The Future of our Union

My name is Justin Mayhugh. I am a line worker at the General Motors Fairfax Assembly Plant located in Kansas City, Kansas. We currently build the Chevy Malibu and the Cadillac XT4.

I began working at Fairfax in May of 2011. I have been a member in good standing in the UAW since then. I am what is commonly referred to as an "in-progression" employee, or what was previously known as a tier-two employee. I started off as a flex--meaning that I was a part-time worker, usually working Mondays and Fridays every week. In April of 2012 I was hired on as a full-time permanent employee.

Prior to working at Fairfax, I had little knowledge or interest in unions or the labor movement in general. I grew up in a rather conservative household so my thoughts on unions were shaped mainly from the ideology of my upbringing and whatever propaganda I was fed via Fox News. "Unions are greedy. Unions bankrupt companies. Union workers are entitled and lazy."

Yes, I used to have those thoughts about unions because I didn't know any better at the time.

Luckily for me, life is full of learning experiences, and over the last seven years I have had the opportunity to experience the reality inside the UAW and inside of an auto plant, which has greatly altered my opinion about unions, line work, and just how vitally important the labor movement is in this country.

The last seven years have also afforded me the opportunity to learn the history of our union, which has become somewhat of an obsession for me. I now have a much better understanding of what made the UAW such an effective force at one time, as well as to better understand the factors that changed over the years that brought us to where we are today.

When I was first approached about the prospect of contributing to this blog, I honestly asked myself what I could possibly bring to the table that would be of actual value. Robert Boone. Wray McCalester. Tom Laney. These are all union people who have experienced more within the UAW than I could ever imagine. They are all real union people who have been involved at multiple levels within the UAW, and who have forgotten more knowledge than I will probably ever have the privilege of knowing.

My list of accomplishments within the UAW are much shorter than that of my fellow contributors: I was elected as an alternate delegate by my peers at Local 31, which allowed me to attend the 37th UAW Constitutional Convention this past June. It was an honor to be elected by the membership to attend the convention as one of their representatives.

Earlier this year, I started a website called The Solidarity Review. It was my way of sharing my thoughts about the current state of the UAW on a wider platform rather than just talking about it on the shop floor or going to a monthly union meeting, asking questions, and being given extremely vague answers as to how everything works and why our leadership continues to allow the rank-and-file to lose year-after-year.

Rather quickly, The Solidarity Review seemed to resonate with many of our members. After a while a few other union people from across the country offered to contribute their talents to the site as well.

(Editor's note: I highly recommend you visit The Solidarity Review site by clicking on the tan print above. It is an excellent site and the reason I am happy to have Justin as a contributor here.)

For me, The Solidarity Review is all about questioning the current system utilized by our leadership. It is about being critical of certain aspects such as joint funding and joint programs that the International UAW has partaken in for decades now. It is about questioning our union's failed strategies in regard to organizing non-union auto plants. It is not about pledging blind loyalty to our leadership, which is far too often the "approved" standard within our union.

I also created The Solidarity Review as a way to offer an outlet to share certain aspects of the history of the UAW with the membership that are not often remembered. The saying, 'those who forget the past are  doomed to repeat it," is an old adage that has unfortunately come to fruition in the UAW of today.

When I was campaigning for delegate, often I would have workers ask me why I chose to run for delegate instead of something along the lines of committee person. I have all the respect in the world for anyone who truly fights for the best interests of the membership via the roles of committee person or on the executive boards at their locals. But for me, I realized that I wanted to have a direct way to help effect positive change on a larger scale in regards to the processes we utilize within the UAW, and running for delegate wa a way for me to have an opportunity to make that happen. I documented my experience at the convention and you can read about my experience by clicking on the link in tan.

During my time working on the assembly line at Fairfax, I have often spoken to numerous fellow in-progression workers who have expressed envy towards their traditional worker counterparts. I can--to some degree--sympathize with those feelings. There are no pensions for in-progression workers. In-progressions will receive zero health benefits when they "retire." The "golden handcuffs" that once made being a UAW auto worker one of the most coveted jobs in our country were removed during the bankruptcy bailout. 

I know the feeling of working on the line where every worker around me does have a pension, or was making almost twice the hourly wage as myself. The part that disturbed me most of all was not the particular situation of being a tier-two, but rather that many traditional workers had little interest in making things right again. In fact, on many occasions I experienced resentment directed at me from traditional workers, which I could never quite wrap my head around. I cannot count the number of times I have been told a traditional worker that I should, "just be happy to have a job," or, "you knew the situation when you agreed to work here."

This is obviously not meant to bash all traditional workers. Not by any stretch. For as many traditional workers that I would meet who would look down on me for being a tier-two, there were plenty of others who were adamant that we all needed to work together to make everyone equal once again. Many traditional workers would give me advice on how to survive at Fairfax, or would empathize with the tier-two situation. I always try and think of those workers when looking at the predicament we find ourselves in today.

So, while I can understand the feelings of indignation about being an in-progression or temporary worker in the UAW in 2018, I believe it is vitally important for my fellow UAW members to realize that we must not buy into the ideology of the current system.

The two-tier system is a system fueled by resentment. The success of that system, in management's eyes, is contingent on creating ill-will and pitting worker against worker. That allows management to continue to extract concessions from us as well as keep us divided, and makes us ineffective as a union.

Should we be fighting for equality? Absolutely! 100%! Without a doubt! We cannot survive in the long-term if we continue to buy into this me-first mindset of the two-tier system. Some union members have told me that there is no longer a two tier system, and that the 2015 contract negotiations got rid of it. That is simply NOT true. Until every UAW has a pension, we are not truly equal. Until we fix the broken system that allows companies to exploit "temporary" workers for years on end, we are not truly equal.

It is not acceptable to simply say, "I've got mine, so who cares what happens to the next generation of workers?" In our union we all have a personal choice to make--will we care only about oneself or for the greater good of us all? If we choose the later--and that is the only right course--there is little doubt that the sacrifices will be great. But I do believe it is the only way we can truly turn things around. Whether a traditional worker, an in-progression worker, a temporary worker or a retiree, we are all in this together. We are all sisters and brothers and we would be wise to remember that undeniable fact.

It is up to each of us--the membership of the UAW--to determine what our future will be.

Solidarity forever is not just a song lyric. It is the union way of life.