During the historic six-week Stand-Up Strike last autumn, United Auto Workers bravely battled corporate greed at Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis. Their tenacity and dedication allowed us to earn record contracts with the Big Three automakers.
Finally, after decades of lagging behind, UAW autoworkers are making progress.
We came to the negotiating table with a long list of lofty requests. We scheduled our contracts to expire at midnight on April 30, 2028. This specific one may not have received as much attention as the restoration of cost-of-living increases or the reopening of the Stellantis assembly facility in Belvidere, Illinois, but it could prove to be transformative nonetheless.
We are ready to launch our attack on May Day 2028, which is quite significant for a number of reasons.
The first is that we must recover our nation’s legacy of militant trade unions that brought together workers of all racial, gender, and national backgrounds in order to transform the economy so that it benefits everyone, not just the wealthy.
May Day originated on the streets of Chicago in 1886 when labourers were organising and battling for an eight-hour workweek. This is where the holiday got its start in the United States. Employers brutally resisted this demand, using the police and ferocious mercenaries to put down union-led mass protests. During a struggle between labourers and police on May 4, 1886, a bomb went off in Chicago’s Haymarket Square, killing many police officers and wounding others.
Seven labour leaders were given the death penalty as a result of the fake trial.
A global holiday honouring workers’ struggles to recover their time and the worth of their labour, May 1st was established in honour of the Haymarket Martyrs. This movement became the global cause of the working class.
Around 138 years later, May Day is now observed as a national holiday almost worldwide, with the exception of its birthplace. These countries include Argentina, South Africa, Sweden, and Hong Kong.
That does not occur by accident. All efforts have been made by the billionaire class and their political cronies to obscure the actual history of the working class in our nation.
The political cronies of the billionaire class have made every effort to obscure the actual history of the working class in our nation.
They want us to think that generous benefits, respectable pay, and safer working conditions were provided by corporate CEOs out of pure kindness. That equality and justice for women, LGBT communities, immigrants, and people of colour were favours generously delegated from above.
However, we are aware of reality. All legislative victories, labour union formations, labour contracts, and workplace advancements have been made possible by the unwavering sacrifice of the working class.
But meaningless symbolism will not allow us to properly regain May Day’s significance and force. It needs to be done by doing something.
We wanted to make sure that our contracts ended on April 30, 2028, at midnight—not just as a gesture of goodwill, but also as a call to action. In an effort for the labour movement as a whole to aim towards constructing the power required to transform the world, we have invited other unions to join us in moving their contract expiration dates to May Day 2028.
Because we are aware that our collective power is much greater than our individual strength, we create unions at work. Employees in one workplace are representative of workers in all workplaces.
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Unions need to start thinking more broadly if working people are to really win on a large scale. This includes winning healthcare as a human right, pensions so everyone can retire with dignity, an improved standard of living, and more time off the clock to spend with friends and family.
I’ll illustrate with an example.
Because we are aware that our combined power is significantly greater than our individual power, we create unions at work. Employees in any job can use what is true for them there.
I got the chance to speak with Teamsters General President Sean O’Brien at their Washington, D.C. headquarters last summer in the run-up to the Big Three’s contract expiration. He promised, throughout our talk, that no Teamsters’ trucks would supply parts to the Big Three facilities that were affected.
The UAW autoworkers’ immense power to withhold our labour during the Stand-Up Strike was demonstrated. However, we were even more powerful because the Teamsters joined us in our campaign and refused to provide components to the Big Three facilities. For the Detroit automakers, it was another headache. It increased the pressure on the Big Three to reach a settlement.
Imagine this kind of worker unity on a far larger scale.
Additionally, since corporate greed knows no boundaries, our unity also shouldn’t. We have personally witnessed how employers discriminate against employees as members of the UAW. Employees in Michigan are matched against those in Alabama; Americans are matched against those in Mexico; and North Americans are matched against those in South America.