The United Auto Workers, fresh from new contracts with the “Big Three” automakers operating in the U.S., is waging organizing campaigns at more than a dozen other brands.
In what it calls “an unprecedented move,” the union said thousands of workers at the companies are signing up to join on is website and conducting drives among coworkers. It said the nationwide effort covers almost 150,000 workers.
The automakers include Toyota, Hyundai and other manufacturers that have raised workers’ pay since UAW brokered contracts with Ford, General Motors and Stellantis last month that included 25% pay hikes.
UAW said in a press release that, “Many of the non-union automakers use a mix of full-time, temporary and contract employees to divide the workforce and depress wages.” It said that despite the recent pay increases, nonunion autoworkers “lag far behind UAW autoworkers in wages, benefits, and rights on the job.”
The union acknowledged its recent negotiating and organizing efforts are aggressive to maximize “a new era of working-class leverage and workplace organizing.”
