1886 by an alliance of craft unions eager to provide mutua ...
(AFL). The AFL had focused on organizing
craft unions Craft unionism refers to a model of trade unionism in which workers are organised based on the particular craft or trade in which they work. It contrasts with industrial unionism, in which all workers in the same industry are organized into the ...
and avoiding large factories. But a caucus of industrial unions led by John L. Lewis formed the Committee for Industrial Organization within the AFL at its 1935 convention, creating the original CIO. Within one year, the AFL suspended the unions in the CIO, and these formed the rival
Congress of Industrial Organizations The Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) was a federation of unions that organized workers in industrial unions in the United States and Canada from 1935 to 1955. Originally created in 1935 as a committee within the American Federation of ...
(CIO), including the UAW. The UAW rapidly found success in organizing with the sit-down strike, first in a
General Motors Corporation The General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest automaker in the United States and ...
plant in
Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,71 ...
in 1936, and more famously in the Flint sit-down strike that began on December 29, 1936. That strike ended in February 1937 after
Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...
's governor
Frank Murphy William Francis Murphy (April 13, 1890July 19, 1949) was an American politician, lawyer and jurist from Michigan. He was a Democrat who was named to the Supreme Court of the United States in 1940 after a political career that included serving ...
played the role of mediator, negotiating recognition of the UAW by General Motors. The next month, auto workers at
Chrysler Stellantis North America (officially FCA US and formerly Chrysler ()) is one of the " Big Three" automobile manufacturers in the United States, headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan. It is the American subsidiary of the multinational automot ...
won recognition of the UAW as their representative in a sit-down strike. By mid-1937 the new union claimed 150,000 members and was spreading through the auto and parts manufacturing towns of Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. The UAW's next target was the
Ford Motor Company Ford Motor Company (commonly known as Ford) is an American multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. The company sells automobiles ...
, which had long resisted unionization. Ford manager
Harry Bennett Harry Herbert Bennett (January 17, 1892 – January 4, 1979), was a boxer, Naval sailor, and businessman. From the 1920s through 1945, he worked for Ford Motor Company and was best known as the head of Ford’s "service department", the company's ...
used brute force to keep the union out of Ford, and his Ford Service Department was set up as an internal security, intimidation, and espionage unit within the company. It was not reluctant to use violence against union organizers and sympathizers (see
The Battle of the Overpass The Battle of the Overpass was an incident on May 26, 1937, in which Walter Reuther and members of the United Auto Workers (UAW) clashed with Ford Motor Company security guards at the River Rouge Plant complex in Dearborn, Michigan. After ima ...
). It took until 1941 for Ford to agree to a
collective bargaining Collective bargaining is a process of negotiation between employers and a group of employees aimed at agreements to regulate working salaries, working conditions, benefits, and other aspects of workers' compensation and rights for workers. The ...
agreement with the UAW. Communists provided many of the organizers and took control of key union locals, especially Local 600 which represented the largest Ford plants. The Communist faction controlled some of the key positions in the union, including the directorship of the Washington office, the research department, and the legal office.
Walter Reuther Walter Philip Reuther (; September 1, 1907 – May 9, 1970) was an American leader of organized labor and civil rights activist who built the United Automobile Workers (UAW) into one of the most progressive labor unions in American history. He ...
at times cooperated closely with the Communists, but he and his allies formed strategically an anticommunist current within the UAW. The UAW discovered that it had to be able to uphold its side of a bargain if it was to be a successful bargaining agency with a corporation, which meant that wildcat strikes and disruptive behavior by union members had to be stopped by the union itself. According to one writer, many UAW members were extreme individualists who did not like being bossed around by company foremen or by union agents. Leaders of the UAW realized that they had to control the shop floor, as Reuther explained in 1939: "We must demonstrate that we are a disciplined, responsible organization; we not only have power, but that we have power under control.".Lichtenstein, Nelson. ''The Most Dangerous Man in Detroit: Walter Reuther and the Fate of American Labor''. Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois Press, 1995.


