Day two of the 39th UAW Constitutional Convention was marked by spirited discussion on several important issues as elected delegates began shaping the union’s path forward for the next four years.
Elected delegates heard and debated resolutions and amendments, passing votes to commit to a culture of aggressive organizing, build for May Day 2028, and strengthen our political voice. The body voted to raise strike pay to $550 per week, grow the strike fund, and commit $100 million to fund special organizing and bargaining initiatives.
President Shawn Fain gave a wide-ranging State of the Union address, highlighting the major gains the UAW has won since the last convention, noting the tough fights that still lie ahead, and emphasizing the importance of the work delegates will undertake over the next few days.
“This week will set our union’s agenda for the next four years,” Fain told delegates. “And like the founders of our union, rising out of a Great Depression, what we decide today will affect generations to come. It is our obligation to lead in this moment. We have to rise to the occasion. This is our generation’s defining moment.”
IndustriALL General Secretary Atle Høie and SEIU President April Verrett were the day’s distinguished speakers.
Høie spoke about the necessity of workers standing together across borders to take on corporate greed that knows no borders. “International solidarity is the only thing that can beat multi-national companies,” Høie said. “We need a strong U.S. in this fight, but first and foremost, we need a strong UAW. The international trade union movement will stand shoulder to shoulder with you forever.”
Verrett fired up delegates with a passionate speech, calling on the labor movement to act more ambitiously and creatively to organize the workers of the 21st century. “It’s about being bold, creative, and courageous,” Verrett said. “It looks like a labor movement bold enough to think differently, organizing at the scale of the economy itself. The labor movement of the next 90 years cannot be organized the way the labor movement of the last 90 years was.”
The UAW also honored the workers at Volkswagen in Chattanooga, Tennessee, with the union’s Social Justice Award for their courageous decade-long fight to win their union and a historic first contract.
“Today, because these workers stayed in the fight, they are no longer asking to be heard. They are heard,” UAW Region 8 Director Tim Smith said. “Local 42 stands as living proof that if you stay in the fight, and if you stand shoulder to shoulder with your brothers and sisters, and if you refuse to surrender your future, you will win.”
Day three of the convention will convene at 9 am tomorrow morning.
For more information about the UAW’s 39th Constitutional Convention: https://uaw.org/convention/
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