Mercedes employees rally for union support in Alabama on May 5, 2024.
AP Photo/Kim Chandler
The loss in Alabama doesn’t mean the UAW is done winning in the South.
A Volkswagen autoworker waits for the results of a union vote on April 19, 2024, in Chattanooga, Tenn.
AP Photo/George Walker IV
The Mercedes auto workers will vote on union membership in mid-May.
A VIN is a unique string of 17 characters assigned to vehicles.
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VINs can tell a story if you know what to look for.
Volkswagen workers celebrate in Chattanooga, Tenn., after their bid to join the UAW union prevailed.
AP Photo/George Walker IV
Despite making similar efforts for decades, the UAW union had never before managed to organize employees of foreign-based automakers in a Southern state like Tennessee.
Charging bays at the Electrify America indoor electric vehicle charging station in San Francisco.
AP Photo/Eric Risberg
The new rule isn’t a mandate for electric vehicles, but it will sharply increase their market share over the coming decade.
A UAW supporter in 2017 outside a Nissan plant in Canton, Miss., ahead of a vote the union lost.
AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis
Despite intermittent efforts over the past three decades, the UAW union has been unable to organize employees of foreign-based automakers in states such as Alabama and Tennessee.
A Dearborn policeman knocked unconscious was the first casualty of the 1932 Ford Hunger March in Detroit and Dearborn.
Walter P. Reuther Library, Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs, Wayne State University/Detroit News Burckhardt.
On March 7, workers at the Ford Rouge River plant marched for better working conditions, sparking America’s labor movement. Almost a century later, a quiet park honors their memory.
There is such a thing as a win-win deal.
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‘Winning’ in negotiations isn’t always the best approach.
UAW President Shawn Fain, left, clasps hands with President Biden after endorsing his bid for reelection.
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In close races, support from the United Auto Workers and the rest of organized labor could prove decisive.
SAG-AFTRA captain Mary M. Flynn rallies fellow striking actors on a picket line outside Netflix studios in November 2023.
AP Photo/Chris Pizzello
Two labor scholars argue that the balance of power between workers and employers, which has been tilted toward employers for nearly a half-century, is beginning to shift.
Will Tesla’s workers be the next to approve a UAW contract?
AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez
Wooing those workers will be expensive and require a lot of creativity, since many of them are employed in ‘right-to-work’ states.
About 46,000 autoworkers gradually went on strike starting in mid-September.
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Rank-and-file union members employed by the automakers have to ratify the new contracts before they become official.
UAW union members picket in front of a Stellantis distribution center on Sept. 25, 2023, in Carrollton, Texas.
AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez
The companies are making more generous offers, and the union is commanding support from the general public and the president of the United States.
UAW members and leaders march in Detroit on Sept. 15, 2023 – the first day of the union’s strike.
AP Photo/Paul Sancya
Building an auto industry for the future that serves the needs of workers, companies and consumers alike will require innovative partnerships between the union and management.
United Auto Workers members rally after marching in the Detroit Labor Day Parade on Sept. 4, 2023.
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A work stoppage hitting the three largest American automakers at the same time is unprecedented.
Striking United Auto Workers picket at Ford’s Michigan Assembly Plant in Wayne, Mich., shortly after midnight Friday, Sept. 15, 2023.
AP Photo/Paul Sancya
When unions amass large sums of money to parcel out to workers, it can give them more leverage in negotiations with employers.
UAW President Walter Reuther, center, shakes hands with a Ford executive after agreeing on a three-year contract in 1967.
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Reuther was both ambitious and pragmatic, scoring many victories for autoworkers.
UAW President Shawn Fain speaks with General Motors workers on July 12, 2023, in Detroit.
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A strike would shake up the auto industry, even though both the union’s ranks and the share of the US automotive market controlled by GM, Ford and Stellantis have been shrinking for decades.
GM autoworkers went on strike on Sept. 15.
AP Photo/Mark Humphrey
The odds are stacked against the striking workers at General Motors. A sociologist who’s studied the decline of the US auto industry explains why.
The 5,000-strong pro-union march in March suggested labor support in Canton is growing.
AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis
Although workers at a Nissan auto plant in Mississippi rejected a proposal to join the United Auto Workers Union, organized labor has reason to be optimistic about its future.