World War II

The war dramatically changed the nature of the UAW's organizing. The UAW's Executive Board voted to make a "no strike" pledge to ensure that the war effort would not be hindered by strikes. A vehement minority opposed the decision. but the pledge was later reaffirmed by the membership. As war production ramped up and auto factories converted to tank building, the UAW organized new locals in these factories and airplane manufacturers across the country and hit a peak membership of over a million members in 1944. That same year, Lillian Hatcher was appointed the first Black female international representative of the UAW.


Postwar

The UAW struck GM for 113 days, beginning in November 1945, demanding a greater voice in management. GM would pay higher wages but refused to consider power sharing; the union finally settled with an eighteen-and-a-half-cent wage increase but little more. The UAW went along with GM in return for an ever-increasing packages of wage and benefit hikes through collective bargaining, with no help from the government.


New leadership

Walter Reuther Walter Philip Reuther (; September 1, 1907 – May 9, 1970) was an American leader of organized labor and civil rights activist who built the United Automobile Workers (UAW) into one of the most progressive labor unions in American history. He ...
won the election for president at the UAW's constitutional convention in 1946 and served until his death in an airplane accident in May 1970. Reuther led the union during one of the most prosperous periods for workers in U.S. history. Immediately after the war left-wing elements demanded "30–40": that is, a 30-hour week for 40 hours pay. Reuther rejected 30–40 and decided to concentrate on total annual wages, displaying a new corporatist mentality that accepted management's argument that shorter hours conflicted with wage increases and other job benefits and abandoning the old confrontational syndicalist position that shorter hours drove up wages and protected against unemployment. The UAW delivered contracts for his membership through negotiation. Reuther would pick one of the "Big three" automakers, and if it did not offer concessions, he would strike it and let the other two absorb its sales. Besides high hourly wage rates and paid vacations, in 1950 Reuther negotiated an industry first contract with General Motors known as the "Treaty of Detroit" (''Fortune'' magazine) becoming known as Reuther's Treaty of Detroit. The UAW negotiated employer-funded pensions at Chrysler, medical insurance at GM, and in 1955 supplementary unemployment benefits at Ford. Many smaller suppliers followed suit with benefits. Reuther tried to negotiate lower automobile prices for the consumer with each contract, with limited success. An agreement on profit sharing with
American Motors American Motors Corporation (AMC; commonly referred to as American Motors) was an American automobile manufacturing company formed by the merger of Nash-Kelvinator Corporation and Hudson Motor Car Company on May 1, 1954. At the time, it was t ...
led nowhere, because profits were small at this minor player. The UAW expanded its scope to include workers in other major industries such as the
aerospace Aerospace is a term used to collectively refer to the atmosphere and outer space. Aerospace activity is very diverse, with a multitude of commercial, industrial and military applications. Aerospace engineering consists of aeronautics and astrona ...
and agricultural-implement industries. The UAW disaffiliated from the AFL–CIO on July 1, 1968, after Reuther and AFL–CIO President George Meany could not come to agreement on a wide range of policy issues or reforms to AFL–CIO governance. On July 24, 1968, just days after the UAW disaffiliation,
Teamsters The International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT), also known as the Teamsters Union, is a labor union in the United States and Canada. Formed in 1903 by the merger of The Team Drivers International Union and The Teamsters National Union, the u ...
General President Frank Fitzsimmons and Reuther formed the Alliance for Labor Action as a new
national trade union center A national trade union center (or national center or central) is a federation or confederation of trade unions in a country. Nearly every country in the world has a national trade union center, and many have more than one. In some regions, such a ...
to organize unorganized workers and pursue leftist political and social projects."Mr. Clean and the Outcast." ''Time''. June 6, 1969.
Meany denounced the ALA as a dual union, although Reuther argued it was not.Barnard, John. ''American Vanguard: The United Auto Workers During the Reuther Years, 1935–1970''. (2004) The Alliance's initial program was ambitious. Reuther's death in a plane crash on May 9, 1970, near Black Lake, Michigan, dealt a serious blow to the Alliance, and the group halted operations in July 1971 after the Auto Workers (almost bankrupt from a lengthy strike at General Motors) was unable to continue to fund its operations. In 1948, the UAW founded the radio station WDET 101.9 FM in Detroit. It was sold to
Wayne State University Wayne State University (WSU) is a public research university in Detroit, Michigan. It is Michigan's third-largest university. Founded in 1868, Wayne State consists of 13 schools and colleges offering approximately 350 programs to nearly 25,000 ...
for $1 in 1952.


