IN SEPTEMBER, the United Auto Workers walked off the job and onto picket lines, not only in the Rust Belt, but across the West, from Reno to Rancho Cucamonga. “Who’s got the power?” Reno’s GM workers chanted. “We got the power! What kind of power? Union power!” Ultimately, more than 45,000 workers around the country joined the strike, the first time the union simultaneously challenged the Big Three automakers: Ford, General Motors and Stellantis (owner of Jeep and Chrysler).
For six weeks, autoworkers walked picket lines in red shirts, waving signs that proclaimed: “UAW Stand Up: Record Profits Record Contracts.” The Big Three made a quarter-trillion in profits and CEO pay rose 40% from 2013-2022, but average real wages for auto workers have fallen almost 20%
