The 1,000 delegates who assembled in Detroit voted to increase the money designated for new organizing and to maintain dues at 2.5 hours per month in order to bulk up the strike fund. The union is looking ahead to a projected rematch with the Big 3 on May Day 2028, when contracts covering 150,000 auto workers expire. The UAW has called on other unions to align their fights then, too, to build more leverage on employers and politicians and win big demands.

“Keep in mind how far we’ve come in the last four years,” Fain said in his speech at the convention, which is held quadrennially. “We’ve gone from defense to offense. We’ve once again become a leading force in the labor movement.”

A NEW DIRECTION

Local union leaders who had participated in and led fights with management, aided by the International union, were enthusiastic proponents of the union’s new way: hard-hitting contract campaigns with high member involvement; ambitious, even life-changing contract goals; and strikes when necessary.

Workers at the parts supplier American Axle in Three Rivers, Michigan, were just coming off a two-week strike that brought home their top demand of $30 an hour by 2030, while also winning more paid days off and defeating health care concessions. The 1,000 workers make axles for General Motors’ highly profitable heavy-duty trucks. “We saw the wins from [the new strategy] working at GM,” bargaining committeeman Jay Korf said. “We were like, we don’t need to be that far behind.”

Likewise at Daimler Truck, which has facilities in North Carolina, Georgia, and Tennessee, workers won a record pact that ended wage tiers two hours before their contract expired in April 2024. Their strong contract campaign convinced management that workers would indeed walk out, just six months after the Stand Up Strike (see box).

Volkswagen workers from Tennessee, fresh off winning a first contract in February, told Labor Notes how they’d won their union two years ago. They had a “tight network—and then the Stand Up Strike pushed us over the top,” said bargaining committee member Chris Brown.

VW workers were riveted by the UAW’s gains at the Big 3, watching Fain’s weekly Facebook Live updates. To stave off a yes vote , the company gave them an immediate raise. “People said, ‘We got an 11 percent raise and we didn’t do nothing,’” said bargaining committee member John Rout. "What if we actually did something?” That something was to vote in the UAW, which won them another 20 percent raise (and much more).

At Electric Boat in Connecticut last year, the 2,400-member Local 571 took a strike vote for the first time in over 40 years. When management wouldn’t budge on members’ top demands, including retirement security, the union changed its approach, with help from the International. Leaders brought members to the negotiating table, held Q&As after work with the bargaining team and strike prep committee, built a network of over 100 strike captains, and held red-shirt rallies where company executives could see them. When the local asked members to sign up for picket duty shifts, 1,200 signed up in the first hour, with the line snaking through the hotel parking lot. They won a 30 percent pay increase, 9 percent in the first year.

Delegate JoAnna McClenathan, a member of UAW Member Action, said she and many of her co-workers hadn’t bothered to vote in the last UAW elections. “We didn’t go to meetings, we didn’t vote on things—we went to the Christmas party and the picnic,” she said. “This new approach revitalized our union. We wouldn’t have gotten there without the new direction of the UAW.”

BIGGER STRIKE FUND

Delegates voted, with around two-thirds support, to keep financing the union’s strike fund by maintaining member dues at their current level.

Without that vote, dues would have slipped back to a lower level—two hours’ pay per month—once the strike fund grew above $850 million, a level it is nearing. Some delegates were hoping to be able to report a dues cut to their members, and spoke against the higher cap, arguing the union was “moving the goal posts.” (Press were barred from the convention floor during business, so this info and the vote total comes from delegates inside.)

Now, the strike fund will grow to $1.3 billion before dues are scheduled to be reduced. “We want the strike fund funded enough to be able to continue any time we need to strike,” said James Waggoner of Local 3520 at Daimler Truck (see box).

Strike pay will be increased to $550 a week, up from $500.

Crucially, the resolution also allows the union to devote $100 million from the strike fund between conventions to organizing new members and building strong contract campaigns. Previously that number was $60 million.

“What’s at stake is whether we want to grow and expand the labor movement or look inward,” said Ahmed Alliboy, financial secretary of Local 4811, which represents 60,000 workers at the University of California. His local is part of Region 6, which has organized tens of thousands of new members at universities across the West Coast over the past few years. Region 6 delegates overwhelmingly supported the strike fund resolution.

The expanded money for organizing will be critical for the union’s efforts to expand on the April 2024 victory at Volkswagen in Tennessee and organize more Southern assembly plants. The union has active campaigns at Mercedes and Hyundai in Alabama as well as Toyota plants in Kentucky and Alabama. At the Mercedes plant in Tuscaloosa, the UAW lost an election in May 2024, but alleged the company violated the law during its anti-union campaign; the National Labor Relations Board is still conducting hearings.

Volkswagen workers pledged to be part of the effort to organize the rest of the South. “No more are the companies going to be allowed to pit us against each other,” said Steve Cochran, president of Local 42, as he stood with a dozen other Volkswagen workers in front of the convention on Wednesday. “We’re dedicated to going all over the South and reaching down and finding those workers who don’t have the respect we get in our plant and giving them a hand up.”

The expanded strike fund was also seen as important in preparing for May Day 2028 at the Big 3 and beyond. The union committed toward building toward action around that date “as a central strategic objective—aligning our organizing, bargaining, research, communications, and political work toward a coordinated moment of maximum power.”

ONE MEMBER ONE VOTE

Fain was the first president elected under one member, one vote, which replaced the previous system where convention delegates chose the union’s top leaders every four years. Under that system, the self-described Administration Caucus had ruled for 70 years, running the union as a one-party state in which the caucus tightly controlled appointments and punished dissent. Fain’s upstart reform slate, Members United, ran in 2022-23 on a platform of “No Corruption, No Concessions, No Tiers.”

Members will again choose leaders in direct elections later this year: president, secretary-treasurer, three vice presidents, and nine regional directors, who combined make up the International Executive Board (IEB).

Ballots will be mailed on August 21 and counted October 6. Candidate forums are scheduled for July and August. Slates, which consist of two or more candidates, must be declared by July 10.

Fain is running with the United UAW slate, which includes a couple of leaders who’ve been on the reform agenda from the beginning, as well as many incumbent regional directors and top officers who opposed him in the last election. Some have been won over by the success of the Stand Up Strike and other fights; others, perhaps, see which way the wind is blowing.

OPPOSITION

Running against Fain’s slate are three IEB members who were originally elected alongside him: Secretary-Treasurer Margaret Mock and Vice Presidents Mike Booth and Rich Boyer. Not far into the new officers’ terms, they fell out.

Fain felt that Mock was managing the union’s finances in a way that undermined the union’s new approach. She refused to sign off on expenditures other officers saw as necessary, such as buying new picket signs for the Stand Up Strike or billboards for the union drive at Volkswagen. Boyer, meanwhile, was accused of failing to enforce the contract at Stellantis and of responsibility for a new attendance program that members hated.

