 People are still making their way into the room. This conference gets bigger and bigger every other year for, I think, very good and exciting reasons. But I want to get it started. I know people are still going to be coming in and filling in space. I'm going to start. I'm going to give you all a quick kind of layout of what this session is going to look like. If you didn't realize it, you were in the 5 o'clock session about rebuilding a fighting UAW. Yes, you can cheer for that. So we've got 90 minutes here until 6.30. We're going to reserve a pretty big chunk of time at the end to do questions and answers. I'm going to give a reminder then as well that we greatly prefer questions and not comments instead of questions. But we'll be flexible, depending on our time. You can always come find people after the panel if you have specific things you want to share. So please try to keep that in mind. I'm going to try to give reminders then as well. We are going to hear from four leaders who are playing different but very complementary roles in that fight of rebuilding the UAW. I'm going to introduce them quickly and then we're going to hear some comments from each of them. I'm going to be asking the panel some questions and then we're going to open up the floor for questions and answers. So quickly, I want to introduce myself. I'm going to introduce our panel as well. My name is Alex Hahn and I am the Executive Director of In These Times Magazine, a 47-year-old magazine of labor, of progressive politics and social movements based right here in Chicago. I have not been a magazine publisher for very long. I've spent over two decades as a labor organizer and elected officer. There are a lot of different roles in the labor movement here in Chicago. And so I'm really excited and honored to be here today. Before I introduce our distinguished panel, I feel like I keep teasing this a little bit. I have a couple questions for the room. How many people here are UAW members? Okay, all right. So we have a lot of experts on this topic in the room. How many people here are UAW supporters? All right, okay. How many people did not raise their hand to either of those questions? Okay, I'm just checking to see. I think we're live streamed too. So if there's any of our enemies, they might be out there as well. So I'm not going to waste too much time. You guys didn't come here to see me talk. But I'm going to introduce our panel quickly and then I'm going to kick it over to them to talk about their roles and what they've done, what they see happening right now and what they see in the future for the UAW. So just down the line to my left, we have got Lashawn English, who's the director of UAW Region 1 based in Detroit. We have Scott Holdison, who is the chair of the Steering Committee of Unite All Workers for Democracy and a longtime leader in UAW Local 551 at Fort Chicago Assembly. To his left, we have Luigi Jokage. Jokai. Jokai. I knew. I checked that like five times. I still fucked it up. Luigi is the vice president of Local 51 at Mac Assembly in Detroit. And then we have Miley McCann, who is from Local 872 in California at USC. So without further ado, I'm going to hand it over to Scott. I'd like the panelists to give a little bit more of an introduction of their history. And then we want to hear about what's been happening inside the UAW. Thank you, Alex. Everybody hear me out there? Okay. My name is Scott Holdison. Like Alex said, I chair the Steering Committee for UAWD. I've been an auto worker for 35 years here on the south side of Chicago at Fort Chicago Assembly Plant. I started out on the assembly line in 1989. I went into skilled trades and I've held a couple of positions at my local alternate committee person, financial secretary and vice president. I ran for president and lost and that's when I helped found UAWD. And you know, it's probably a good thing I lost that election because there's a lot of exciting things that are coming out of UAWD. But rebuilding a fighting UAW has really been a multi-generational process. But it started early on in the history of the UAW. But my experience, I learned a lot about DRUM, the Dadra Revolutionary Union movement, about locals against concessions, about the United National Caucus, about new directions movement which brought Jerry Tucker on to the International Executive Board, Auto Worker Caravan, which is several of my mentors. I was a member of the Auto Worker Caravan and Soldiers of Solidarity and then UAWD. So this is not something that just happened overnight. We are building on the fight that has been going on for decades now. And you know, I'd like to recognize some of the people in the room, but I'm not going to point everybody out, but I do want to thank Bill Parker for his involvement in many of those fights and the same thing with Amy Thompson and Ron Lair and George Window. So during the, you know, 2020, 2021, we won a vote for a referendum so we could directly elect our international officers. But before that, during these earlier fights, our referendum was the contract ratification votes. So in my time when I really got a fire lit under me to try and reform this union, it was in 2007 when they brought in the tiered wage and benefit structure. And that really burned me. I didn't want to see the next generation of UAW members have a lower standard of living. We were supposed to be fighting to improve the lives of workers, not set them backwards. And then in 2009, they came to Ford first for modifications of that already bad 2007 contract. And in 2009 when they came to us with modifications, they said, Ford workers, you want to set the pattern, right? We were in pattern bargaining, right? You want to set the pattern because GM and Chrysler are probably going to go bankrupt and you don't want them setting the pattern for you. So we begrudgingly accepted some give backs. We lost our cost of living allowance. We lost a minute of break time. Why they needed a minute of break time? I'm not sure, but we still haven't got that back. We lost a holiday. There are several things that we lost. But, you know, that wasn't enough for the greedy bastards. That was in February. They came back after they went to GM and Chrysler and got better deals for those companies. They came back and asked us to follow their pattern. After they had already told us we should be setting the pattern. So in the second round of give backs in 2009 of concessionary bargaining, we voted that second round down. And that set a tone for fight back against these concessions that were coming in the wake of the Great Recession. So the next referendum we had was then in 2011 when we had another contract brought our way that did not make us whole. It did not bring Kola back. It did not get rid of the two-tier wage and benefit structure. So when that contract came, I was a little bit more mature in my thinking about the UAW, and I put together a pamphlet. And that pamphlet was called Exceed Our Expectations. And I passed that out at our... That was a contract campaign, basically is what it was. I passed it out at our local. I talked about the exorbitant compensation for the executives at Ford. Then I talked about the sacrifices that we had made over the last couple of contracts. And I said we deserved to get all of that back. We deserved to be made whole because Ford has been making money ever since they came back to get that second round of concessions. So not only did I pass it out at my plant, but I sent a copy to Vice President Jimmy Settles. He wrote back to me and he said, you know, it's really not a good idea to be passing this out to your membership because it's going to confuse them. And oh, and by the way, you don't tell anybody that I sent you this letter. So then when the Attentive Agreement was put together and presented to us, I kind of broke it down for my co-workers and explained, I did the math for them and explained what it would cost if Ford Motor Company, if they had just frozen Colette 99 cents an hour instead of taking it away from us. And I also broke down the math for what it would take for if everybody was Tier 1 and everybody's wages were at the top pay scale. And it works out that Ford would, instead of making $6.6 billion in 2010, they would have only made $6.41 billion. And they made everybody whole. So after passing that out, our plant voted that contract down by 77%. The problem was it went on to pass at most of the other plants. So I learned a lesson there. I learned that you cannot just focus on your own plant. You have to talk to people all across the network of Ford Motor Company plants. Are we getting close? All right, well, and then in 2015, Fiat Chrysler, we put out lowlights. They rejected the first contract offers that did not include a path to top pay for workers. And the International Executive Board was freaking out about that. They went back and rearranged the duct chairs on the Titanic and came back with an eight-year progression in a four-year contract to top pay and expanded uses of temps. In 2019, the corruption scandal in the UAW really broke loose. And that's when UAWD was formed right during the GM strike. And a lot of the workers at GM that were on strike knew what they were fighting for. But they weren't hearing a word from Solidarity House. They did not know what their negotiators