Director of United Autoworkers District 2B, David Green, joined the America’s Work Force Union Podcast to discuss the ongoing strike with Big Three automakers in Detroit. Green discussed the issues facing Locals with a split workforce and what the inclusion of battery plants in the national agreement means for the future of auto workers.
Green is based in Indianapolis but has been on the road covering several striking plants in District 2B, which covers Ohio and Indiana. Currently, he’s with UAW Local 12 in Toledo, Ohio, working with the 12 bargaining units currently on strike. It’s a unique issue because some units are still at work because they’re not employed by the Big Three automakers. Meanwhile, those on strike are receiving strike pay. Ensuring the workers are paid is the top priority for the UAW, whether they’re on strike or not.
Last night’s announcement that the UAW strike would add Ford’s most profitable truck plant in Kentucky was based on Ford making no advancements in the negotiations. After beginning negotiations by providing several concessions to the UAW, Ford is now negotiating on contract issues they don’t want to concede. Green talked about this new negotiation method with all three automakers and how it improved on 2019’s single automaker negotiation method.
Including the battery plants in the national agreement by General Motors is a major win for the UAW. It is building a just transition to the green energy future and ensuring better benefits and wages for these union jobs. It will also help to educate the current workforce and provide them with a path to transition to the battery plants. It ensures that workers are able to ensure a future in the middle class for themselves and their families, Green said.
To hear more from Green, please press play on the episode above.
America’s Work Force is the only daily labor podcast in the US and has been on the air since 1993, supplying listeners with useful, relevant input into their daily lives through fact-finding features, in-depth interviews, informative news segments and practical consumer reports. America’s Work Force is committed to providing an accessible venue in which America's workers and their families can hear discussion on important, relevant topics such as employment, healthcare, legislative action, labor-management relations, corporate practices, finances, local and national politics, consumer reports and labor issues.
America’s Work Force Union Podcast is brought to you in part by our sponsors: AFL-CIO, American Federation of Government Employees, American Federation of Musicians Local 4, American Alliance for Manufacturing, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, Columbus/Central Ohio Building and Construction Trades Council, Communication Workers of America, International Association of Heat and Frost Insulators and Allied Workers, International Association of Heat and Frost Insulators and Allied Workers Local 50, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Crafts, International Union of Painters and Allied Trades District Council 6, Ironworkers Great Lakes District Council, The Labor Citizen newspaper, Laborers International Union of The National Labor Office of Blue Cross and Blue Shield, North America, North Coast Area Labor Federation, Ohio Federation of Teachers, Survey and Ballot Systems, United Labor Agency, United Steelworkers.