At Fain’s urging, the IEB voted to relieve Mock and Boyer, who both come out of a Stellantis truck plant in Warren, Michigan, of key responsibilities.

Later, the federal monitor overseeing the union called the board’s actions “retaliation.” The two were returned to all their posts earlier this year, and Fain’s chief of staff was pushed to resign.

Mock is running for re-election as the union’s top financial officer, while Boyer is challenging Fain for the presidency, along with a handful of lesser-known candidates. Brian Keller, a Stellantis worker from Local 1248, is running again. Keller won 14 percent of the vote in the last election, and led unsuccessful efforts to recall Fain last year. The other three candidates are Tricia Geiger of Local 651, Greg Mooney of Local 2147, and Will Lehman of Local 677.

Four regional directors on Fain’s slate are running unopposed: Mark DePaoli in Region 1A, Mike Miller in Region 6, Tim Smith in Region 8, and Brandon Mancilla in Region 9A. There will be contested elections for the rest of the posts.

As of now, United UAW is the only group running as a slate.

DIRECT ELECTIONS NOT ENSHRINED

The reform network UAW Member Action (UMA) held its annual membership meeting the night before the convention. (The group was formed after an earlier caucus that boosted Fain to power suffered internal disagreements and dissolved.) The group championed the package of strike fund reforms that passed on the convention’s first day, although it was pushing for $625 a week instead of the $550 that passed.

UMA lost on another big priority, though: protecting the members’ right to vote on top officers. An amendment submitted by more than 20 locals and International officers would have, in effect, enshrined one member, one vote in the constitution. Under the amendment, convention delegates would not have been able to get rid of direct elections and return to the election-by-delegates system; only a membership referendum could do so.

On the convention’s last day, a member objected and the union’s general counsel ruled the amendment unconstitutional, in a move some feared was orchestrated by old guard forces.

Cheryl McGee, a first-time delegate from the Allison Transmission plant in Indianapolis, was disappointed. “As a delegate I shouldn’t take on the responsibility of voting for who my members want,” she said. “That’s not what they elected me to do—to take their right to vote away.”

The election for top officers this year will be held via the one-member, one-vote system. But the battle to keep it that way may have to be fought again at the next convention in June 2030.

The convention voted up a resolution, backed by Member Action, to extend retired member status to members who retire with 30 years' employment in a UAW shop or who retire at age 55 or older with at least 10 years in a UAW-represented workplace. Previously, the constitution limited retired member status to those who retired with a pension—and many workers, including those hired at the Big 3 since 2007, now get 401(k)s rather than pensions.

DISCONTENT

Fain is the favorite to win re-election, but discontent certainly exists. Trump’s attacks on electric vehicles have undermined billions in investments made by auto companies, leading to long layoffs at some plants. At Stellantis, many workers are up in arms over the company’s attendance policy and got no profit-sharing checks last year, while the promised investments the UAW won during the Stand Up Strike, such as the reopening of the Belvidere, Illinois, assembly plant, have yet to materialize. And general cynicism, born of decades of experience with concessions, plant closings, and the union’s approach of “jointness” with the bosses, is still common.

Some delegates were frustrated that most of the resolutions and amendments on the convention agenda had been initiated by International officers rather than taken from the hundreds submitted by locals. They responded by using the process for “pulling a resolution out of committee” and got enough delegate support to do so, on matters large and small, at least a half dozen times.

In previous rubber-stamp conventions, only a handful of opposition delegates would raise their hands to pull out an unsanctioned resolution. “Last convention [in 2022] was the first time in decades anything of substance was pulled out for debate,” said veteran reformer Scott Houldieson, a trustee of Local 551 at the Chicago Ford Assembly Plant and a leader with Member Action. “This time even more have been pulled out. More delegates are willing to speak up. The fear of reprisal for speaking up has melted away.”

One of the pulled-out resolutions committed the UAW to divesting from bonds issued by the state of Israel. For decades, the UAW was a steadfast supporter of Israel through such bonds. Now, the union indirectly holds roughly $400,000 worth of Israel bonds. The resolution was put forward by the Unite All Workers for Democracy caucus, whose supporters are concentrated among graduate students and legal services workers in Region 9A. The proposal received support beyond the caucus, passing 321 to 287 on the convention’s last day.

NEW POLITICS

The convention also gave a glimpse of the union’s new approach to electoral politics. Since Fain took office, the UAW has been willing to back anti-establishment politicians such as Senate candidates Graham Platner in Maine and Dan Osborn in Nebraska and House candidate Claire Valdez in New York City.

“Just how we’ve changed how we bargain and how we organize, we’re changing how we do politics,” Fain told the convention. “We’re going to invest in candidates that have our backs, that share our ideals and principles. We’ve got enough millionaires and billionaires and businesspeople in Congress that are bought and paid for—we need working-class people in the halls of Congress.”

Abdul El-Sayed, a Bernie Sanders-type candidate who the UAW is backing in the Democratic primary for Senate from Michigan, addressed the convention on its closing day. El-Sayed told delegates he’s running to “get money out of politics, put money in your pockets, and win Medicare for All.”

Ballots in the UAW election will go out two months from now. Then it’ll be up to members to decide whether they want to keep the union moving in the fighting direction Fain has been taking it.

The answer is union reform caucuses. A reform caucus is simply a group of union members who are organizing together to improve their union and build its power to fight the boss more effectively.

Labor Notes has assembled a new guide on how (and when) to build a reform caucus, and how to navigate the challenges of developing one.

NOT EVERYONE

Not everyone should start a reform caucus, nor is every situation ripe for one. If you have ideas for making your union better, the first step is to talk with your fellow members about what improvements can be made, and then approach union leaders together in a calm, strategic way, or try to get involved through official union structures. But if these efforts are not successful, then it may be time to lay the groundwork for a caucus.

Eric Marcuz is a Safeway grocery store worker in northern California and a member of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 8. Frustrated with out-of-touch leaders and a lack of transparency in the local, he has become a leader in the reform caucus Essential Workers for Democracy, which is fighting for better contracts as well as a better UFCW.

Trying official channels can be important, Marcuz said, because “you might be surprised. Union staff might encourage you and help you. An antagonistic approach will get you an antagonistic response.”

But when Marcuz and his co-workers tried going to union leaders, “all of us had the same experience—our concerns weren’t being heard,” he said. “We had gotten a petition together to make our union meetings accessible remotely” because the local is spread out. Local 8’s 30,000 members span 450 miles, from Bakersfield at the southern end of the Central Valley to Redding, far north of Sacramento. “They said they weren’t going to change something they had done the same way for 30 years.”