were giving away, but they knew that they were giving away the farm because they had seen the results in the convictions of the guilty pleas coming out of Fiat Chrysler already and knew that we had corrupt officials all the way to the top of our union. So I'm going to close there and let LaShawn talk a little bit more about what happened after that. Thank you, Scott. Can you guys hear me? Okay. Great presentation to talk about, Scott. So I'm going to give you a little history about myself. I'm one of the people I went the right way. I thought I went the right way. So as a reason when he said rebuilding is different. So I was someone that I always call my story sometimes. I'm Dorothy. The world was risen. The Wizard of Oz was the UAW. And so I started, I got involved. I mean, I'm also a trace by hand. So I came out of the building trade. So anybody here come out of the building trades, you understand? So we is a different kind of building of unionism, you know? So but everyone always talk about the UAW. I'm from Flint. So but I'm from a UAW town and I do understand the UAW. And I saw how powerful it was in the city of Flint. I mean, everything in Flint, it was the most beautiful place to live. I mean, literally, people will not believe you. I know most of you probably heard about the water, but I tell you what, Flint was the place everyone wanted to come. I mean, it was where everything started, even in the auto industry itself. So I knew about the UAW. So of course I knew it was this fantastic place to be. But I didn't really want to go in the plant at first because I was like, you know, I'm kind of free-filling. I just want to be, do whatever I want to be honest. It was one of those kids was like, I just want to go and come. So I got into building trades by either here or there because I was in college not doing that supposed to, but either way. So but I was always a fighter, always was fighting for the underdog. So that's something that I always deal with fight for others that, you know, that wanted something because that's what Flint put inside of people from Flint. I don't know if y'all know, but you can look up people from Flint and see how successful we have more athletes, more people or rich people come out of the city of Flint because how we were raised in Flint to fight for other people. So I was in the building trades and I got in the UAW. I was like, okay, I made it. I really made it. I'm way to a union that's, you know, the rules are where they are. Everything is great. So I got involved. I started attending the union meetings. I think my first little disappointed in the union was, I saw, I was on second shift and they shift was getting jackets and they were getting all the nice stuff and I was, went to the union. So I have 50 people show up at the union meet and the man that we got jacking and the membership was like, we can do that. I was like, this is our union. And then I started realizing that it's kind of the organization forgot about the membership. They just assumed that you just following the lead. I was like, wow. So I started running for office. I got elected as the recording secretary. I held that as three terms. But during that two, three terms, Bill Parker was the president and it was during that bankruptcy. And I remember General Holyfield and I still remember this to the day. And one of our chairperson was also in a negotiation team with Bill and I was the recording secretary and the vice president of Chrysler at the time. He was threatening the negotiators. I thought, wow, this is pretty crazy. This isn't supposed to be what we want. He was basically like, no, Bill did something to try to save his plan when she did. But this man who we looked up to and the leadership was like, no, they came into our plan to force our members to vote the contract in. We had a, I think it was a four hour strike, but they forced, they literally threatened. It wasn't the company. It was the union. So that kind of put a little bad taste in my mouth, but it did make me want to do more. But I was like, okay, I'm going to do more. So I got the job of the president. Then I became a national negotiator and I'm like, okay, I can do some real rebuilding here. This is where the real rebuilding happens because I'm the person sitting at that table making demands as a president. Yes, I came from skilled trades. But like Scott said, I didn't believe that someone could be working side by side watching it every day doing the exact same work. This is United States. This is America. What is this happening? And why are we not upset about this? That bothered me more than my members were not upset that someone, because that's how much we have been beat down, that was okay for someone to do the same work. And having these conversations with the members, they was like, well, I started at this. I'm like, where did you start at? They make this make sense. When did we stop caring? I'm like, wow, this union doesn't really care. During negotiation, I stand up at the meetings and I talk about this subject and none of the negotiators or none of the other leadership cared about the two tier. I was like, this is crazy. So it kind of left a little bad taste in my taste. But I tell you what, in 2015, I was the only negotiator I told Norwood and Dennis William were not passing this contract, believe me. And when it failed, they all wanted to talk. I was like, wow, you want to talk now? But it's more, you got to do more. So I kept my journey and I made sure I kept my membership but like Scott said, it was like, we need more. So we went when I was loved at the UAWD and then when a monitor came over and made us have to have the one member. Well, before we were getting ready to vote on a one member, one vote. The international was so conceded. Their message was to tell our members they didn't have a message. They didn't think it was gonna pass. So I was like, they have no real message for the new people. They have no real message. We have to rebuild this union to get the things that we need. So it passed. And then Lord Behold, I said, I knew nothing really about the UAWD but I was kind of cocky and arrogant. I said, I'm going to run against them because somebody, I didn't even think I was going to win. I said, I didn't think I was going to win. But I said, you know what, I'm not letting them wanting to walk in there without somebody coming for them. So they can really understand. So I ran on a slate. The UAWD sponsored me, supported me. We all won. Sean Faye won. Our team won. Our team won. And I tell you what, I am so proud of the IE board. Matter of fact, I want to make sure to say something. Mike Miller, he's in the room. Could you please stand up for a second, Mike Miller? Mike didn't run on our slate. But I tell you what, I think this IE board, I'm this IEB board that I'm on, the most powerful board. This is a fighting board. I tell you what, Mike will tell you this. Mike's a good fighter too, I will say this. Mike's a fighter. But I will say this, we're rebuilding our UAWD right now. We're really doing the work. We still got to talk to our membership, but we're really doing what our Constitution tells us that we need to do. We are actually today, hopefully today, I'll give you out of it before the day is over, that we get this Volkswagen, you know. We're going to get Volkswagen. We're going to get Mercedes-Benz. We're going to be the big six once again. We're not going to, and we're organizing like crazy. But our membership needs to understand why. That's what you mean. That's rebuilding your union. We're making, we reinvented ourselves. And I tell you what, the best thing it is, we're listening to our membership. It doesn't, it's not a separation anymore. I hear people tell me all the time, I can't believe someone this high official like you will talk to me or even listen to me. That's crazy. This is the UAW membership. This is your union. I never take it that I can be in this spot forever. I take it that if I don't leave a footprint when I leave this spot, it made it better than I didn't do anything that I need to just move on to. So I'm just telling you, rebuilding this is about the membership. Listening and hearing what they got to say. And then also educating them. Because again, sometimes people are not educated to understand what rebuilding is. Because rebuilding is about educating everyone. Because we also in Mexico, I don't know if you, a lot of UAW members are here. But we got like six, seven, eight people that's going to be going to Mexico here. And we're organizing down there because a lot of our jobs are going there. They're going there. You know, we're helping those juniors down there. Yes, yes. We're not leaving anybody. I mean, Ford just got something in that contract. If you got an EV, we can get those EV plans. So you know, that's what rebuilding is. Building the strength. And also teaching our members that you got to be involved in politics. Because like I said, I mean, we only got two weeks from maternity leave. For me, that was not building enough because here's the thing. We're America. Other countries have more time for maternity leave or time with their family and stuff. But guess what? We got to get those laws passed. We got to get some rebuilding because it's the knowing how to rebuild. Knowing what to do to rebuild. That's