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United Auto Workers
United Automobile, Aerospace & Agricultural Implement Workers of America International Union
Founded May, 1935
Members 464,910[1]
Country United States, Canada
Affiliation AFL-CIO, CLC
Key people Ron Gettelfinger, president
Office location Detroit, MI, United States
Website www.uaw.org

The United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America International Union, better known as the United Auto Workers (UAW), is a labor union which represents workers in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. Year 1935 ( MCMXXXV) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Country to "Dominion of Canada" or "Canadian Federation" or anything else please read the Talk Page American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, commonly AFL-CIO, is a National trade union center, the largest federation of The Canadian Labour Congress, or CLC (in French "le Congrès du travail du Canada Ronald A Gettelfinger (born August 1 1944 is the current president of the trade union United Auto Workers. A trade union or labour union is an organization of workers who have banded together to achieve common goals in key areas such as wages hours and working conditions forming The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Country to "Dominion of Canada" or "Canadian Federation" or anything else please read the Talk Page Puerto Rico (ˌpwertoˈriko officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ("Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico" {{lang-en|"Associated Free State of Puerto Rico"}} Founded in order to represent workers in the automobile manufacturing industry, UAW members in the 21st century work in industries as diverse as health care, casino gaming and higher education.

Headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, the union has approximately 800 local unions, which negotiated 3,100 contracts with some 2,000 employers.

Contents

History

The UAW was founded in May 1935 in Detroit, Michigan, under the auspices of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) after years of agitation within the labor federation. The American Federation of Labor (AFL was one of the first federations of labor unions in the United States The AFL had focused on organizing craft unions since its founding in 1881 by Samuel Gompers. Craft unionism refers to organizing a union in a manner that seeks to unify workers in a particular industry along the lines of the particular Craft or trade that they work in Samuel Gompers (January 27 1850 - December 13 1924 was an American labor union leader and a key figure in American labor history. But at its 1935 convention, a caucus of industrial unions led by John L. Lewis formed the Committee for Industrial Organization, the original CIO, within the AFL. Within one year, the AFL suspended the unions in the CIO, and these, including the UAW, formed the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). The Congress of Industrial Organizations, or CIO, proposed by John L

The UAW was one of the first major unions that was willing to organize African-American workers, which increased its ability to garner enough support to win recognition through election. African Americans or Black Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have origins in any of the black populations of Africa The UAW rapidly found success in organizing with the sit-down strike — first in a General Motors plant in Atlanta, Georgia in 1936, and more famously in the Flint sit-down strike that began on December 29, 1936. Strike action, often simply called a strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal by Employees to perform work. General Motors Corporation ( GM) ( is a multinational automobile manufacturer founded in 1908 and headquartered in the United States. Year 1936 ( MCMXXXVI) was a Leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The 1936-'37 Flint Sit-Down Strike changed the United Automobile Workers from a collection of isolated locals on the fringes of the industry into a major union and led to the That strike ended in February 1937 after Michigan's governor Frank Murphy played the role of mediator, negotiating recognition of the UAW by General Motors. Michigan ( is a Midwestern state of the United States of America. William Francis (Frank Murphy ( April 13, 1890 July 19, 1949) was a Politician and Jurist from Michigan. The next month, auto workers at Chrysler won recognition of the UAW as their representative in a sit-down strike. Daimler AG ( (formerly DaimlerChrysler AG) is a German car corporation (not to be confused with the British car-maker Daimler Motor Company) and

The UAW's next target was the Ford Motor Company. Ford Motor Company is an American Multinational corporation and the world's fourth largest automaker based on Worldwide vehicle sales, following Henry Ford had promised that "The UAW would organize Ford over my dead body. Henry Ford ( July 30, 1863 &ndash April 7, 1947) was the American founder of the Ford Motor Company and father of " Ford selected Harry Bennett to keep the union out of the company, and the Ford Service Department was set up as an internal security, intimidation, and espionage unit within the company, and quickly gained a reputation of using violence against union organizers and sympathizers (see The Battle of the Overpass). The Battle of the Overpass was an incident on 26 May, 1937, in which labor organizers clashed with Ford Motor Company Security guards The It took until 1941 for Ford to agree to a collective bargaining agreement with the UAW. Year 1941 ( MCMXLI) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (the link will display 1941 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Collective bargaining is the process whereby workers organize together to meet converse and compromise upon the work environment with their employers By the end of the year, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor dramatically changed the nature of the UAW's organizing. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Japan topics. Pearl Harbor is a Harbor on the Island of O{{okina}}ahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu.

The UAW's Executive Board voted to make a "no strike" pledge to ensure that the war effort would not be hindered by strikes, and that pledge was later reaffirmed by the membership.