Leaders in Local 8 have also been reluctant to mobilize the membership, refusing to address issues like wage theft through collective action. When members tried to become more active, Marcuz said, they were repeatedly told “that’s not how it works in our union.”

FOCUS ON YOUR WORKSITE

Any would-be reformer needs a group of like-minded fellow members who can get on the same page about a vision and next steps. But how to find these people? Marcuz’s advice is to “hyperfocus on your worksite.” Certain moments, like an upcoming contract, can be particularly good times to reach out to co-workers.

“If you don’t have an opportunity like that, though,” Marcuz said, “you can find out about other issues that impact your co-workers, and have conversations where you recognize you feel the same way about the issues. Maybe it’s a manager that’s mistreating an employee, or a pay issue that’s not being resolved. Use that as a reason to organize.”

The most important lesson EW4D reformers are learning, he said, is that “what’s really important for us as union members is that we build that power ourselves, and that we build it up from the bottom up.” You can’t just complain that the union isn’t solving your problems.

His parting advice: “I would like to encourage reform activists to join a reform organization,” Marcuz said. “You need a place to go to be reassured that your work is important. Being able to plug into a solidarity network is essential. There are workers all across the country who are going through the same thing.”

[Download the new Labor Notes guide, “How to Build a Reform Caucus.”]

For years their pay topped out at $22 an hour, max. Now $22 becomes a new hire’s starting pay, under the tentative agreement workers at American Axle reached on Wednesday, after 10 days on strike.

Their slogan and demand was “$30 by ‘30.” By 2030 all 1,000 workers in the plant will be making $30 an hour.

During the financial crisis in 2008, many longtime American Axle members saw their pay slashed in half, from $29 to $14.50. The strike was an attempt to recoup some of what they lost.

Workers are still picketing, though, until the ratification vote on Sunday.

On the line in Three Rivers, Michigan, today, workers were quick to correct me—they haven’t settled yet. They’re waiting to see the details in writing. “I’m glad they’re saying that,” said UAW Local 2093 President Pete Adams, at the union hall.

LEVERAGE

When the strike began, American Axle’s main customer, General Motors, had only a two-week supply of the axles it needs to build its hugely profitable heavy duty trucks. That supply was rapidly drained as GM was running its Flint truck plant on a six-day schedule.

Without axles, GM couldn’t finish its trucks. Workers knew how essential their labor was to the company’s moneymakers. When I asked workers about their “leverage,” they all said their leverage was “the members.”

Members voted by 98 percent to authorize a strike; there have been zero scabs. Tom Baker, who’s worked at the plant for 32 years, said the company was offering only 50 cents an hour each year, and wanted to make workers pay a dollar more per hour for health insurance. “They made it easy to go on strike,” he said.

Baker is one of the “legacy workers” who hired in before 2008 and now make up less than 10 percent of the workforce. In that financial crisis year he saw management cut workers’ pay literally in half, from $29 to $14.50.

Under the new tentative agreement, the legacy workers will immediately jump from $22 to $30. Others will move to $30 in four steps over four years. Workers also won more paid days off and beat back health care concessions.

Mark Hicks, 67, could have retired already but said he stayed around for this contract fight to “take a bite of their kneecap.”

“It’s going to be a different place to work,” said Adams. “There’s going to be way less turnover. [CEO David] Dauch doesn’t realize what a favor we did them. No one wanted to work here for $18 an hour.”

“At first, I didn’t want my daughter working here,“ said Hicks, “but now I’m going to tell her to take a look at it.” The plant is a little less than half women.

MAIN VEIN

Three Rivers turns raw steel into axles, in 800,000 square feet, on three shifts. Gina Atherton, who cuts gears, calls it American Axle’s “main vein.” She talks about the local’s contract campaign, with meetings, leafleting, stickers, pins, and T-shirts. Politicians, in this election year, were falling over themselves to show support.

Most important was guidance from the international union. “I’ve never seen that kind of support,“ said Adams, who’s been president for 10 years. “[UAW President] Shawn Fain has started doing things completely different, and it’s working.” Fain spoke at the local’s contract campaign kickoff rally.

Adams praised the international’s new bargaining strategies department and mentioned videos of members telling their stories that were shown in the community. A poster in the union hall shows a long list of supportive local businesses.

Adams says the contract sets a record for pay for the UAW’s Independents, Parts and Suppliers Department, where workers have long lagged behind fellow members at the Big Three automakers.

By the time Three Rivers workers vote on Sunday, GM’s two-week supply of axles should be just about out.

“Our districts are different, but our stories are the same,” said Gina Gray, a Los Angeles high school English teacher who served on her union’s extended bargaining committee. “It’s exciting to see how up and down the state, locals are really standing up. Educators everywhere are saying: Enough is enough. Invest in public education the way it deserves to be.”

The We Can’t Wait Campaign started with 11 California Teachers Association locals, and expanded to 32. They ratified a shared platform of fighting for smaller class sizes, more school resources, and competitive compensation. They also committed to organize and escalate on a common timeline, build up member power at their schools, and work with families, students, the community, and other unions.

In the course of the campaign, six locals struck—San Francisco, Richmond, Natomas, Twin Rivers, Dublin, and Little Lake. Others, including Oakland and Los Angeles, took strike votes but settled before walking out.

RECORD-SETTING STRIKES

The campaign started with the locals doing coordinated actions, but it became clear as bargaining reached full swing that their negotiations were moving at different paces, said Denisha Jordan, a Los Angeles teacher who is organizing for the campaign statewide.

Richmond was the first to strike, going out for four days in December. Next was San Francisco for four days in February.

In March, Notomas and Twin Rivers, two locals in Sacramento, went out just days apart. At 12 days, Twin Rivers set a record for the longest teachers strike in Sacramento County history. Dublin, near the Bay Area, also struck in March for four days.

Little Lake, outside Los Angeles, went out for 10, starting on April 16, which was also the United Teachers Los Angeles strike deadline.

San Francisco hadn’t been on strike in nearly 50 years; Richmond, Notomas, Twin Rivers, Dublin, and Little Lake never had.

Brittoni Ward, the president of Twin Rivers United Educators, said they suspected their strike would be longer than others’ when they walked out demanding fully paid family health care, better wages, and reduced class sizes and caseloads. But they didn’t anticipate setting a record.

At one point during the strike, management refused to bargain over anything unless the union agreed to the district’s health care proposal, Ward said. The district also signaled its willingness to wait the strikers out, soliciting scabs all the way up to spring break.

But the strikers were united.

“This district thought they were going to break us, and all they did was empower us,” Ward said. “On the eleventh day, we had the highest [picket line] attendance... Our members knew the financial strain that they were taking, they knew the risks, but they knew this is the only way we were going to change the direction of this district.”

The strike didn’t end until California Assemblywoman Maggy Krell stepped in to mediate. The 1,500-member union won fully paid health care, retroactive to July 2025.

