Working to change the dialogue across America

The UAW is an organization that is unapologetic in our demand for justice. That’s why we are joining with a coalition of people that are like-minded in the belief that there is a better way to live, work and fight the status quo of business as usual through nonviolent direct action. We fully support the 99% Spring and together, during the week of April 9-15, in small towns and big cities all across America, 100,000 people will come together for an unprecedented national movement-wide nonviolent direct action training.

We will learn to tell our own the story of how the economy has affected our families — how we got here, who’s responsible and how we can change it — through non-violent, direct action in the spirit of Mahatma Ghandi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Cesar Chavez and other movement leaders. This spring we will work to forge a new economy that works for all of us, not just for the 1%.

We are at a crucial point in America where if we continue to ignore the opportunity to rebuild this great country, then we risk losing the very essence of what has made this country great. Fighting to end poverty and exploitation through international solidarity and direct action is the morally right thing to do. The only path for justice for American workers is to fight for justice for all workers.

• Millions of our family members are struggling to keep a roof over their heads and to find a decent job — meanwhile, the rich keep getting richer.
• We’re at a crossroads as a country. We have a choice to make. Greater wealth for a few or opportunity for many. Tax breaks for the richest or a fair shot for the rest of us. A government that can be bought by the highest bidder, or a democracy that is truly of the people, by the people, and for the people.
• Organizing is a human right. It’s a First Amendment right. Free choice cannot take place in a climate of fear. Workers who want a union should not have to risk their jobs to exercise their rights. We are going to fight for workers’ right to organize without terrorism by the boss — without threats of plant closings and firing workers for trying to join a union. The UAW will rise to the historic challenge of leading the fight to regain the right to organize.
• UAW members are once again determined to turn things around — to protect collective bargaining rights for all workers and guarantee workers the right to make their own decisions about forming or joining a union whether with a private company, such as an auto manufacturer or with a public sector employees.

The 99% Spring Movement is growing stronger by the day, and we’re not going away until we have an economy that works for ALL of us.