Politics and Dissent

The UAW leadership supported the programs of the New Deal Coalition, strongly supported civil rights, and strongly supported Lyndon Johnson's
Great Society The Great Society was a set of domestic programs in the United States launched by Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964–65. The term was first coined during a 1964 commencement address by President Lyndon B. Johnson at the University ...
. The UAW became strongly anti-communist after it expelled its Communist leaders in the late 1940s following the
Taft–Hartley Act The Labor Management Relations Act of 1947, better known as the Taft–Hartley Act, is a United States federal law that restricts the activities and power of labor unions. It was enacted by the 80th United States Congress over the veto of Preside ...
, and supported the
Vietnam war The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...
and opposed the antiwar Democratic candidates. According to Williams (2005) the UAW used the rhetoric of civic or liberal nationalism to fight for the rights of Black workers and other workers of color between the 1930s and 1970s. At the same time, it used this rhetoric to simultaneously rebuff the demands and limit the organizing efforts of Black workers seeking to overcome institutional racial hierarchies in the workplace, housing, and the UAW. The UAW leadership denounced these demands and efforts as antidemocratic and anti-American. Three examples, William argues, show how the UAW's use of working class nationalism functioned as a counter subversive tradition within American liberalism: the UAW campaign at the Ford plant in Dearborn, Michigan, in the late 1930s, the 1942 conflict in Detroit over the black occupancy of the
Sojourner Truth Sojourner Truth (; born Isabella Baumfree; November 26, 1883) was an American abolitionist of New York Dutch heritage and a women's rights activist. Truth was born into slavery in Swartekill, New York, but escaped with her infant daughter to f ...
housing project, and the responses of the UAW under the conservative leadership of Reuther to the demands of Black workers for representation in UAW leadership between the mid-1940s and the 1960s. See also
League of Revolutionary Black Workers The League of Revolutionary Black Workers (LRBW) formed in 1969 in Detroit, Michigan. The League united a number of different Revolutionary Union Movements (RUMs) that were growing rapidly across the auto industry and other industrial sectors—i ...
and Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement for the history of Black workers who questioned the corrupt leadership of the UAW in the 1960s and the 1970s.