They also won wage increases of 4 percent for 2026 and 3 percent for 2027, and put speech language pathologists on a new salary schedule. But they weren’t able to achieve their demands on caseloads and class sizes, instead getting an agreement to form a committee to discuss those issues.

GAME-CHANGING SOLIDARITY

As educators across California were gearing up to fight, district administrations across the state united around their own common message—that the money simply wasn’t there. But when educators walked off the job, the districts found the funds.

In Richmond, the union was told repeatedly that the district didn’t have the money. But United Teachers of Richmond President Francisco Ortiz said that their school district, West Contra Costa Unified, was subject to the same funding formula as other school districts that were managing to avoid vacancy crises.

Richmond was spending a quarter of its budget on outside contracts, Ortiz argued, and it needed to reprioritize the workers who show up for students in the classroom.

Getting ahead of the district’s austerity narratives emboldened other school unions. Teamsters Local 856 represents custodians and paraprofessionals in the Richmond schools. In December they voted down a tentative agreement recommended by their bargaining committee, opting to strike with the educators instead.

“That was the game changer,” Ortiz said, “when we were able to work alongside our Teamster siblings.”

The educators won 8 percent raises over two years, fully paid family health care by June 2027, and more support for international teachers, a significant part of their workforce. Teamsters Local 856 won a 3 percent raise, retroactive to last July, and a 4 percent raise for 2026—much improved from the offer they had voted down.

EXPANDING COALITIONS

In Los Angeles there was no question the money was there—the district was sitting on $5 billion in reserves. “Spend today’s dollars on today’s kids” was the educators’ refrain, Jordan said.

L.A. educators felt that their district was spending too much on tech contracts and subcontracting—$10 billion on private contracts from 2022-2025. And the district wasted the better part of the year not engaging seriously with their proposals, making the educators feel they had to strike.

The contrast between the district’s austerity narrative and the flashy social-media lifestyle of Superintendent Albert Carvalho generated common disgust in the schools and with parents, said Maya Suzuki Daniels, a teacher on the expanded bargaining committee. Carvalho is currently on paid leave after the FBI raided his house in February.

It was like the district was divided into two social classes, Suzuki Daniels said: teachers and support staff versus the “Beaudry class,” a reference to LAUSD’s luxury office downtown, where administrators make two or three times the salaries in the schools.

SEIU Local 99, with 30,000 members in the district, was prepared to walk out the same day as United Teachers Los Angeles. So were the principals and administrators, who unionized with Teamsters Local 2010 in 2024. All the unions settled before the strike deadline.

The educators won a raise in the starting salary to $77,000, an average increase of nearly 14 percent, paid parental leave—a first for the union—and improvements to planning time for special education.

UTLA members had been building a strong relationship with their SEIU co-workers for years, and went on a sympathy strike with them in 2023. Having principals and administration prepared to strike, on the other hand, was something new.

“It’s different, but we’re coming to see why we need to stand together,” Gray said. “At my school site, it’s not a hierarchy. When we’re preparing for this action, we’re standing together as ‘union strong.’”

In San Francisco, too, unionized principals and administrators voted to strike with educators and joined them on picket lines. Jordan was in San Francisco and spoke with administrators out on the line. It was both “really cool” and “a little weird” she said, but the members embraced it.

TAX THE RICH NEXT

Now that the locals in the We Can’t Wait Campaign have won stronger contracts, they’re setting their sights on the larger funding issues in the state, including fighting in the legislature to tax billionaires. The campaign’s next phase also looks to shorten the three year budget cycle for school districts. The long cycle allows districts to grossly overestimate how much they’ll spend in future years and avoid putting those dollars into classrooms now, Jordan said.

Ortiz said that one of the biggest strike wins in Richmond was increased organizing capacity and new relationships with other unions and the community. The statewide campaign helped bring attention to the fight for better-funded public education, and also restored members’ hope and solidarity, he said..

“We can talk about it at rep council, we can talk about it at e-board meetings, but it’s still abstract,” he said. “But when they saw everyone coming together, it made it real.”

Twin Rivers United Educators formed such strong relationships, Ward said, that at some schools they’re still holding “morning huddles” like they did during the strike.

“This is a district that has disinvested in our students and educators over the years, and that’s not going to happen anymore,” Ward said. “We made a big change in that.”

When transit systems make cuts, service quality declines. As public transit gets dirtier, more dangerous, and less reliable, the public responds by using it less. This “death spiral” is a dream scenario for privatizers, who employ the “four D’s”: Defund, Degrade, Demonize, and Dismantle. Transit workers and unions become the face of the failing system, while the wealthy actors who are actually responsible remain invisible.

To fight back, transit unions need to make common cause with the public by waging state and local campaigns for increased funding. The money is there. Take it from Massachusetts: Since 2022, the state’s “Fair Share” tax on millionaires has raised $867 million for the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority.

CUTS HIT DEEP

In 2023, the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority was staring at a fiscal cliff. The transit advocates who launched the Save RIPTA Coalition knew they needed to engage the Transit (ATU) Local 618 bus operators, mechanics, and clerical staff who make the system run. “They needed to be on board from day one,” said Dylan Giles of the Providence Streets Coalition.

In 2024, the coalition won a short-term fix: The legislature okayed a one-time investment of $15 million that funded an 18 percent raise for bus operators, temporarily stemming a worker exodus. But the 2025 budget proposed the largest service reductions in RIPTA history.

Local 618 and its allies sprang into action. Drivers passed out flyers at bus stations, talked to passengers about the proposed route cuts, and asked them to attend community hearings. “I try to explain to them why the cuts are happening and point them towards pressuring their local legislators,” said driver Thomas Roderick. Many riders became transit advocates because of these conversations.

Workers and riders bused together to the state capital to lobby. The local hosted a Save RIPTA Coalition retreat.

Unfortunately, the cuts went through. But the coalition stayed active. “They fight for our members just like we do,” said Local 618 President Walter Melillo.

But the cuts have been brutal. A coalition report showed that 45 of 63 bus routes saw significant service reductions and ridership declines. Eighty-eight percent of union members said the cuts had made it harder for them to eat and take bathroom breaks; 52 percent were thinking about retiring.

As buses run later and are more crowded, rider-driver conflict has increased. “It’s affecting peoples’ life at school and on the job,” said Melillo.

There will be no more bus service to Rhode Island’s popular beaches on Sundays. And once you lose a bus route, says 40-year RIPTA driver Joe Cole, it’s hard to get it back.

The coalition is now pushing the legislature to guarantee sustainable funding, including $5 million to undo the latest cuts, reallocation of a 7 percent rideshare tax for public transit, and increasing RIPTA’s share of highway maintenance funds.