At the UAW's constitutional convention in 1946 Walter Reuther won the election for president and served until his death in a small airplane accident in May 1970 — leading the union during one of the most prosperous periods for workers in U. S. history. In the 1960s, the UAW used its strategy of negotiating a contract with one major auto maker and applying it to others to secure a number of new benefits for auto workers, including fully paid hospitalization and sick leave benefits at General Motors and profit sharing in American Motors. The 1960s decade refers to the years from the beginning of 1960 to the end of 1969 American Motors Corporation (AMC was an American automobile company formed on January 14 1954 by the merger of the Nash-Kelvinator Corporation The UAW also grew to include workers in other major industries such as the aerospace and agricultural-implement industries. This article is about the field of research and industry for the corporation see The Aerospace Corporation Aerospace comprises the

During this time, UAW members became one of the best paid groups of industrial workers in the country — placing them solidly in the middle class of American society. However, by the end of this period, changes in the global economy, competition from European and Japanese automobile makers, and management decisions at the U. S. automakers had already started to significantly reduce the profits of the major auto makers and set the stage for the drastic changes in the 1970s. This article is about the Decade 1970-1979 For the Year 1970 see 1970.

The situation for the automotive industry and UAW members worsened dramatically with the 1973 oil embargo. Year 1973 ( MCMLXXIII) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display full calendar of the 1973 Gregorian calendar. The 1973 oil crisis began on October 17 1973 when the members of Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC consisting of the Arab members of Rising fuel priced caused the U. S. auto makers to lose market share to foreign manufacturers who placed more emphasis on fuel efficiency. This started years of layoffs and wage reductions, and the UAW found itself in the position of giving up many of the benefits it had won for workers over the decades. By the early 1980s, the state of Michigan had been devastated economically by the losses in jobs and income within the state's largest industry. The 1980s was the decade spanning from January 1 1980 to December 31 1989. Michigan ( is a Midwestern state of the United States of America. This peaked with the near-bankruptcy of Chrysler in 1979. Year 1979 ( MCMLXXIX) was a Common year starting on Monday (link displays the 1979 Gregorian calendar) As a result of plant closings, cities such as Flint, Lansing, and to a lesser extent Detroit began to lose population and businesses (as was dramatically shown in Michael Moore's movie Roger & Me. Flint is a city in the US state of Michigan and is located along the Flint River, 66 miles (106 km northwest of Detroit. Michael Francis Moore (born April 23 1954 is an Academy Award -winning American filmmaker author and liberal Political commentator. Roger & Me is a 1989 American Documentary film directed by independent filmmaker/author Michael Moore. )

In 1985 the union's Canadian division disaffiliated from the UAW over a dispute regarding negotiation tactics and formed the Canadian Auto Workers as an independent union. Year 1985 ( MCMLXXXV) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link displays 1985 Gregorian calendar) Country to "Dominion of Canada" or "Canadian Federation" or anything else please read the Talk Page Template talkInfobox Union for usage --> The Canadian Auto Workers ( CAW; formally the National Automobile Specifically the Canadian division claimed they were being used to pressure the companies for extra benefits which went mostly to the American members.

The UAW has seen a dramatic decline in membership since the 1970s. Membership topped 1. 5 million in 1979. [1] But because of restructuring of the American domestic auto industry, membership fell to approximately 540,000 at the end of 2006[2] and to just under 465,000 members by the end of 2007. The last time the UAW had fewer than 500,000 members was in 1941. [1]

Academic Union

In the 1990s, the UAW began to focus on new areas of organizing both geographically — in places like Puerto Rico — and in terms of occupations, with new initiatives among university staff, freelance writers (through the subsidiary National Writers Union) and employees of non-profit organizations. The 1990s collectively refers to the years between and including 1990 and 1999 National Writers Union (NWU founded on November 19, 1981, is the Trade union in the United States for freelance and contract Writers: A non-profit organization ( abbreviated "NPO" also "not-for-profit" is a legally constituted Organization whose objective is to support or engage And, since the 1980s the UAW is also taking on the organization of academic student employees (aka "ASEs") — typically Teaching Assistants, Research Assistants, Graders, Tutors — under the slogan "Uniting Academic Workers". The 1980s was the decade spanning from January 1 1980 to December 31 1989. Graduate student employee unionization refers to Labor unions that represent students who are employed by their College or University to teach classes As of 2004, the UAW represents more ASEs than any other Union in the United States. Universities with UAW ASE representation include the University of California, California State University, University of Massachusetts, University of Washington, and New York University. The University of California ( UC) is a Public university system in the state of California. History Today's California State University system is the direct descendant of the California State Normal School (now San José State University) a The University of Massachusetts (officially nicknamed UMass) is the five-campus public university system of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. See Washington (disambiguation for other uses The University of Washington, founded in 1861, is a public research University New York University ( NYU) is a private, Nonsectarian, Coeducational Research University in New York City.

List of Locals

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b c "Drop in U. Victor G Reuther ( January 1, 1912 &ndash June 3, 2004) was a prominent international labor organizer A. W. Rolls Reflects Automakers’ Problems," Associated Press, March 28, 2008.
  2. ^ Thomas, "UAW Membership, Dues Declined Last Year," Associated Press, April 12, 2007.

References

External links

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