We the taxpayers bailed out  the Big Three automakers—GM and Stellantis (then Chrystler) for nearly $80 billion with a taxpayer cost of $10 billion, and a $6 billion loan to Ford that is still being repaid—during their crisis at the beginning of the Obama administration. Rank-and-file workers of all three major corporations, represented by the United Auto Workers (UAW), also sacrificed to help the companies survive, agreeing to sizable pay cuts.

Fast forward 15 years to the present and these same three corporations took a combined quarter-trillion dollars in North American profits over the last decade. (That’s $250 billion, or $250,000,000,000!). Rather than show any gratitude, greedy auto executives hoarded the wealth, and UAW members never got a fair share. 

Now, UAW members are striking, standing up to raise standards and demand fairness from the “Big Three” automakers. Their fight is our fight. Their victory will make a positive difference for all working families. 

Bernie walks the line with workers. So does AOC. So will Joe Biden on Tuesday. And so will we. Here are four specific things you can do in coordination with PDA to help right now:

• Please Call 1-318-300-1249 to leave a message for the CEOs of Ford, GM, and Stellantis and tell them UAW members deserve the same 40% raise the CEOs took for themselves. Then email MikeFox@PDAmerica.org to report on your call.
• Check out this map of all of the UAW picket lines in the USA. Find one near you, and drop by to walk the picket line in solidarity with the striking workers 
• Please Click Here to join PDA’s Economics and Labor Issue Organizing Team and participate in our organizing Zooms and labor solidarity work on the ground.
• Click Here to support PDA’s work on behalf of organized labor with a generous gift. Please give whatever you can spare, and make it an automatic sustaining gift if possible.

I have personally worked shoulder to shoulder with UAW members on political and issue campaigns when PDA sent me to Detroit on multiple occasions. The diverse, intelligent, and hard-working UAW members I met there were among the most effective organizers I’ve had the pleasure to work with. Their help was valuable beyond measure. 

The UAW tells us, “Union contracts for 150,000 UAW auto workers at the Big Three expired on September 14. It’s going to take the unity and strength of every UAW member, union, community and political ally to win what autoworkers and every worker deserves.”

Let’s be good allies with our sisters and brothers in the UAW! Please join PDA in supporting them in their hour of need! Take action now!

In solidarity,

Mike Hersh, PDA Communications Director for your PDA National Team

Randy Shannon, PDA PA Coordinator

Tina Shannon, Chair PDA Economics and Labor Issue Organizing Team

Alan Minsky, PDA Executive Director