GOING ON OFFENSE

Illinois transit unions had a huge win last December, when Governor JB Pritzker signed a bill providing $1.5 billion in new funding for the transit agencies serving Chicago and its suburbs. This victory was secured by the Labor Alliance for Public Transportation which includes ATU, the Machinists, Teamsters, and other unions.

This win by blue-collar unions in Illinois is a rarity: It calls for transit infrastructure expansion, not just survival. It includes plans for expanding rail lines, establishing a transit ambassador program (with trained staff on board to assist customers), and new safety measures. The bill also creates a new Northern Illinois Transit Authority, empowered to institute a universal fare system and coordinate transit schedules.

The state’s transportation agencies had been about to suffer a $230 million shortfall in 2026. That gap would have grown to $937 million in 2028, forcing 40 percent service cuts.

The Alliance’s “United We Move” campaign started in 2023. “We approached this like an organizing campaign,” said Brian Shanahan, railroad coordinator for the Machinists. It took a lot of discussion in central labor councils and local union halls to get transit unions ready for coordinated lobbying.

Now the coalition is fighting against replacing paratransit drivers with Waymo driverless vehicles.

A FIGHT FOR EVERYONE

Last year in Dallas, ATU Local 1338 teamed up with a community coalition, the Dallas Area Transit Alliance, to halt proposed funding cuts. Members spoke out at agency board meetings and public hearings.

“I love when DATA members show up,” said Local 1338 Recording Secretary Sabrina Creque. “They mobilize a diverse set of people,” including college and high school students. “We want to show that we’re in this fight for everyone, not just union members.”

Louisville’s transit authority hasn’t changed its funding model since 1974. By 2024 the agency had a $30 million budget shortfall and called for massive service reductions. ATU Local 1447 partnered with the Louisville Democratic Socialists of America for a “Get On The Bus” campaign, asking the metro council to increase the occupation tax that funds transit by 0.2 percent.

Louisville DSA members met with ATU researchers to plan the campaign. ATU members phone-banked and wrote postcards to council members, and DSA canvassed in targeted districts. “We’re trying to change the way people think of transit, so they realize how much we all benefit from it,” said Local 1447 President Lillian Brents.

Pittsburghers for Public Transit formed a partnership with ATU Local 85 and started a fellowship program where recent retirees work part-time organizing with riders and union members to advocate for transit funding. This program is expanding to Lancaster and the Lehigh Valley.

Transit for All PA mobilized last spring when Senate Republicans refused to pass a budget to fund public transit. The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transit Authority (SEPTA), covering Philadelphia and surrounding suburbs, released a doomsday budget canceling 50 bus lines and five regional rail lines. Smaller agencies in cities like Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, and Lancaster also faced devastating cuts.

Transit locals joined rallies, phone banks, and canvassing efforts across the state. Governor Josh Shapiro was forced to use emergency funds for SEPTA. But the coalition will be in for another fight next budget season.

In Canada, ATU locals were a part of the Keep Transit Moving Coalition that helped secure emergency funding during the pandemic. Local 113 in Toronto has stayed active in the TTCriders coalition. It is currently working to defeat Bill 98, Ontario premier Doug Ford’s attempt to take over the Toronto Transit Commission and set its fares.

TRANSIT ON THE BALLOT

In California, many transit agencies are in a terminal crisis that could make the state’s notoriously bad traffic even worse. Transit advocates are pushing ballot initiatives to raise taxes for the desperately needed funding.

In the Bay Area, a broad labor-community coalition lobbied for SB 63, to allow a ballot measure that could bring in almost $1 billion a year. The coalition fought for a more progressive tax on the largest businesses, but corporate lobbying turned it into a sales tax. Still, the coalition is rallying to pass the measure in November.

If it fails, Bay Area Rapid Transit riders would face fewer trains and higher fares. Service would end at 9 p.m. instead of midnight, and 15 stations would close. AC Transit bus service would be cut to half of pre-pandemic levels. Transit workers would lose jobs.

The ballot measure, Connect Bay Area, requires 186,000 signatures to get on the ballot, and fortunately the Connect Bay Area coalition has well exceeded that number. BART workers in ATU Local 1555 have gathered signatures at May Day and No Kings marches. SEIU Local 1021 (BART maintenance staff), and UAW Local 4811 (academic workers who rely on public transit), are active too.

“We’ve been gathering signatures like crazy,” said ATU Local 192 Vice President Nathaniel Arnold, who represents AC Transit workers.

The San Francisco Central Labor Council coordinated door-knocking in the affected areas. The Alameda Labor Council hosted trainings for canvassers.

Now 305,000 signatures are awaiting verification so that voters can decide in November.

WRITING IS ON THE WALL

Sacramento Regional Transit does not have a dedicated funding source. Transit cuts haven’t been proposed there yet, but for ATU, the writing is on the wall. “If they’re gonna take school funding, why wouldn’t they go after public transportation funding?” asks Local 256 President Crystal McGee Lee. So the local is being proactive.

The Safer Sac Streets coalition, formed last fall with support from ATU Local 256, is backing a new transactions and use tax on the sale and use of goods in Sacramento that would generate an extra $75 million per year.

Local 256 has been gathering signatures and passing out flyers on buses. “We try to schedule events at times we know ATU members can come out and support,” said campaign co-chair Sam Rice.

Correction: The section on SB 63 and Connect Bay Area has been updated to clarify the relationship between the bill and the ballot measure, and the current status of the effort.

Solorio Alcalá fue despedido en 2010, meses después de que una campaña sindical salió a la luz—y solo tres días antes de navidad. Dentro de un año, el comité ejecutivo entero había sido despedido, afirmó. Algunos, como él, han seguido luchando por su reinstalación, esperando que la lenta justicia se imponga a su favor.

En junio, la Junta Federal de Conciliación y Arbitraje, que interviene en conflictos laborales, por fin ordenó la reinstalación de Solorio Alcalá. Pero la victoria fue agridulce, dijo, porque anticipaba que su larga espera estaba lejos de terminar: Honda recurrió rápidamente a un amparo.

UN SINDICATO FALSO

En teoría, los trabajadores de Honda ya tenían un sindicato cuando Solorio Alcalá y sus compañeros de trabajo comenzaron a organizarse. Pero en términos reales, no era así.

“El único representante [sindical] que conocíamos era el gerente de recursos humanos,” afirmó Solorio Alcalá.

El sindicato es afiliado a la notoria Confederación de Trabajadores de México, o CTM, que ha construido una reputación por imponer “contratos de protección” pro-patronales que fijan salarios bajos e impiden una representación sindical auténtica. El sindicato aún representa a los trabajadores en la planta hoy.

“Es un modelo de negocio bastante rentable,” afirmó Elías Iván García Ríos, Director del Centro de Reflexión y Acción Laboral (CEREAL), que ha acompañado a los trabajadores de Honda en su lucha.

