UAW auto workers will get a fair deal only if they fight for it

Five days ago, 12,700 United Auto Workers Union (UAW) workers walked out in the first strike wave against the Big Three automakers – GM, Ford, and Stellantis (the company that took over Chrysler).

- Jesse Jackson

Every worker in America – union and non-union, young and old, female and male, Black, brown and white – has a stake in this strike. At issue is not simply whether autoworkers can gain a living wage, but whether this country can begin to rebuild a middle class and curb the extreme inequality that undermines our economy and our democracy.

The companies paint the worker demands as extreme, even as the workers seek simply to get a raise that reflects the companies’ performance in recent years.

Consider from 2013 to 2022, the companies earned $250 billion in profits, up 92 percent over that period of time. The average pay of their CEOs – last year, each pocketed an average of $25 million – is up 40 percent. Last year alone, the companies ladled out $9 billion in stock buybacks – rewarding shareholders but not workers.

This astounding inequity has spread across the economy. The Economic Policy Institute reports that over the last 45 years, adjusting for inflation, CEO compensation in America’s 300 largest companies has risen 1,460 percent while a typical worker’s pay grew by just 18 percent.