1970s

The UAW was the most instrumental outside financial and operational supporter of the first Earth Day in 1970. According to
Denis Hayes Denis Allen Hayes (born August 29, 1944) is an environmental advocate and an advocate for solar power. He rose to prominence in 1970 as the coordinator for the first Earth Day. Hayes founded the Earth Day Network and expanded it to more than ...
, Earth Day’s first national coordinator, "Without the UAW, the first Earth Day would have likely flopped!" With the 1973 oil embargo, rising fuel prices caused the U.S. auto makers to lose market share to foreign manufacturers who placed more emphasis on fuel efficiency. This started years of layoffs and wage reductions, and the UAW found itself in the position of giving up many of the benefits it had won for workers over the decades. By the early 1980s, auto producing states, especially in the Midwestern United States and Canada, had been impacted economically from losses in jobs and income. This peaked with the near-bankruptcy of Chrysler in 1979. In 1985 the union's Canadian division disaffiliated from the UAW over a dispute regarding negotiation tactics and formed the
Canadian Auto Workers The Canadian Auto Workers (CAW; formally the National Automobile, Aerospace, Transportation and General Workers Union of Canada) was one of Canada's largest and highest profile labour unions. In 2013, it merged with the Communications, Energy and ...
as an independent union. Specifically the Canadian division claimed they were being used to pressure the companies for extra benefits, which went mostly to the American members. The UAW saw a loss of membership after the 1970s. Membership topped 1.5 million in 1979, falling to 540,000 in 2006. With the
late-2000s recession The Great Recession was a period of marked general decline, i.e. a recession, observed in national economies globally that occurred from late 2007 into 2009. The scale and timing of the recession varied from country to country (see map). At t ...
and automotive industry crisis of 2008–10, GM and
Chrysler Stellantis North America (officially FCA US and formerly Chrysler ()) is one of the " Big Three" automobile manufacturers in the United States, headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan. It is the American subsidiary of the multinational automot ...
filed for
Chapter 11 Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code ( Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, whet ...
reorganization. Membership fell to 390,000 active members in 2010, with more than 600,000 retired members covered by pension and medical care plans.