“Cuando veo la cantidad de contratos colectivos que sigue acumulando la CTM en México, lo que veo es un negocio impresionante", afirmó García Ríos. “Opera como un grupo de protección para la empresa, y se han vendido en varias de ellas.”

Antes de que un sindicato verdadero fuera posibilidad concebible, los trabajadores empezaron a actuar como tal. “Todos nos echabamos la mano,” afirmó Solorio Alcalá: “Se atrasaba alguien, y todos le ayudaban.”

ORGANIZANDO EN EL (SEGUNDO) TRABAJO

En 2008, al aprender que sus cheques de reparto de utilidades serían mucho menores de lo previsto, Solorio Alcalá y sus compañeros de trabajo se reunieron afuera de la oficina de recursos humanos, demandando saber por qué la paga sería reducida cuando la productividad había incrementado. Ganaron aproximadamente 10.000 pesos más de lo esperado, dijo, y vales adicionales de despensa.

Los trabajadores empezaron a generar confianza después de esa lucha, dijo.

¿De dónde vino este sentido de solidaridad? Un factor que seguramente ayudó: dado a los salarios bajos, muchos de sus compañeros de trabajo mantenían un segundo empleo para sobrevivir, afirmó Solorio Alcalá. Muchos, incluyendo a Solorio Alcalá, trabajaban de meseros, y se ayudaban mutuamente a encontrar trabajo.

Los trabajadores habían querido organizar un sindicato independiente en las instalaciones durante muchos años, pero serían despedidos al ser descubiertos, afirmó Solorio Alcalá. Pero cuando estaban en sus trabajos secundarios, podían hablar abiertamente: “Cuando llegábamos, hablábamos con los compañeros, [y así] empezamos a movernos.”

‘UN ACTO DE INTIMIDACION’

Solorio Alcalá, quien seguía organizando a los trabajadores a pesar de haber sido despedido, fue arrestado en marzo de 2012, cuando distribuía materiales sindicales a sus ex compañeros de trabajo. Un guardia de seguridad de Honda afirmó que se había robado una videocámara en forma de pluma, que negó Solorio Alcalá. Fue detenido durante 48 horas. Un año después, se retiraron los cargos, afirmó.

Pero en 2019, Solorio Alcalá fue arrestado nuevamente por ‘declaraciones falsas’ en cuanto a su despido de 2010. Durante el proceso de arbitraje, Honda presentó documentos firmados alegando que Solorio Alcalá no había sido despedido, pero que había renunciado href="https://www.laizquierdadiario.mx/Detencion-122292">voluntariamente. Solorio Alcalá afirmó que no era su firma. Fue detenida en una prision de máxima seguridad.

La cooperativa de trabajadores Tradoc pago su fianza, caracterizando su detención como un acto de intimidación contra el sindicato. A fin de cuentas un perito contratado por la junta de conciliación determino que la firma no era suya, afirmo Solorio Alcalá, y el asunto fue retirado.

JUSTICIA LENTA

Raúl Celestino Pallares Cardoza, secretario de actas del STUHM, figuraba entre los trabajadores despedidos en 2010, pero gano su reinstalación y regreso a su trabajo en noviembre de 2014. Pero Pallares Cardoza se mantuvo aislado de los demás trabajadores y fue despedido nuevamente cuatro días después de su reincorporación.

La empresa “nunca me llevó al área de trabajo, ni cumplió con el alta ante el IMSS y nunca me entregaron el gafete de identificación como trabajador" le comentó aEl Economista en aquel momento.

El fallo señala las severas dificultades enfrentadas por trabajadores que quieren organizar sindicatos reales y democráticos en México. “Cuando un juicio tarda 15 años algo está mal en este país", afirmó Jesús Torres Nuño, ex líder de la cooperativa Tradoc, en una conferencia de prensa sobre la reinstalación de Solorio Alcalá. “Han habido [partidos políticos diferentes en poder, pero], cambios para los trabajadores no los hay”

Las reformas a la legislación laboral de México de 2019 tenían como objetivo fortalecer el derecho de los trabajadores a formar sindicatos independientes. “Me parece que está totalmente en las manos de las empresas, cooptado por la cúpula sindical,” afirmó García Ríos. “La implementación sigue estando lejos de ser ágil, democrática, y estar al alcance de las personas trabajadoras.”

Para respaldar dichas reformas se contó con una nueva herramienta bajo el acuerdo comercial T-MEC, conocido como mecanismo de respuesta rápida, que permite a sindicatos y trabajadores presentar quejas contra empleadores que violan el derecho de los trabajadores en México a organizarse. Si se determina que una instalación está violando los derechos de los trabajadores, se expone a sanciones y hasta podría perder el acceso al mercado estadounidense.

Pero porque la infracción inicial fue antes de que entraran en vigor las reformas, los trabajadores despedidos de Honda no pueden recurrir al mecanismo de respuesta rápida, aunque sus derechos siguen siendo vulnerados. Si Solorio Alcalá puede regresar a la planta y es despedido por sus actividades organizativas, sí podría hacer uso de dicho mecanismo. Así que Honda tiene incentivo considerable para seguir oponiéndose a su reinstalación, por lo cual se apresuró a presentar un amparo, señaló García Ríos.

“Me parece importante que puedan imaginar la vida de esos trabajadores despedidos", afirmó García Ríos. “Vivir tantos años con la angustia, estarse mordiendo las uñas para saber que van a hacer para poder sostener a su familia.” Con el paso del tiempo, dijo, muchos han desarrollado problemas de salud. “Necesitamos modelos mucho más ágiles.”

Durante los últimos 15 años, Solorio Alcalá se ha ganado la vida trabajando como mesero, conductor de Uber, y repartidor de paquetes. Mucho ha cambiado en la instalación de Honda durante ese tiempo. Cuando él trabajaba ahí, la planta ensambla el modelo Accord, y más tarde, el HRV. Pero en 2019, dejaron de ensamblar automoviles; ahora producen motocicletas y autopartes.

Solorio Alcalá teme que, para cuando se le permita regresar a las instalaciones, los métodos de producción de Honda habrán cambiado considerablemente. Pero sospecha que algunas cosas seguirán prácticamente igual a como las dejo. “Dentro de la empresa platico con algunos compañeros. [Las cosas] siguen igual o peor.”

Otra cosa que no ha cambiado es su compromiso: “A veces es tardado, pero cuando se lucha con la verdad, vale la pena seguir luchando, porque es lo correcto.”

Solorio Acalá was fired in 2010, months after a campaign to organize the plant went public—and just three days before Christmas. Within a year the entire organizing committee had been fired, he said. Some, like him, have held out for the slow wheels of justice to turn in their favor.

