Jacobin Radio: The UAW Strike Victory w/ Nelson Lichtenstein
Jacobin Radio
Jacobin
4.7 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 9 November 2023
⏱️ 53 minutes
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Summary
Labor historian Nelson Lichtenstein returns to Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman to talk about the Tentative Agreements (TAs) the United Auto Workers (UAW) reached—still to be ratified—with the Big Three auto companies after six weeks on strike. It was the first time the UAW hit the Detroit Three at once. As Nelson wrote in his recent Jacobin piece, the UAW strike victory is historic and transformative, ending a forty-three-year era of concession bargaining and labor movement defeat. “With its successful strike, the UAW has broken with decades of concessions, won on pay and workplace democracy, and launched a new national labor leader. There’s much more organizing to be done, but this is an unmitigated victory for the entire working class.” We talk to Nelson about the transformative nature of this victory—the best news in the world today—and get his broader perspective on what it means for American politics and the working class writ large.
Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is Jacobin Radio. I'm Susie Wiseman. |
| 0:08.0 | The first ever simultaneous strike at the big three automakers, General Motors or GM, |
| 0:16.4 | Ford and Stellantis that used to be Chrysler, began on September 14th with 13,000 workers walking out of three assembly plants in Michigan, Ohio, and Missouri, and ended October 30th with tentative agreements with the big Detroit 3, still be ratified but it's an historic victory. |
| 0:36.0 | 50,000 were out on strike using a new tactic the rolling or stand-up strike which |
| 0:42.3 | Sean Fain the new militant leader of the UAW, said, |
| 0:45.6 | kept companies guessing which other locals would be next and workers on the ready to walk. |
| 0:52.2 | We spoke to Nelson Lictonstein in late September, |
| 0:55.5 | looking at this strike in the context of the history of the UAW |
| 0:59.1 | and the leading role the UAW or United Auto Workers played in the 1937 sit-down strikes that exemplified the power of the |
| 1:06.8 | labor movement. Nelson said auto workers have in many ways been the canaries and the coal mine |
| 1:12.1 | for the U.S. working class writ large. |
| 1:15.2 | We asked whether he seized the recent hot strikes with overwhelming public support after a |
| 1:19.7 | lengthy period of labor quiescence as opening a new period of militancy, igniting a newly |
| 1:26.3 | revitalized labor movement and an energized working class with the UAW again in a leading role. |
| 1:32.6 | Today he returns with us after this historic |
| 1:36.4 | unmitigated victory of the UAW |
| 1:38.6 | to discuss the transformative nature of this strike |
| 1:42.0 | when our program returns in just a moment. This is Jacobin Radio. I'm Susie Wiseman. |
| 1:55.0 | I'm Susie Wiseman. The United Auto Workers or |
| 1:58.0 | UAW has tentative agreements with the big three auto companies after six weeks on a historic strike the first time |
| 2:05.4 | the UAW ever hit all of the big three at once. As our guest Nelson Lictonstein wrote in his |
| 2:12.3 | November 1st Jacobin piece called the |
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