what rebuilding is. So, okay, I'm going to let it go on to the other one so we can have questions. But again, it's all about within you and taking from what's inside of you and building a great union. Oh, I got two women. One more person. Danny Vicente. Put your hand up. Put your hand up. Also was on, he also won on our reform. So we reformed the union. He's also on the IE board with me. Also in region nine. Yes. Nine? Still not better than one. Luigi. All right. Yeah. Luigi, go ahead. So a lot of people might have heard these last two stories and wonder why did we talk so much about what happened in the past and then a lot of the negative aspects of what happened in the UAW at the time. Well, number one is we're auto workers. We don't shy from what we did and we're ready to fight. The second part is you got to know where you've been before you know where you're going. And that way you don't repeat the mistakes of the past all over again. And my, I guess, origin story is similar to theirs even though it took place a little later. I came in in 2010 and I got hired in under the tier two structure. And I was at local seven Jefferson North Assembly plant. And I was there for 10 years. And that's where I learned a lot, a lot of good things from a lot of good people. But I was one of those workers that just wanted to work, do his job every day. Didn't want to get too involved in the union. And I was kind of comfortable and I had a lot of people that did the work for me. So it was cushy. I didn't, you know, I don't have to go to my meetings. I don't have to do a lot. And I figured they'll get my raises for me and they'll bargain everything for me. And as long as I show up to work every day and do my job, I'm okay. I'll just be a cog in the wheel or a spoke on the wheel. 2015 rolls around. And they said, well, we're never going to make you into tier one. And I said, wait a minute. Aren't you supposed to fight for me? I got to fight for myself. All right, let's get it going. And we started, we started going to meetings. We started getting involved and we let a massive vote note campaign on it and it passed. And then I realized how powerful your voice can be and how powerful it can be when you actually attend your meetings, go to your meetings. Even though all the meetings aren't always the best. I mean, let's be honest. Sometimes they get a little out of hand. But if you don't have a seat at the table, you're probably on the menu. That's the phrase we used to always hear, right? And you never want to be on the menu. So in 15, I started getting involved more. And I said, man, if I could make those changes and inspire some people at those conversations, I want to run for some kind of position. And I ran for the executive board. And that's where I started really learning the inner workings of what parliamentary procedure is, what emotion is, how to do things, how to structure things, how to read contract, what happens when an appeal comes before it. And I really started educating myself and got my foundation on the executive board. 2020, I ended up transferring to MAC assembly plant. And MAC was an interesting plant because they were also rebuilding. They were an engine plant and they went down and they were under receivership and they had lost their local hall because membership had gone down so much and their members were placed into different locals and different plants. And all of a sudden, we got a product back and in 2020, we started running the Jeep Grand Cherokee and the Jeep Grand Cherokee L so we transformed into an assembly plant. Anyone that knows me knows I've always been a little more on the militant side and I speak my mind. And I started getting really involved in a plant in COVID hit. COVID hit and it was crazy. We were like, why are we working here all day every day? And instead of waiting for everybody to do something, I grabbed a bunch of people and said, we're not working anymore. And we literally led among multiple plants, we're going to stand on the blue. And we started doing it at SHAP, at JNAP, at Warren Truck, at MAC. And that showed the true power. The power is not in the leadership, the power is in the membership. Regular workers with no title in front of their name stood up and said, we are not going to put ourselves in harm's way. The whole country is shut down. It's time for us to shut it down. And we did. Until under that ran for, ran for delegate and that's where I really got exposed to a lot of the things that were happening and I had no idea that there was a reform caucus or that there was a UAWD caucus. I just thought, you know, I have all these ideas. I didn't know there was an entire movement at the time that had very, very similar ideas that wanted to transform and reform this great union of ours because it is great. Ended up going to the convention, meeting a lot of people, ran for vice president, got elected as vice president. Led the first practice picket in UAW history and that was part of the rebuild and it was based on a lot of stuff that people like LaShon and Scott Holdison and the Bill Parkers of the world started and it was a foundation that I had and you always got to pay homage to the past because we stand on the shoulders of giants and we honestly owe them such, such a round of applause. It's not even enough to give them a round of applause. We owe them everything, we owe them everything and now we owe to the next future. You always owe. You owe to the past and you owe to the future because if you don't, you're going to get stuck in the present and you're never going to go anywhere. Leading that practice picket was just an idea. Again, I had just gotten elected but it was an idea of me and Jesse Kelly out of local 160 were talking one day and like most auto workers were probably having a drink or two and we saw the Teamsters leading their doing a practice picket and I said, man, why don't we do that? And Jesse goes, yeah, why don't we? I go, I don't know, it's a good idea. Why don't we make some phone calls? And we made a bunch of phone calls and literally just through grassroots, rank and files type of actions, we had this entire practice picket get started. LaShon gets involved and goes, hey, what are you guys doing? Whatever you're doing, we're here to help. Region 1 got involved heavily. Sean Fain called and said, oh, I'm showing up. And it turned into the biggest thing in my 14 years with the UAW and it spread to different sectors and we had all these great things going on. And I think it really inspired the world. It inspired the world to take and do what we were doing and take it to their workplace. No matter how small, how large, whether it was higher ed, whether it was gaming, whether it was auto, it didn't matter what you were doing, it was working people looking at the UAW and saying, we want that and that's part of the whole rebuild. And I think that's a great T-up to get into Miley over here with higher ed on how she was doing a lot of things, part of the rebuild. Yeah, thanks all. I think the fact that I'm sitting on this panel now as a higher ed worker really speaks to the sign of the times. So I think we painted a really cool narrative about where we've been and where we are now and the UAW that I walked into. So I guess I'll give a little orientation about how I got into labor through the academic space and talk a little bit about how I see the UAW right now. But yeah, I entered higher ed, I think, out of this deep disillusionment with the system that we're all currently living in. I saw higher ed as a way out of this feeling of economic precarity. More and more folks are expected to have higher degrees in order to secure jobs. And I saw higher ed as, this is the narrative that's sold. I saw higher ed as an opportunity to have autonomy over my working conditions and get this degree and be in this field that's supposed to be quote-unquote prestigious or whatever. And I really quickly learned that that narrative is what allows us to be exploited by our bosses. Our bosses use that narrative every day so that they can profit off of our labor. And I think when we think about our labor and our position as workers, the only person that serves to benefit from not having the class consciousness to understand our place in the working class is our bosses. And there's really nothing complicated about it. We're working 40 plus hours a week emphasis on the plus for our employer and we rely solely on the salary and benefits that our employer is providing us. Many of us even have design clauses that say we can't take outside employment. So the salary that we are getting from our bosses is the money that we see in our paycheck. And I really, I just, I dare someone, I dare our bosses to look at my coworker in the eye and tell her she doesn't deserve dependent healthcare to pay for the medical expenses of her four-year-old daughter because they give her tuition money. She can't feed her daughter with tuition money. And so workers are across the country and more and more starting to realize that and starting to realize the value of our labor at the university. We are the ones that are doing the essential teaching, the essential research. We are the backbone of the research engine and system that is the University of Southern California and universities across the country. The thing is