In June, Mexico’s Federal Board of Conciliation and Arbitration, which mediates labor disputes, finally ordered Solorio Acalá reinstated. But the victory was bittersweet, he said, because he suspected his long wait was far from over: Honda quickly filed an appeal.

A FAKE UNION

On paper, the Honda workers already had a union when Solorio Acalá and his co-workers began organizing. In practice, it was nothing of the sort.

“The only union rep we knew was the manager of human resources,” Solorio Acalá said.

The fake union was an affiliate of the notorious Confederation of Mexican Workers, or CTM, which has built a reputation for imposing pro-boss “protection contracts” that lock in low wages and prevent true union representation. The CTM affiliate still represents workers at the plant today.

“It’s a profitable business model,” said Elías Iván García Ríos, Director of the Center for Reflection and Labor Action (CEREAL), which has supported Honda workers in their fight for reinstatement.

“When I see the amount of collective bargaining agreements that the CTM has accumulated in Mexico, what I see is an incredible business,” García Ríos said. “It operates [to protect] companies, and has sold itself to many of them.”

Long before a true union was on the horizon, workers started acting like one. “We all helped each other out,” Solorio Acalá said: “If someone would fall behind, everyone would help them catch up.”

ORGANIZING ON THE (SECOND) JOB

In 2008, upon learning that their legally mandated profit-sharing checks would be far smaller than expected, Solorio Acalá and his co-workers marched on human resources, demanding to know why the payout was low when productivity had only increased. They won about 10,000 pesos (about $578 U.S.) more than expected, he said, plus nearly $300 in food vouchers.

Workers started to feel more confident after that fight, he said.

Where did this sense of camaraderie come from? One factor that certainly didn’t hurt: “In the 10 years I worked there, the majority of the workers, in addition to working at Honda, had second jobs because the wages were so low,” Solorio Acalá said. Many of them, including Solorio Acalá, worked as waiters, and would help each other land work where they could find it.

People had wanted to organize an independent union at the plant for many years, but would be fired shortly after word would get out, he said. But while working their shared side gigs, they could speak freely: “We’d arrive early, talk with our co-workers. And that’s how things got put in motion.”

‘AN ACT OF INTIMIDATION’

Solorio Acalá, still organizing despite his firing, was arrested in March 2012, while distributing union materials to his former co-workers. A Honda security guard stated that he had stolen a pen-shaped video camera, which Solorio denied. He was detained for 48 hours. A year later, the charges were dropped.

But in 2019, Solorio Acalá was arrested again for “false statements” pertaining to his 2010 dismissal. In the course of arbitration, Honda presented signed documents asserting that Solorio Acalá had not been fired, but had voluntarily resigned. Solorio Acalá maintained that it was not his signature. He was held on bail in a maximum security prison.

The worker-run tire factory cooperative Tradoc paid his bail, characterizing the detention as an act of intimidation against the union. Ultimately, a forensic expert paid for by the arbitration board determined that the signature wasn’t his, Solorio Acalá said, and the matter was dropped.

SLOW JUSTICE

Raúl Celestino Pallares Cardoza, recording secretary for the STUHM, was among those fired in 2010, but won reinstatement and returned to his job in November of 2014. But Pallares Cardoza was kept isolated from other workers, he said, and he was fired again four days after returning.

“They never assigned me to a specific work area, failed to register me with the IMSS [Mexican Social Security Institute], and never issued me a worker identification badge," he told El Economista at the time.

The ruling is a reminder of the severe difficulties faced by workers who want to organize real, democratic unions in Mexico. “When a worker has been fighting for justice for 15 years, something is wrong,” said Jesús Torres Nuño, former leader of the Tradoc cooperative, at a press conference on Solorio Acala’s reinstatement. “We’ve had [different parties in power], and workers haven’t seen change.”

Mexico’s 2019 labor law reforms were meant to strengthen workers’ rights to form independent unions. “I think it’s completely in the hands of the companies, co-opted by [corrupt] union leadership,” said García Ríos. “The implementation of that justice is still far from being agile, democratic, and at reach for working people.”

Helping back up those reforms was a new tool under the USMCA trade agreement known as the rapid response mechanism, which allows unions and workers to bring complaints against employers who violate Mexican workers’ right to organize. If a facility is found to be violating workers’ rights, it faces sanctions and may ultimately lose access to the U.S. market.

But because the original violation took place before the reforms entered into effect, fired Honda workers do not have recourse to the rapid response mechanism, even though their rights continue to be violated. If Solorio Acalá is able to return to the plant and is fired again for his organizing, he would have recourse. So Honda has a significant incentive to continue to fight his reinstatement, which is why they were so quick to file an appeal, García Ríos said.

“I ask that you imagine the life of these fired workers,” said García Ríos. “Living so many years with the agony [of] not knowing how you will support your family.” Over time, he said, many have developed health issues as they age. “[It’s] something that could happen to you, or me, or anyone. We need models that [can deliver justice] faster.”

Over the past 15 years, Solorio Acalá has eked out a living as a waiter, Uber driver, and package courier. Much has changed at the Honda facility since. Back when he was on the job, the plant assembled the Accord, and later, the HRV. But in 2019, the facility stopped assembling cars and shifted to motorcycles and spare parts.

Solorio Acalá worries that by the time he’s allowed back on site, production practices at Honda will have changed significantly, and he’ll be on the back foot. But some things, he suspects, will be much as he left them: “Things haven’t changed within the facility. [From what I hear] from some workers, things are the same or worse.”

Also unchanged is his resolve: “Sometimes justice is slow. But when you have truth on your side, it’s worth it to keep fighting. It’s the right thing to do.”

Under the previous leadership, a small bargaining team negotiated behind closed doors. Gag orders ensured that members would know nothing about negotiations until an agreement was presented for a vote.

“It would be the business agent and a couple of stewards,” says business agent Robert Doolin, who started out in 1998 at a warehouse that supplies Kroger. “I always hated this. The company would always try to put a gag order on negotiations.”

Now Local 135, which is one of the biggest locals in the Teamsters with 12,000 members, pushes to make negotiations open to all members. “Not only do we tell management we’re going to tell the members what’s going on,” says Doolin, “we tell them we’re going to invite members to watch what you’re going to say.”

Pepsi, Coke, and Kroger negotiations no longer take place in a little conference room. Instead the local offers its union hall for bargaining sessions. If companies don’t want that, management can pay for a larger space. The message to employers, says Local 135 President Dustin Roach, is: “We don’t tell you who you can or can’t have on your team, and you don’t tell us.”

At Zenith Logistics, the local mobilized 150 of the site’s 190 members to join negotiations. “We were in a caucus,” Doolin says. “The general manager walked back in and everybody was there. He wasn’t expecting that. The first words out of his mouth were, ‘Oh shit.’”