21st century

UAW has been credited for aiding in the auto industry rebound in the 21st century and blamed for seeking generous benefit packages in the past which in part led to the automotive industry crisis of 2008–10. UAW workers receiving generous benefit packages when compared with those working at non-union Japanese auto assembly plants in the U.S., had been cited as a primary reason for the cost differential before the 2009 restructuring. In a November 2008, ''New York Times'' editoria, Andrew Ross Sorkin claimed that the average UAW worker was paid $70 per hour, including health and pension costs, while Toyota workers in the US receive $10 to $20 less. The UAW asserts that most of this labor cost disparity comes from legacy pension and healthcare benefits to retired members, of which the Japanese automakers have none. The Big Three already sold their cars for about $2,500 less than equivalent cars from Japanese companies, analysts at the International Motor Vehicle Program said. According to the 2007 GM Annual Report, typical autoworkers earned a base wage of approximately $28 per hour. Following the 2007 National Agreement, the base starting wage was lowered to about $15 per hour. A second-tier wage of $14.50 an hour, which applies only to newly hired workers, is lower than the average wage in non-union auto companies in the
Deep South The Deep South or the Lower South is a cultural and geographic subregion in the Southern United States. The term was first used to describe the states most dependent on plantations and slavery prior to the American Civil War. Following the war ...
. One of the benefits negotiated by the United Auto Workers was the former jobs bank program, under which laid-off members once received 95 percent of their take-home pay and benefits. More than 12,000 UAW members were paid this benefit in 2005. In December 2008, the UAW agreed to suspend the program as a concession to help U.S. automakers during the auto industry crisis. UAW Leadership granted concessions to its unions in order to win labor peace, a benefit not calculated by the UAW's many critics. The UAW has claimed that the primary cause of the automotive sector's weakness was substantially more expensive fuel costs linked to the 2003-2008 oil crisis which caused customers to turn away from large
sport utility vehicles A sport utility vehicle (SUV) is a car classification that combines elements of road-going passenger cars with features from off-road vehicles, such as raised ground clearance and four-wheel drive. There is no commonly agreed-upon definition ...
(SUVs) and
pickup truck A pickup truck or pickup is a light-duty truck that has an enclosed cabin, and a back end made up of a cargo bed that is enclosed by three low walls with no roof (this cargo bed back end sometimes consists of a tailgate and removable covering) ...
s, the main market of the American " Big Three" ( General Motors, Ford, and
Chrysler Stellantis North America (officially FCA US and formerly Chrysler ()) is one of the " Big Three" automobile manufacturers in the United States, headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan. It is the American subsidiary of the multinational automot ...
). In 2008, the situation became critical because the
global financial crisis Global means of or referring to a globe and may also refer to: Entertainment * ''Global'' (Paul van Dyk album), 2003 * ''Global'' (Bunji Garlin album), 2007 * ''Global'' (Humanoid album), 1989 * ''Global'' (Todd Rundgren album), 2015 * Bruno ...
and the related
credit crunch A credit crunch (also known as a credit squeeze, credit tightening or credit crisis) is a sudden reduction in the general availability of loans (or credit) or a sudden tightening of the conditions required to obtain a loan from banks. A credit cr ...
significantly impaired the ability of consumers to purchase automobiles. The Big Three also based their respective market strategies on fuel-inefficient SUVs, and suffered from lower quality perception (vis-a-vis automobiles manufactured by Japanese or European car makers). Accordingly, the Big Three directed vehicle development focused on light trucks (which had better profit margins) in order to offset the considerably higher labor costs, falling considerably behind in the sedan market segments to Japanese and European automakers. The UAW has tried to expand membership by organizing the employees outside of the Big Three. In 2010,
Bob King Bob, BOB, or B.O.B. may refer to: Places * Mount Bob, New York, United States * Bob Island, Palmer Archipelago, Antarctica People, fictional characters, and named animals * Bob (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Bob (surn ...
hired
Richard Bensinger Richard Bensinger is an author, American labor activist, and labor consultant known for his advocacy of expanded organizing efforts. He is the founder of the Organizing Institute and was the first organizing director of the AFL-CIO.Chattanooga Chattanooga ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Hamilton County, Tennessee, United States. Located along the Tennessee River bordering Georgia, it also extends into Marion County on its western end. With a population of 181,099 in 2020, ...
, Tennessee plant narrowly voted down the union 712 to 626. However, the UAW organized a
minority union Members-only unionism, also known as minority unionism, is a model for trade unions in which local unions represent and organize workers who voluntarily join (and pay dues) rather than the entire workforce of a place of employment. In such a model ...
Local 42, which was voluntary and does not collect dues. After the close vote against the UAW, Volkswagen announced a new policy allowing groups representing at least 15% of the workforce to participate in meetings, with higher access tiers for groups representing 30% and 45% of employees. This prompted anti-UAW workers who opposed the first vote to form a rival union, the American Council of Employees. In December, 2014 the UAW was certified as representing more than 45% of employees. The union continues to engage in Michigan state politics. President King was a vocal opponent of the right-to-work legislation that passed over the objection of organized labor in December 2012. The UAW also remains a major player in the state Democratic Party. In March 2020, the Detroit United Auto Workers union announced that after discussion with the leaders of General Motors, Ford, and
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. (FCA) was an Italian-American multinational corporation primarily known as a manufacturer of automobiles, commercial vehicles, auto parts and production systems. The Italian holding company Exor was the largest s ...
, the carmakers would partially shut down factories on a "rotating" basis to combat the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...
. Though primarily known for autoworkers, as of 2022, academic workers comprise a quarter of UAW membership. In 2022, the UAW affiliate at the
University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Fran ...
went on strike for higher pay, an event known as the
2022 University of California academic workers' strike The 2022 University of California academic workers' strike was a labor strike at all campuses of the University of California (UC) system, including the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. On November 14, some 48,000 academic workers went o ...
.


Corruption and Reform in the UAW

A corruption probe by the Justice Department against UAW and 3 Fiat Chrysler executives was conducted during 2020 regarding several charges such as
racketeering Racketeering is a type of organized crime in which the perpetrators set up a coercive, fraudulent, extortionary, or otherwise illegal coordinated scheme or operation (a "racket") to repeatedly or consistently collect a profit. Originally and ...
,
embezzlement Embezzlement is a crime that consists of withholding assets for the purpose of conversion of such assets, by one or more persons to whom the assets were entrusted, either to be held or to be used for specific purposes. Embezzlement is a type ...
, and
tax evasion Tax evasion is an illegal attempt to defeat the imposition of taxes by individuals, corporations, trusts, and others. Tax evasion often entails the deliberate misrepresentation of the taxpayer's affairs to the tax authorities to reduce the tax ...
. It resulted in convictions of 12 union officials and 3 Fiat Chrysler executives, including two former Union Presidents, UAW paying back over $15 million in improper chargebacks to worker training centers, payment of $1.5 million to the IRS to settle tax issues, commitment to independent oversight for six years, and a referendum that reformed the election mode for leadership. The "One Member One Vote" referendum vote in 2022 determined that UAW members could directly elect the members of the UAW International Executive Board (IEB), the highest ruling body of the UAW.


