A mass, rank-and-file movement must return power to the shop floor!

My campaign is aimed at spearheading a mass movement of the rank-and-file to break the dictatorship of the UAW apparatus and to transfer power and control over all decision-making processes to the rank-and-file in the auto plants and all work locations.

I call for:

1. Abolish the UAW apparatus 

The UAW is staffed by people whose collective salaries are $75 million a year. Over 450 International executives make over $100,000, including VP Cindy Estrada ($319,021), President Ray Curry ($272,726), VP Charles Browning ($208,924), and “administrative assistant” and UAW presidential candidate Shawn Fain ($156,364), to name just a few.

We do not need a massive apparatus sitting on top of us dictating what we do. All positions not directly related the struggles of workers must be eliminated, along with the bloated six-figure salaries.

2. Full rank-and-file control over all UAW assets, along with bargaining and vote counting 

Solidarity House has assets of $1.08 billion. We must have control over all of these assets, which have been built up with our dues money. The strike fund must be used exclusively to support workers’ struggles, not finance an unaccountable bureaucracy. Striking workers must receive the weekly compensation necessary to sustain long and bitter struggles.

Rank-and-file committees must exercise oversight over all national and local bargaining, along with the monitoring and enforcement of UAW-corporate agreements. No more secret discussions with the companies and votes counted by bureaucrats determined to force through sell-out contracts.

3. A program to fight for what we need, not what the corporations say is acceptable

I call for the formation of rank-and-file committees at every factory and workplace. It is time for a coordinated struggle of all workers in the UAW, in unity with every section of the working class, to fight for:

Massive pay increases to make up for decades of concessions, along with mandatory Cost-of-Living Adjustments (COLA) to keep pace with soaring inflation.

• An end to all tiers by bringing up lower tiers to top pay and benefits.

• The transfer of all temporary and part-time workers to full-time workers, with full pay and benefits.

• Full funding of pensions and high-quality health care for all current workers and retirees.

• The re-establishment of the 8-hour day, not on the basis of poverty-level wages, but with wages that allow us to provide for ourselves and our families.

• An end to all forced overtime, with no more mandatory weekends that deprive us of lives outside of the factory. The overtime rate should be reset to three times the normal-hours wage rate.

• No more layoffs. Any reduction in production must lead to a reduction in work time, with no loss in pay.

• Rank-and-file control over line speed and production standards, to be negotiated by local rank-and-file committees.

Solidarity House claims that such demands are “unaffordable” are refuted by the fact that billions of dollars in profits are pulled in every year by the auto companies and other giant corporations.

The 10 major auto companies quadrupled their profits last year, from $14 billion to more than $54 billion. 

A program for the working class!

In the US and all over the world, workers confront growing social inequality, rising costs, the danger of world war, ecological devastation, an ongoing pandemic and the threat of dictatorship. The ruling class has immense resources, through which it controls the entire political establishment, including the Democrats and Republicans in the US.

I am a socialist. Socialism means putting the world’s productive forces under the democratic control of the working class and distributing resources, not to enrich a handful of billionaires, but to meet the needs of the whole human race. Socialism is based on the understanding that all workers, in every country, share the same interests in opposition to the ruling class that profits off our labor.

As workers we have enormous power. However, to fight for what we need we must organize ourselves.

I can’t do this alone; I am not a miracle worker. This campaign will be successful to the extent that you get involved, and that we develop through this campaign the organization and initiative to fight and to win.

I call on you to support my campaign and vote for me in October and November. Make this campaign as widely known as possible. Discuss it with your co-workers. Build election committees. Organize meetings. Make statements on social media. Get the word out any way that you can.