From then on, 50-plus members were in the room regularly. “We ask everybody to come before shift, come after shift, come on your days off,” says Doolin. “If you can only be there for an hour, great.”

By opening up the bargaining process and organizing member-driven contract campaigns, Local 135 has been winning major raises, stronger strike language, and additional vacation time.

PREPARATION IS KEY

Opening up bargaining requires preparation—and it’s not just about what happens in the room at negotiations. “It really goes a lot further than just opening up some seats and saying it’s open bargaining,” says Doolin. “We’ve been trying to include the membership all the way through the negotiating process, to get them involved, get them working for their contract as well.”

At Kroger, Local 135 began passing out flyers to members nine months before negotiations started. They handed out windshield signs and badges with the word “union” in the warehouse’s top four languages (Spanish, English, Chin, and Haitian Creole). They also surveyed members about their top priorities, and asked whether members would help by passing out flyers or phone banking. In the process they collected members’ current contact information.

At Pepsi, Coke, and Bimbo, the union started with member meetings to review what they already had. “Most of the workforce doesn’t open up the contract,” says business agent Jesse Mikesell, who worked at Pepsi for 18 years. “It’s hard to make proposals if you don’t know what’s in your contract.” These kinds of meetings really helped get people engaged in the campaign, he said, “even if it’s a quick meeting between shifts.”

Mikesell looks for ways members can take ownership of their own campaigns, including choosing campaign slogans. Bimbo bread delivery drivers and loaders landed on “Bimbo needs more dough.” The local also expanded the size of the bargaining committee beyond just stewards, and made sure all the key work groups were represented.

‘A MORE SERIOUS MESSAGE’

Even if management agrees to allow any member to observe bargaining, only a fraction of members will attend most of the time. Choose strategic times to push for a big turnout, like when deeply felt issues are on the agenda. Sessions focused on wages or other economic issues can be particularly good targets for mobilization.

Local 135’s open bargaining push has helped turn up the pressure on employers, says Mikesell: “It delivers a more serious message to the company—that members are involved, and that these members are ready to take you guys on if they need to.”

The union has also begun taking contract deadlines more seriously, backed up by enhanced strike pay of $1,000 a week from the Teamsters international.

Open bargaining has helped win over some skeptical members even in right-to-work Indiana, says Mikesell: “There were a half-dozen long-tenured members at Kroger who said, ‘The union only protects the troublemakers, and I don’t need the union because I don’t get in trouble.’

“At the end of negotiations, these guys come up and say, ‘I’ve got a new respect for the union. I didn’t know this stuff was going on behind the scenes. I can see who’s trying to hold me down now—it’s not the union, it’s the company.’”

GROUND RULES FIGHT

Open bargaining gained steam first in the public sector, especially in K-12 and higher education. Trailblazers like Teamsters Local 135 and the national NewsGuild, where reformer Jon Schleuss won the presidency in 2019, are proving it can work in the private sector too.

The NewsGuild, representing 26,000 journalists and media workers, has been using open bargaining with many newsroom employers. “Open bargaining is about transparency, from the union’s perspective,” says Nick Bedell, a NewsGuild organizer. “We are talking to the employer in a way that is representative of the way you want us to talk to them—and we’re so confident that you can come watch. And if you’ve got issues with it, you can let us know.”

But management often pushes back against allowing observers, especially after seeing how it can strengthen the union’s hand. To press for open bargaining, the Guild has mobilized a lot of observers for the first session, when negotiators discuss ground rules. “The employer often gets pissed and leaves,” says Bedell, “so we file a bad faith bargaining charge and put lots of pressure on them to allow observers.” The union has often won out.

Why does the Guild fight so hard to open up bargaining? “It tends to tip the scales, in terms of who has the power, toward the union,” says Bedell. In standard bargaining, he says, the bargaining team often “experiences the employers’ bad behavior and relays it to the membership. And then the membership just starts bargaining with the union: ‘Why didn’t you say this?’ ‘Why didn’t you say that?’”

That dynamic changes when members observe bargaining themselves. “Management is the best organizer ever,” says Bedell. “Let them tell you that you’re not worth any money. Let them tell you you don’t deserve just cause. Let them tell you you’re going to get disciplined if you’re five minutes late because the subway was broken down.”

PHASE IT IN

Some officers and longtime stewards may be used to the way things have always been. So it’s important to help the negotiating committee warm up to the idea, and understand that they don’t have to agree to the old ground rules, like limits on what they can tell members or the press.

“Step number one is not agreeing to blackouts,” says Sandy Pope, bargaining director for the Office and Professional Employees (OPEIU). "What to say to the members and whether to put information in the public sphere is a strategic decision that the union should control."

Officers and others may also worry that members who attend bargaining won’t stay on message. Pope suggests that skeptical locals can limit the number of observers at first. Get observers to show up to negotiations 15 minutes early for a short training on what will happen at the bargaining table. Emphasize that only bargaining committee members should speak, but observers can share thoughts afterwards.

Observers can be recruited to the union’s outreach or contract action teams, Pope says. “People think that because they open up bargaining that’s everybody—but that’s just a fraction of the members [who show up].” Observers can bring key takeaways from bargaining back to their work groups, and gauge members’ reactions.

In Local 135’s negotiations with Pepsi and Coke, Doolin says, contract action team members divided up the task of texting out updates to the rest of the members after each session, to avoid rumors and confusion that could foment division.

“People who see for themselves firsthand can be better communicators,” says Pope. “It also relieves the bargaining committee from having to do everything—you can split up jobs.

“Having more members observe the bargaining process actually helps you,” she says. “Otherwise you’re carrying management’s water. You’re telling members why they’re not getting the $3 an hour you asked for, instead of them witnessing that management offered 5 cents at the beginning, and you’ve been in a fight from there.

“I don’t understand why some union leaders don’t figure out how much they lose by hiding things.”

NOT THE ONLY APPROACH

Unions should be wary of making a fetish of open bargaining, however. If employers fight hard to keep observers out, do you want to spend months fighting over this? Could you instead expand the bargaining team?

Also consider whether your union is prepared to mobilize a lot of members to the table. If few people turn out, that shows weakness to the employer. Better to focus on building up the union before you move to open bargaining.

Opening up bargaining doesn’t automatically make things more democratic or transparent. Will sessions be scheduled when members can meaningfully participate? Who is most likely to actually attend? How can you make sure information gets to all members?

In some situations, open bargaining may not make sense. Maybe the employer is too big or spread out. Or they’re looking for excuses to drag out a tough contract fight, and this issue becomes one of them.

“You need to talk about what the goal is,” says Gay Semel, retired general counsel for Communications Workers District 1. “The goal is member involvement and democracy. Are there other or better ways to do it in your specific situation?”

Says Bedell: “The question in bargaining is always: ‘Is this strategic?’ That goes for opening up bargaining, too.”