people know their own material conditions, right? So my coworkers know that they can't go home to visit their family for Christmas because then they won't be able to buy groceries. And they know that they spend 60% of their salary on rent for an apartment that's two hours away by transit because they can't, you know, make car payments and they can't afford anything closer. You know, they really understand that viscerally whether or not someone tells them that they can be a worker or not. And they spend, you know, 10 hours plus a day in a lab so that their supervisor can use their work to apply for a $2 million grant. Like, you're a worker. And someone you can ask if we're a worker or not as our bosses because we are coming off of this really militant and powerful first contract campaign. And, you know, when the key concessions were made that allowed us to, you know, tentatively agree to a really powerful contract was the day before we threatened to go on strike. And so our bosses are obviously aware of the value that our labor brings to the university because they did everything they could to avoid us withholding our labor. So I'll just talk really briefly about the contract campaign and kind of my role there so you can kind of see where we're at with our union right now. We voted to form a union last February and then we quickly started negotiations for our first contract pretty soon after that. I was, you know, grateful to have been a bargaining team member and help lead this kind of escalatory campaign to put pressure on our bosses eventually building up to this credible strike threat that I mentioned. And we won a contract that my coworkers and I are really, really proud of. We won guaranteed wage increases for the next three years that we've never had before. Our lowest paid workers are getting up to 24% raises throughout the life of the contract. We have, you know, industry, you know, standard setting, childcare benefits now. We have dependent healthcare, which is kind of unprecedented in higher ed for all you academic workers. And I guess, you know, we're all organizers here so I can mention we won an agency shop which is kind of huge for union security, which is something I'm kind of excited about. So we made these huge wins in this contract campaign because of our, you know, militant and dedicated campaign. And that's my introduction to the UAW. My introduction to the UAW is Sean Fane's UAW. Is Mike Miller's UAW. Is, you know, LaShawn's UAW. It's our UAW. And my introduction has been, you know, the UAW giving the support and guidance through our first contract campaign to, like, improve my coworkers and I's material conditions in such an immediate sense. And so I've been introduced to the movement through deep organizing, through new organizing and, you know, through the militant action that's going on right now across the entire UAW. Stand up strikes. Yeah, so that's been my introduction and obviously, you know, we're standing on the shoulders of giants. You've seen the narrative that's been built. That's led us here to the current moment. So much props goes to everyone that's come before me but that's my background and excited to hear y'all's questions. Let's give another round of applause to the whole panel before we move on. Thank you so much. So before we get to questions from the audience, I've got a couple specific questions for some of the folks on the panel. And I want to go, I mean, Scott, there was like a rich history that you talked about and I think it goes much further back and goes more deeply and I think others touched on some of that as well. Luigi talked about, frankly, the, you know, being inspired by the Teamsters and their practice pickets during their UPS contract campaign. And I think we all, I think we all know something about the Teamsters for a Democratic Union and that deep rich history of building democracy. Something that is a constant struggle and something we have to constantly fight. But I wanted to go back, Scott, to something you talked about, your loss in your election when you ran for president. And frankly, I think we also talked about, you know, different attempts to reform to change the top leadership of the UAW. Many of them won enormous victories, but weren't able to get over the top to that victory. And I want to hear a little bit more from you about how those, you know, we are all in the labor movement as fighters. A lot of times we lose more than we win. Those victories are going to count for more and move us forward. But I want to hear you talk a little bit about learning from those losses, learning from the efforts before, and also for yourself in thinking about how your election loss translated into your leadership in the caucus that helped create this moment. Sure. Losses is part of growth. If you're, if you're not losing, you're not reaching for the next level. And in the union movement, the next level is a more democratic union. So, you know, you're going to have the forces that want to hold you back. That you're going to have the forces that want to repress you. So, you know, for instance, you know, I'm not going to talk, especially right now about my presidential election. What I want to talk about is those constitutional conventions, because I was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention in 2010, 2014, 2018, and 2022. In 2010, I cast the first vote for Gary Walkowitz, who was running as a dissident against the Administration Caucus' chosen candidate Bob King. And, you know, the way the convention elections go is they do a roll call vote where they start at the lowest number local and then they progress through the locals. So they started at local four, which was the lowest number local at the time. I think it still is. And by the time they got to local 551, there had been nobody yet to vote for Gary Walkowitz. That's how controlled the delegates are in the Constitutional in a convention system of elections. When it got to local 551, my president got up and said, our local is splitting our votes. They cast theirs for Bob King, and then I got up to the microphone and cast my vote for Gary Walkowitz. And much to my surprise, there was a thundering boo from the delegates all around the convention hall. 1,500 delegates were booing me. Well, it was probably more like 1,200, but it sounded like 2,000. And they were booing me because I cast a vote for a candidate that was destined to lose. Now, what does that say about the convention system in the UAW? They can't even let one person vote for the other candidate? So, you know, it was really shocking to me. And much to his credit, another fellow from local 551 had pledged to vote for Gary Walkowitz. That was Carlos Lara. And he came up right behind me and voted for Gary as well and got the same treatment. And then in subsequent constitutional conventions, they would start passing out these noisemakers, whether they were the plastic blow-up bats that they would bang together or clickers. And any time that one of us that was known to have, you know, gone the wrong way, been a dissident, any time one of us got up to make a point, they would employ their noisemakers to try and drown us out. That's why I learned to speak really loud into microphones. So, you know, those were some of the situations fighting to reform the UAW during those years when... And these were the years where they were taking bribes from the company. That's how brazen they were. That's how sure they were that they were not going to get caught and that their jobs were secure, more secure than they thought mine was. But I'm still here and they're not. So then to go back to Alex's point, you know, you win some elections, you lose some elections, but as long as you keep that north star of union democracy in front of you, you're going to be okay. The key is to not quit, to not get discouraged because it's discouraging to lose. And, you know, you can go, you know, drown your tears in your beer for, you know, a couple weeks, and then you got to get back on the saddle and start fighting the fight on the organizing, on the shop floor where the real power lies, right? So that's what we did with UAWD, my co-chair, Chris Budnick. I'm not sure if Chris is in here right now. If you are, stand up. Chris Budnick got... I don't see him. Anyway, I see everybody turned around, but I didn't see Chris stand up. Chris Budnick got Article 30 charges drafted and passed at Local 862, which is one of the biggest locals in the UAW. Down in Kentucky, they have two assembly plants down there. He got the Article 30 charges against Gary Jones, the sitting president. Now, here's a second-tier worker who has the courage to write charges against the sitting international president and then take it to his union meeting not once, not twice, three, four times he had to go to get it passed. He got it shot down the first time, the second time, the third and the fourth time it passed, and then the momentum started building on these charges. In the UAW, you have to file charges, get an affidavit and file charges in your local, and then you have to get 10 other locals to agree with that. We had organized five other locals besides Chris's, and then it came in the front page news of the Detroit News that we were doing this, and lo and behold, that very day, the International Executive