Technical, Office, and Professional (TOP) Workers

District 65, a former affiliate of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union that included as a predecessor the United Office and Professional Workers of America, merged into the UAW in 1989. In 2008, the 6,500 postdoctoral scholars (postdocs) at the ten campuses of the
University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Fran ...
, who, combined, account for 10% of the postdocs in the US, voted to affiliate with the UAW, creating the largest union for postdoctoral scholars in the country: UAW Local 5810. The expansion of UAW to academic circles, postdoctoral researchers in particular, was significant in that the move helped secure advances in pay that made unionized academic researchers among the best compensated in the country in addition to gaining unprecedented rights and protections.


Presidents of the UAW

:*1935–1936:
Francis J. Dillon Francis may refer to: People *Pope Francis, the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State and Bishop of Rome *Francis (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters *Francis (surname) Places *Rural Mu ...
:*1936–1938: Homer Martin :*1938–1946: R. J. Thomas :*1946-1970:
Walter Reuther Walter Philip Reuther (; September 1, 1907 – May 9, 1970) was an American leader of organized labor and civil rights activist who built the United Automobile Workers (UAW) into one of the most progressive labor unions in American history. He ...
:*1970–1977:
Leonard F. Woodcock Leonard Freel Woodcock (February 15, 1911 – January 16, 2001) was President of the United Auto Workers (UAW) and the first US ambassador to China after being the last Chief of the US Liaison Office in Beijing. Early life Woodcock was born in ...
:*1977–1983:
Douglas Fraser Douglas Andrew Fraser (December 18, 1916 – February 23, 2008) was a Scottish - American union leader. He was president of the United Auto Workers from 1977 to 1983 and an adjunct professor of labor relations at Wayne State University for ma ...
:*1983–1995: Owen Bieber :*1995–2002: Stephen Yokich :*2002–2010: Ron Gettelfinger :*2010–2014:
Bob King Bob, BOB, or B.O.B. may refer to: Places * Mount Bob, New York, United States * Bob Island, Palmer Archipelago, Antarctica People, fictional characters, and named animals * Bob (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Bob (surn ...
:*2014–June 2018: Dennis Williams :*June 2018 – November 2, 2019: Gary Jones (Paid leave of absence starting November 2, 2019, resigned November 21, 2019) :*November 3, 2019 – June 30, 2021:
Rory Gamble Rory Gamble (born 1956) is an American factory worker and trade unionist. In November 2019, Gamble became the acting president of the United Auto Workers (UAW) following the abrupt resignation of his predecessor, Gary Jones. Jones was charged wi ...
:*July 1, 2021 – present: Ray Curry


See also

*
Finally Got the News
', a documentary that reveals the activities of the League of Revolutionary Black Workers inside and outside the auto factories of Detroit. * '' Final Offer'' – documentary showing the 1984 UAW/CAW contract negotiations * Leon E. Bates * List of United Auto Workers local unions *
2007 Freightliner wildcat strike 7 (seven) is the natural number following 6 and preceding 8. It is the only prime number preceding a cube. As an early prime number in the series of positive integers, the number seven has greatly symbolic associations in religion, mythology, s ...
*
2007 General Motors strike The 2007 General Motors Strike was a labor union strike that lasted three days from September 23 to September 25 of 2007 organized by the United Auto Workers (UAW) union. The UAW were engaged in talks with General Motors (GM) to negotiate a new l ...
*
2019 General Motors strike The 2019 General Motors strike began September 15, 2019, with the walkout of 48,000 United Automobile Workers from some 50 plants in the United States. Demands by workers included increased job security, gateway for temporary workers to become pe ...
* Communists in the United States Labor Movement (1919–37) *
Communists in the United States Labor Movement (1937–1950) Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a so ...
*
Women in labor unions Women in labor unions have participated in labor organizing and activity throughout United States history. These workers have organized to address issues within the workplace, such as promoting gender equality, better working conditions, and highe ...


