TOLEDO, Ohio — It has been one year since the historic United Auto Workers strike.
The strike saw autoworkers from GM, Ford and Stellantis walk off the line and into the streets holding signs demanding a fair wage and better working conditions.
According to Tony Totty, UAW Local 14’s president, the state of the auto industry is in a much better place thanks to the strike.
UAW members are receiving a new 3% raise starting on Monday as part of the agreement struck with the Big Three automakers and benefits for retirees are now exceeding $1.2 billion.
Totty says it took a lot of effort to get there.
Toledo Jeep workers were among the first autoworkers across the country to pick up picket signs.
Totty said you have to go back over 80 years to to see a similar contribution from Toledo autoworkers in winning a big strike.
While it took 40 days of chanting for the companies to finally give in, the results speak for themselves, he said.
"We're happy that we could get the contract resolved. Initially, the offer on the table before we went out on strike was about $12 billion in gains. And when we settled the strike, it was $23 billion," Totty said. "So the strike was very effective."
Totty says the strike was a long time coming.
He said for some 20 years, wages remained stagnant while prices continued to soar.
Thanks to the strike however, Totty said many of those issues have been solved.
Totty said workers at Toyota, Honda and Mercedes all got raises as well and workers voted to join the UAW at plants that had lost union votes in the past.
"Our contract was so lucrative that we were able to organize the workers at Volkswagen. So it wasn't just a win for us. It was a win for all autoworkers," Totty said.
Though he calls it a true reshaping of the auto industry, Totty said the battle is not completely over.
"We're still working out some of the issues with the agreement. General Motors, which we represent, is pretty much living up to the agreement. Stellantis is having issues with the Belvidere clause of the agreement.
And I know that grievances have been filed on behalf of the membership to try to hold them accountable for the agreement that they settled," Totty said.
But generally, Totty said the state of the industry is much healthier, post-strike, saying workers are now receiving more appropriate compensation while corporations are still making record profits and CEO compensation is still at a record pace.
"There's enough for everybody to go around, and I'm just happy that our strike actually was very fruitful for our members," Totty said.
Totty added that full-time temporary employees at their facilities now receive profit sharing, which is a first.
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