Board decided, well, we better hit them off at the pass, and they filed the charges and within a week, both Gary Jones and Vance Pearson were no longer members of the UAW. So I've seen a lot of courage in these movements, and they're coming from the rank and file, they're coming from people that are in precarious positions, but they're willing to stand up and fight for your rights to have a Democratic Union. Anything else you want me to... That was a fantastic answer, Scott. Well, I think we're going to keep going as we go through more questions, but thank you, Scott, for that. And my next question is going to be both for Luigi and for LaShawn. And I want to, because both of you have kind of been elected into new roles in the recent past, right? And you've been, I think, I imagine that is stretching your, you know, thinking about your own leadership capacity, making you think about experiences you've had in the past. You outlined some of those. And I think for a lot of us here at Labor Notes and our part of the labor movement, we understand that leadership is not there to do things for members, right? We understand that leadership is there to give space for members to actually express the power that they have on the shop floor. It's a pretty general question, so you can answer it in whatever way you want. But what are some of the things that you have learned coming into your new roles and positions, or what are the things that you try to keep in mind about giving members the ability to act and take control and be in charge of their own union? So either one of you wants to start... Oh boy. I know I got two people who can answer this question very well. I think the biggest thing when you first get into a leadership role is to remember that when you hear somebody complaining about something, not to dismiss it, no matter how small it may seem. And to remember that at one point you complained about something and wanted something done yesterday. And I think sometimes we get into leadership roles and we get engulfed in the immense responsibilities we have and the giant weight we have and the responsibilities we carry. And we sometimes forget that every single member and every single voice matters. No matter how small, no matter how unimportant it may seem, you just got to always pay attention. And you got to remember that you're a person on the floor one day. You always want to give them access to you as a leader because what real leaders do is they build more leaders. They don't build followers. You never want to surround yourself with yes men because at some point you'll start believing your own hypocrisy and your own bullshit. And if you start doing that you run into problems that they had to go through. See I get to talk about all the good stuff because they were the frontline warriors. I came along a little on the back end. You got to build more leaders because ultimately more leaders build a stronger union. And to people who might be hearing this for the first time or don't understand some of the inner workings of the UAW, you're hearing about us talking about reforms and fighting against some of our own leaders. Imagine, imagine if we're fighting our own like that, imagine what the bosses got coming for them. You know what I mean? If we're going to fight our own like that we're going to burn down the house all I wanted to do was have a voice on my local union and when you become a leader you always remember let everyone have a voice. Everyone deserves a seat at the table. Can you hear me? I say like Luigi said, first thing you have to remember that you have to have passion for your membership. You have to. You have to care about other people. I think that was the most thing for me getting elected. That kept me elected too because I got elected over 20 years so I kept getting elected. I always believe and listen to the membership. I also believe in hearing everyone's concern because again I have to remember, as Maya said when I came in there I was like everyone wants a union and they want to feel like this is their union and they belong to something. You're not, I'm tired of going to sleep and not knowing what's going on in your job or what's going on with your life. I think those things that happened it did wake people up to realize that this can be taken from us. So during my journey and where I'm at now I make sure everyone if a member brings something to me we're getting training on there. We're going to make sure we have it available for the reach because I'm educating my members. I'm educating them. I think we have, yes. I make sure the information get out there. I do even do some Facebook live. A couple of people say well she's giving out information or you hear people say why is she telling people what's going on? It's their union. As long as you realize it's the member's union and you'll never have a passion to have to worry about somebody running against you or doing the right thing. So I believe like Luigi said I got to make sure this union is here for me when I leave. I got to make sure the world is better for someone else. So in my position that's what I believe in. Making it better for everyone. I have so many classes I think we last year so I've only been in an office a year and two months, three months. That hasn't been long. It's amazing that we really have not been in these positions that long. But I have had almost over 5,000 people that has been through training at the region of some form of fashion to make a sure. Yes. And we're going to do more and we're opening up committees that I think are relevant to the union. Anything like I said Jesse Kelly I got to make sure this is about her. Like Luigi said when they wanted to do something regarding a rally and they wanted, they were activated, most people did not want to do that. There was no other person wanted even really to do this. And I'm like if my membership wanted I want it. Let's go. And like Luigi said we had so many people there I don't think I have it was cars everywhere. It was amazing but they didn't stop. I mean they did caravans to each other's strike place. So you got to make sure you feed the membership. You have to continue to feed them to make sure that this is their union. And they go back and talk to people on the floor. So I think in the leadership position you have to continue to grow. You have to. You just have to continue to grow. All right. Thank you both. I've got a question for Miley too. And my understanding Miley is that at USC the grad workers voted to form a union during the runoff internal election. Is that correct? Like right before the final results of the election or right in that time. And then recently won your first contract. That's right. I want to hear from you a little bit of your thoughts about how not just higher ed workers but how new organizing and workers who are joining the UAW now who don't have that experience of that history but who are hearing about it how that can feed the rebuilding and the continued revitalization of the union. Yeah definitely. I mean I think inherently there's something reformist about new organizing right because new voices, new energy you're really invigorating the movement by bringing in new workers and organizing resources as well. And we know this because new organizing made the old guard scared for a while right. There was a lack of new organizing for a really long time. And you know that's a big thing I think an underpinning of new organizing and it's a really it's an opportunity I think to build to plant the tree right because when you're starting a union from scratch you have to determine what your organizing structures are and what your organizing model is and what your leadership structures are and you have to set really intentional goals for how you're going to empower your membership to cultivate mass action and cultivate mass participation and empower people to run for leadership positions and become leaders in their departments and in their workplace. So I think new organizing is inherently like you know revitalizing the organization in a lot of ways just by bringing in new workers and new voices and like I said you know we're really every day we're determining in a really granular sense like how we're going to build our union yeah. Alright that's fantastic. Yeah go for it Louie. I just want to add one thing to that that everybody who is union or UAW should honestly be looking at the higher ed for a lot of inspiration I mean they're trailblazing stuff right now it's like back in the 20s and 30s and we have to look at how hard they're fighting to get where we're at that should inspire us and let a fire under our ass that we should be going even higher than where we're at right now we should not get complacent at all we should keep fighting as hard as they are and bring them up with us remember rising tides raise all ships let's get it going people. Yeah Louie gee thank you and I've got you know I think we've had in a pretty short amount of time a very broad overview of what's happened I do have a question that I want to kind of put to anybody on the panel who wants to answer it and that really is we've had this amazing success right one member one vote just being fought for I know and talked about in a lot of other unions as well that's a real path obvious path right