References


Further reading

* Andrew, William D. "Factionalism and anti‐communism: Ford local 600." ''Labor History'' 20.2 (1979): 227-255. * Associated Press. "Drop in U.A.W. Rolls Reflects Automakers' Problems." Associated Press. March 28, 2008
online
* Babson, Steve. "Class, Craft, and Culture: Tool and Die Makers and the Organization of the UAW." ''Michigan Historical Review'' (1988): 33-55
online
** Babson, Steve. ''Building the union: skilled workers and Anglo-Gaelic immigrants in the rise of the UAW'' (Rutgers University Press, 1991) on the Irish tool and die makers who led the UAW at Ford plant * Barnard, John. ''American Vanguard: The United Auto Workers During the Reuther Years, 1935–1970''. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2004. . * Barnard, John. ''Walter Reuther and the rise of the auto workers'' (1983
online
* Bernstein, Barton J. "Walter Reuther and the General Motors Strike of 1945-1946" ''Michigan History'' (1965) 49#3 pp 260-277. * Borden, Timothy G. " 'Toledo is a good town for working people': Richard T. Gosser and the UAW's fight for pensions." ''Michigan Historical Review'' 26.1 (2000): 44-67. * Boyle, Kevin. ''The UAW and the Heyday of American Liberalism, 1945–1968''. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1995.
online
* Bromsen, Amy. "'They all sort of disappeared': The Early Cohort of UAW Women Leaders," ''Michigan Historical Review'' (2011) 37#1 pp 5–39. * Buffa, Dudley W. ''Union power and American democracy: the UAW and the Democratic Party, 1972-83'' (1984
online
* Cutler, Jonathan. "Labor's time: shorter hours, the UAW, and the struggle for American unionism." ''Class: The Anthology'' (2017): 125-139
online
* Fink, Gary M. ed. ''Labor unions'' (Greenwood, 1977) pp. 23–26.
online
* Friedlander, Peter. ''The Emergence of a UAW Local, 1936-1939 : A Study in Class and Culture'' (1976
online
* Gabin, Nancy. " 'They Have Placed a Penalty on Womanhood': The Protest Actions of Women Auto Workers in Detroit-Area UAW Locals, 1945-1947." ''Feminist Studies'' 8.2 (1982): 373-398
online
* Gindin, Sam. ''The Canadian auto workers: The birth and transformation of a union'' (James Lorimer & Company, 1995); a part of UAW until 1985 * Goode, Bill. ''Infighting in the UAW: The 1946 Election and the Ascendancy of Walter Reuther'' (Greenwood, 1994
online
also see
online review
* Halpern, Martin. ''UAW Politics in the Cold War Era'' (SUNY Press, 1988
online
* Jackson, John H. ''Progress the U.A.W. and the Automobile: Industry the Past 70 Years'' (2003), for secondary schools. * Katz, Harry C. "The US automobile collective bargaining system in transition." ''British journal of industrial relations'' 22.2 (1984): 205-217. * Kornhauser, Arthur; Sheppard, Harold L.; and Mayer, Albert J. ''When Labor Votes: A Study of Auto Workers''. (1956) * Lewis-Colman, David M. ''Race against Liberalism: Black Workers and the UAW in Detroit'' (2008
excerpt and text search
* Lichtenstein, Nelson. ''Walter Reuther: The Most Dangerous Man in Detroit'' Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois Press, 1995. scholarly biography
online
* Lichtenstein, Nelson. "Auto Worker Militancy and the Structure of Factory Life, 1937–1955," ''Journal of American History'' 67 (1980): 335–353
in JSTOR
* Lichtenstein, Nelson and Meyer, Stephen, eds. ''On the Line: Essays in the History of Auto Work''. Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois Press, 1988. , * * Meier, August, and Elliott M. Rudwick. ''Black Detroit and the rise of the UAW'' (1979
