Workers at the General Motors, Ford and Stellantis factories in Michigan have responded with enthusiasm to the news that 3,900 Mack Trucks workers in Pennsylvania, Maryland and Florida had gone on strike after rejecting a United Auto Workers-backed contract by a three-to-one margin. Extending their solidarity to the striking Mack Trucks workers, they said they wanted to join them in an all-out strike against the Big Three automakers, instead of being hamstrung by UAW President Shawn Fain’s “stand up strike” policy, which has kept four of five autoworkers on the job.
“Stay strong, we’ll be walking out too,” a second shift Stellantis worker declared on her way into the Warren Truck Assembly Plant Monday afternoon. “What business did Fain have backing this kind of contract? We should follow the Mack workers’ lead and go on strike too. That’s real solidarity.”
“It was right for them to reject that contract and go on strike,” another Warren Truck worker told the WSWS. “They are not just fighting for themselves, but for their families and for future generations. The people voted and had their say. We are fed up with high prices and all this money going for war. They want to control people and put us on bread lines.”
The UAW’s deal with Mack Trucks, which Fain personally promoted as “a record contract for the heavy truck industry,” included below-inflation rate raises and no cost-of-living adjustments and maintained the despised two-tier wage and benefit system. Workers defeated the efforts by the UAW International and local union leaders to ram the contract through without giving workers sufficient time to study it. After Mack workers delivered this rebuke to Fain, the UAW president hypocritically declared that he was “inspired to see UAW members at Mack holding out for a better deal, and ready to stand up and walk off the job to win it.”
“I’m glad that the Mack workers said ‘no,’” a veteran Warren Truck worker said. “Fain endorsed this BS contract and that shows you what kind of contract he wants for us.”
Addressing himself to the Mack workers, a young Warren Truck worker said, “Good job, we appreciate y’all.” Asked if Big Three workers should follow suit and all go on strike too, he responded, “Definitely. All the manufacturing plants especially, for sure. We’re steadily making them money and that isn’t giving them and incentive” to meet workers’ demands.
“Every plant should have went on strike when we were told that was what we were going to do,” a young worker said on his way into the plant. “The workers have every right to reject that contract. Stand strong and everyone should stand together as one.”
Members of the GM Flint Assembly Rank-and-File Committee also applauded the Mack Truck workers. One member of the committee told the WSWS, “I think what the Mack Trucks workers are doing is an example we should follow for all autoworkers. They’re showing us that the union bureaucracy under Fain doesn’t have the power over the rank and file that it seems to. Workers are the ones who ultimately have all the power.
“We just need to be organized and have a genuine leadership made up of the rank and file itself. Fain is the opposite of this. He comes out with a sellout contract ready to shove down their throats, even calling it ‘historic.’ When the workers voted it down he suddenly changes his mind! I think this is in keeping with what he’s been doing with the Big Three auto strike—making it out to be some historic milestone for the working class.
“Our strike isn’t a real one. Fain still hasn’t called an all-out strike and never will. He doesn’t genuinely represent Mack Trucks workers or any UAW member. For us to solve any of our issues, the Big Three autoworkers need to unite with all the rest of our UAW rank-and-file members at Mack Trucks. We should all be out on strike, including autoworkers in Mexico and Canada. But we need a new leadership of the rank and file united across borders to do this.”
Another member of GM Flint Rank-and-File committee said, “What is happening at Mack Trucks is the result of the workers coming together, educating each other and executing a plan without the UAW bureaucrats telling them what to do. They knew the contract was not fair and took the matter into their own hands to fight for what they want. I’m sure the outcome will be successful.
“The Mack workers have set an important example for the working class. Everyone should realize the power lies with us, not the union bureaucracy. They do not have our best interests in mind. If we and our coworkers don’t agree with the offers being presented to us, then we all should stand up together and not take it!”