now to a level of union revitalization we also know that that is not a solution there is no you can't win this fight you know these unions are living breathing things we have hundreds of thousands of members we have hundreds of local unions and I imagine I don't know I'm not a UAW member I'm not in these meetings but I imagine not everybody is fully on board with this program I imagine that not everybody is continuing to want to do that kind of organizing do you think that's true and so I want to see what you all think about what are ways that you can bring others in the union in who are still skeptical whether that's local leaders you know whether that's rank and filers and maybe also even if you have a thought about it whether that's workers who might be UAW members in the near future what are some of the ways to think about continuing to build internally and building that strength and how do you think about some of the internal obstacles that are going to remain I mean I think ultimately everything starts at the local level it starts with the shop stewards right more so not more so but the membership obviously it starts with the membership but when you're talking about leadership positions it starts with your shop stewards every single NLRB case or major grievance or anything that was one in arbitration started when a steward wrote a step one grievance you can only be as strong as your weak link and if your weak link is a steward boy that's going to be a really weak chain when it gets up the ladder so you have to have that empowered at the base level and you start today and you start tomorrow and you hold these leadership these leadership people accountable if your stewards aren't doing the jobs they're supposed to be doing find out why talk to them see do they need assistance from the floor remember not everything is just about leadership are you a team leader are you a team member are you able to let your steward know things that are happening on the floor to be that information asset to them remember if you're not an asset you're probably a liability we should all strive to be assets help the stewards they in turn help the committees each one reach one each one teach one it's a phrase we've heard a hundred million times it's something my immigrant grandfather told me and he knew very little English but he knew that phrase and I think that's where it starts at everything starts at the local level and if you have a strong steward structure you in turn have a strong committee structure and then you have your organizing committees and your different standing committees the upper leadership your presidents your vice president recording a financial secretaries have no choice but to be strong because if they're not they're going to be going real quick so you have to start with the foundation like a pyramid everything starts right here and it goes to the top it's very similar to how our international UAW has been acting lately they're not leading from from mount high and saying hey we should do this and we should do that they're saying hey guys what do you want to do we come up with an idea they say bet let's go and let's do it it's that phrase they're not going from the top down they're starting from the bottom and we're leading up and that's how your local structure has to be I do want to say one thing I think some people kind of don't realize that the UAW do recognize more than just auto and higher ed and we have the majority are our independent part suppliers and to be honest we have a lot of work in this section because those members like so we have heavy truck I mean you may not realize we have MAC I actually have dog catchers I have parole officers I have a whole sector in our our union so I do want to make sure that everyone don't get record contracts but as Luigi said it does start there's a couple of things that happen though if you organize an IPS they can take that plant and move it down the street and then you have to reorganize that plant so IPS world is a very hard world they cut each other's throat so I definitely want to make sure to you know some people are getting higher wages and they understand but it also starts with the leadership and you have to understand that it is fighting on your shop floor because we do a lot of organizers at the region you guys hear about these big organizing that's going on right now but I will tell you right now in my region organizing Mike will tell you that Dan will tell you we're organized we're getting contracts every day but I can tell you when I got in office this is like what bothered me there was some locations where only making $12 an hour and I mean they haven't had a contract in 8 years so we got rebuilding they also make members that these independent parts plants who have been left behind where we do need this pro act where we do need where these companies be held accountable where these billionaires can't just you know so we got working the UAW to do on that part too because it ain't all rosy I'm just keeping it real but we really need to bring our other brothers and sisters up too to make sure everyone knows that because I never want to leave out those people because they do feel sometimes like they're not part of the magic that's going on they don't feel that but they have to learn they got to educate themselves and we're here to help but also what I also need people when they talk to their politicians this pro act making sure everybody can join a union it's very important very very important because like I said they can literally take their job and move it right across the street and I have to really go reorganize and start right from the bottom where she said so just wanted to make sure everyone is clear on that but rebuilding we got we as a UAW we have we are helping rebuild other unions we are helping any young like the teamsters we working with them we working on other organization ATF we're working we're doing a lot of joint programs that way we do grow because people I don't think I forgot how many unions it is in the whole United States but May Day is coming and we're May Day is coming and we're working on a plan for May Day and that's what it mean rebuilding and rebuilding we got to make sure union is for everyone if you truly want to rebuild every member should be a union member and they should be able to join a union when they want to assign a car and that's what it means and it shouldn't take years because I'm going to tell you she's right about she got a first contract I'm going to tell you right now it takes years years to get first contracts for some locations and it's very depressing it's very depressing so it ain't all rosy but that's what it means by rebuilding we need those type of leaders on the ground to make sure that they're rebuilding not only the union but politicians too that was fantastic before we move to the next piece Miley did you want to jump in on this sorry sorry I was just getting so caught up that yeah let's hear from Miley and Scott sorry I'll be brief but yeah I think to your kind of original question leadership is really from what I've seen leadership is really a reflection of how organized you are as a union and so a bottom up movement like I said from what I've seen is really cultivated by building these deep organizing structures and empowering your coworkers to be those leaders exactly like what you said Luigi it starts from the ground up and so a ground up worker led movement will be reflected in your leadership if your organizing structures are there and then just one thing I wanted to comment on quickly is that what we're talking about here is extremely inward focused right and I think that's really important I think having the conversation about union democracy is really really important but I think we still have to think about the broader lessons kind of that we're drawing I guess as workers and make sure that some of our orientations are still primarily outward focused meaning that we want to keep our focus on the class struggle at hand and remember who our enemies are because a lot of times I think we can get bogged down at least in the academic space by really getting extremely focused on what our internal structures look like and like I said that's deeply important in building a strong union but workers can kind of draw some dangerous lessons sometimes about exclusively having eyes on their union structure which is that if we create a perfect union structure and everything's perfect within our union then that's the only barrier from having a militant union that'll win us the working conditions and compensation that we deserve and I wish that were true I wish that was the only barrier is union structure you know it doesn't I don't think that captures the real scale of the struggle which is that at the end of the day we're not fighting against our union leaders we're fighting against the boss and we're always going to have something more in common with all of our fellow workers whether that be our recording secretary or vice president or president then we have with our boss and so that solidarity I think is so important as we look in we just remember that our primary orientation has to be it's the boss, it's our truest enemy I wanted to highlight real quickly what LaShawn said with an example and that is local 