online
* Mettler, Matthew M. "A Workers' Cold War in the Quad Cities: The Fate of Labor Militancy in the Farm Equipment Industry, 1949–1955." ''Annals of Iowa'' 68.4 (2009
online
UAW successfully raids an expelled Communist union. * Morritt, Brett Theodore. "Systems of Male Privilege: The Industrial Relations Policies of the Ford Motor Company in the 1940s." ''Enterprise & Society'' (2021): 1-28. * Sherk, J. "UAW Workers Actually Cost the Big Three Automakers $70 an Hour." December 8, 2008.
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online
* Silvia, Stephen J. "The United Auto Workers’ Attempts to Unionize Volkswagen Chattanooga." ''ILR Review'' 71.3 (2018): 600-624. * Smith, Mike. " 'Let's Make Detroit a Union Town': The History of Labor and the Working Class in the Motor City." ''Michigan Historical Review'' (2001): 157-173
online
* * Steigerwald, David. "Walter Reuther, the UAW, and the dilemmas of automation," ''Labor History'' (2010) 51#3 pp 429–453. * Sugrue, Thomas J. "“Forget about Your Inalienable Right to Work”: Deindustrialization and Its Discontents at Ford, 1950–1953." ''International Labor and Working-Class History'' 48 (1995): 112-130. * Tillman, Ray M. "Reform Movement in the Teamsters and United Auto Workers." In ''The Transformation of U.S. Unions: Voices, Visions, and Strategies from the Grassroots.'' ed by Michael S. Cummings and Ray Tillman. (1999) . * Weekley, Thomas L. ''United we stand : the unprecedented story of the GM-UAW quality partnership'' (1996
online
* Wells, Donald M. "Origins of Canada's Wagner Model of Industrial Relations: The United Auto Workers in Canada and the Suppression of 'Rank and File' Unionism, 1936-1953." ''Canadian Journal of Sociology/Cahiers canadiens de sociologie'' (1995): 193-225
online
* Williams, Charles. "Americanism and anti-communism: the UAW and repressive liberalism before the red scare," ''Labor History'' (2012) 53#4 pp 495–515 * Williams, Charles. "Reconsidering CIO Political Culture: Briggs Local 212 and the Sources of Militancy in the Early UAW," ''Labor: Studies in Working Class History of the Americas'' (2010) 7#4 pp 17–43; focus on Local 212 president Emil Mazey * Zieger, Robert H. ''The CIO, 1935–1955''.. Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina Press, 1995.


Primary sources

* Christman, Henry M. ed. ''Walter P. Reuther: Selected Papers''. (1961 ) Paperback ed. Kessinger Publishing Company, 2007. * Plug, Warner W., and Leonard Woodcock. ''The UAW in pictures'' (1971) *Reuther, Victor. ''The Brothers Reuther and The Story of the UAW: A Memoir'' (1976)


External links

*

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20031005225524/http://www.reuther.wayne.edu/exhibits/sitdown.html "The Great Flint Sitdown Strike." Walter Reuther Library, Wayne State University
Newly Elected UAW President Bob King on Reversing the Erosion of Workers’ Rights
- video report by ''
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'' (2010) {{Authority control * AFL–CIO International Metalworkers' Federation History of labor relations in the United States Trade unions established in 1935 Congress of Industrial Organizations Vehicle industry trade unions Automotive industry in the United States Organizations based in Detroit 1935 establishments in the United States Walter Reuther