3212 that supplies my plant Maria here is from local 3212 they had a unit from ZF Industries that lost a contract with Ford Ford brought in Flexingate and now Flexingate is non-union so now that's the example it's in the same supplier park supplying the same plant with some of the same products and we still now we have to fight to get that unionized and it's been an uphill battle so that's a first hand example of what LaShawn was just talking about and then the original question that Alex had was you know how there's people that aren't on board with this one member one vote thing and there's a reason for that it's because they are comfortable they don't have to come out of their office they don't have to go down to the shop floor it's very comfortable for them to be in a structure that doesn't require much from them organizing is hard work and it's it wears you down and it's never ending work you have to continually organize your workforce to keep them sharp otherwise if you're not continually organizing your workforce to keep them sharp they're going to start losing that edge on the shop floor in the UAW and in the Big Three we have lost a lot of that edge that we had in the 30s, 40s, 50s and even in the 70s we've lost a lot of that edge a lot of that you know the boss isn't afraid of us the boss used to be afraid when the Stuart would come down that's not the case anymore it's more the other way around the Stuart is afraid to come down and we have to change that culture so there's still a lot of work to do to change that culture in the UAW and earlier today earlier in this session I was talking about some of the people that have come before us and I don't know if Mike wasn't in the room yet but Mike Cannon over there is one of those shining examples of somebody that set the table for this reform movement and is still a part of it thank you Mike alright fantastic I want to move into and we've got a little bit of time at the end here to get some questions from the audience I have to do one based on I was trying to get in right after LaShawn because I had a one little self promotional thing I could do that in these times magazine if you go to our table in the vendors area we have our newest issue we have a little article from a young Hoosier named Shawn Fain about May day 2028 and why we need to line up and start moving forward collectively as labor movement so feel free to go over there union members can get a free subscription and get that issue but I want to move into I have a couple questions I want to ask really quickly of the audience so we can move into questions I want to see can you just quickly raise hands if you have a question you want to ask the panel I want to get like a good sense okay we've got a few I want to do a little experiment in a labor note style progressive stack which is to say who here is a union member who is actively trying to reform their union who has a question for the panelists can you raise your hand if you are a union member who right now is actively attempting to reform your union okay I'm going to take I'm going to take these three hands over here I'm going to cover these four hands we're going to take these four questions and then put that to the panel and then move on okay thank you thank you hi my name is Tony I'm a UPS teamster out of Seattle Washington and my brother is a UAW worker 12 years in Detroit, Michigan I just want to congratulate you for the UAW members here on the huge victories that you've won for not only the UAW members but also for the whole labor movement so my question is as you rebuild the UAW into a strong union what role do you do you think the UAW should play in advancing not just the economic struggle of workers wages benefits ending two-tier really important things but also the political struggle of the working class repealing right-to-work laws taft-heartedly things that the UAW is running up against in the organizing new organizing in the south do you think the UAW should be endorsing the democrats and republicans or taking independent political action for the working class by breaking from these parties all right thank you brother again I'm going to go to these three other questions then we're going to come back to the panel okay I am trying to remember yes hi Mike Leslie I'm retired out of UAW local 735 in Ypsilanti to will a run plant GM power train I'm still involved and one of the things I'm involved in is dealing with issues of race and gender and the labor movement and so excuse me my question is what while my act my local was a very very large activist local we also had a strong right wing movement the militia movement neo-nazis I lost my election to a clansman and so what's happening in terms of dealing with issues of race and gender my plant also had large problems with sexual harassment it was one of our board members was harassed by a supervisor and she sued the plant for a million dollars I had to actually turn in a supervisor who was my friend who was harassing women in the assembly plant and I at the time I was really shy about doing it I was reluctant but I did it and that has sparked me to do more of that work but these are major problems in the labor movement a lot of my old co-workers are Trump supporters and I don't know if that's a big question but what are some of the things that you're planning to do or thinking about doing in terms of tackling those issues alright brother thank you slightly off of my instructions but I think that was a very good question anyway here one second thank you hey my name is Julia Cobelt I'm a member of worker strike back and also a member of UAW local 4121 in Seattle and yeah I'm a research scientist at the University of Washington and we unionized last year with UAW went on strike to win our first contract and it was really exciting and energizing for our local but one limitation was that we didn't really have concrete demands for our contract fight like not any like concrete wage demands members didn't really know what we were fighting for so we had a majority of members out on the picket lines you know a lot of people were still going to work during our strike and so looking at like some other strikes that have been successful like the big three auto worker strike fighting for a 40% raise KCBG Amazon workers that are fighting for $30 an hour and University of California workers that were fighting for $54,000 a year those things are really strong exciting ways to like build a fighting UAW and I was wondering if you guys could answer like what's the role of bold concrete demands in building a fighting union alright fantastic and then one more and then we're going to go to the panel thank you all what you all in UAWD have done have really inspired so many of us I'm an SEIU member and my chapter president is here as well we've had a lot of success in our workplace changing the way our union works and I can imagine ways that we could change the way our local works but our international it feels like a pipe dream we won a big strike in 2020 and that felt like a pipe dream a few years before it when we were imagining that might be something we'd have to do and so I want to know what you would say now in hindsight after reforming your international where should we start if we're thinking that some point during our careers we would love to see an actual reform movement inside of our union what should people in other international that need reform what should they be doing and thinking about and planning alright fantastic thank you for those four questions so another panel has been chewing on this I just want to restate them quickly we had a question from a UPS Teamster which is as you rebuild the union what role does it play in the political struggle of the working class we had a question and this is a real oversimplification of that question but how do you deal with some of those really challenging issues not just issues of race and gender but issues of deep seated racism and misogyny that exist both inside unions in the workplace more broadly we had a question about the role of big demands in building a fighting UAW and continuing to build and then from challenges and where to start with a reform movement in your national union so anybody can pick any of those questions to start with Luigi I kind of want to tie them all together because there are so many similarities it did feel like they were designed to be asked together and I think it comes back to what I was originally talking about on where you started you started with the steward level and you started on the shop floor that's with any reform and with any different movement you start at the shop floor if you have a militant direct, strong, focused shop floor and steward structure as you go higher and higher into the structure they have no choice but to conform or risk getting voted out they may not even believe in what they're saying but if we get what we want I don't care what you believe at the end of the night what you do when you go home and turn around and say man I really don't like some of those workers' rights but you know what I'm going to give them the law that they need to make it happen I'm okay with that because a politician is bought and sold like a pair of trousers and we want to change politics you change politics at your local level we did that in Michigan we overturned the right to work because we got the legislation at the local level we got our state senators we flipped the entire house because we were so pissed off that right to work got rammed down and crammed down our throats on a goddamn spending bill that we didn't have an actual choice to talk about it we flipped that entire legislature to get what we wanted and now anybody else who wants to run and gets the UAW endorsement they better come because we showed them we showed them better than we told them you guys hear that phrase on the shop floor and we did and that is also with your reform and with anything in your UAW structure going all the way up and on the point of how do you and brother I wish I knew a little more in depth what happened over there at IBC and I'm sorry you went through all that but I think even myself and LaShon being on this panel right now speaking is a testament to how the union has always been about diversity LaShon is the first African American woman director of region one ever in the history of the UAW for region one I'm the first ever Albanian elected to any position at local 51 and I think I'm the third ever that held an executive officer position in the entire structure of the UAW so it's there just sometimes we focus on the have nots instead of the haves but I think ultimately even to fix that you start at the ground level everything has to be from the base alright others want to jump in LaShon I'll lay in the back who was talking about your first contract so I wanted to make you aware and we have great education committees so I'm not for sure about your contract or your leadership there the UAW has over 13 different departments in the UAW and that's also going to help answer with some of his questions and people don't utilize we have a civil rights committee down there so when there are concerns like this you can call down there actually we have a website now or a 1-800 number and people will respond to these calls I currently have the women's department and like if you bring in concerns about women's department we're answering those questions we're making sure you get the right resources so I would suggest you get with your regional director in your area and they can make a call for you because you're right here's the thing to win a good contract if you don't ask for something the company is not, you can't go back and start changing stuff when you start thinking about like I should have said I wanted a chair or comfortable chairs and I'd tell you what is Luigi's right there's another thing that we started at region one is teaching how people to put in demands because as a president what I would do every time something I came up I said okay I only can do this every four years so I'll write it down like oh yeah I want to get this in the bathroom and negotiate it so to put demands in we have all the resources in the UAW that's the amazing resource we have a resource department we have a social security department we have so many departments we have Bill who currently is in the president's office and he can help you so we have the resources I think a lot of our members don't realize that it's your UAW and you can utilize those things to have your leadership get with someone and they can help you because I get a lot of first contracts and we always send up requests to make sure we get the service because guess what no one in here that's the best thing about the UAW or being a union member you don't got to go to college to be a UAW remember right but you know what you don't know the other answers but guess what if you are in the UAW in regards to your harassment and stuff like that we have an epic hotline now with the UAW and that will not be tolerated I mean it's to be totally honest we this IE board is a very very no-nonsense international and that's not allowed so put in your complaint I always say this don't talk at the picnic table in your plant no one down there international we're not going to know about it if you're just happening here so we don't know what's going on unless someone makes sure they make it known so I feel sorry for that in regards to politics we are in politics and there's a reason because Biden is the first president in the history of the United States to walk a picket line and he has done more for the UAW so we support him so we didn't give our endorsement out lightly we didn't just throw it out there when Sean first got in office we were in office they were coming like aren't you going to endorse him Sean said no we need to talk and it actually won us a lot of things because during the negotiations the big three Sean and the president got close to that he can call the department of labor so when the company would give us bull Sean would call President Biden and he would call somebody he brought somebody from the White House here to help us Belvedere if you in Belvedere Illinois it was saved because of President Biden some of these EVs and stuff because of President Biden when we said hey this is our work this is the UAW our work is going there so that's why we're supporting a pro-labor president because he showed us and the things anybody should know this in one location should be lost when you hit that ballot so you gotta support people who support people and I can say this about Biden he has always shown he's been working class person anybody here is a diabetic he's $8 I mean $35 so he's showing the average person us the working class people so Luigi's correct in Michigan we had a trifactor so we had the governor I mean a governor secretary of state and attorney general all three democrats and we are winning stuff in Michigan left and right so you have to put people in office that's willing to help us as union because again we can lose everything with a swipe of hand easily guys so it makes our job easier to support someone that's supporting us and I think you have to have these real conversations you can't make it a personal about your guns you can't make it a personal about this you have to make it about your job and Biden has shown he's been here for the working people he's done it his whole life so I think that was it alright thank you LaShawn Scott do you want to okay so who here wants a labor party okay but we don't have one yet right we have to build class consciousness we have political education to do before we're in that position so right now we work within the system that we have and we try and build that class consciousness so that we can one day achieve our goals of having a working class representation all across our country and our states and our local municipalities so that's political education that has to take place in order for that to happen and to my SEIU brother I want to say keep fighting keep organizing keep getting the membership involved in rank and file actions take it to your international keep taking those resolutions in at the conventions and things like that because you never know when that opportunity is going to present itself when I first came to a labor notes conference many years ago I went to a workshop on democratizing your union and a member of TDU was leading that and I asked him how can I do that in my union and he said what's your union I said UAW he said that's never going to happen so and we're living proof that it does happen but it took a special moment so you have to and that's where building on the shoulders of the people that came before you that kept that spark alive you have to keep that spark of democracy alive within your union you do it at the local level but you build towards you keep throwing the darts at the international saying hey when you're going to change this my membership wants to change you got to keep after it and then when that opportunity presents itself and it will take advantage of it then you're set to take advantage of that opportunity I think a lot of great stuff was said already I'll try and keep it pretty brief but I think what a few of these questions really got at was just the idea of building worker power and wielding worker power in terms of getting people out to the picket line your demands just have to reflect what workers are agitated about people are going to show up for issues that they care about and I think understanding what your your workforce really cares about comes from having these deep representational organizing structures and the way that we cultivated that was one through building a really representative organizing committee really early on in our bargaining but then also having periodical congresses where people kind of chimed in and let us know what people cared about in our current bargaining demands and where we had to move at the table and if it seems like workers are not going to hit the picket line over your current demands then you might have more of a credible strike threat than the power of your actual strike so that takes like a really clear power analysis to say we actually might be at peak power the day before our strike and that's what happened for us we decided that our boss was really scared of us withholding our labor and we were at peak power just before we went on strike was kind of our assessment and so that's when we TAed and so if your assessment is that workers are over the issues that are on the table one you know maybe deciding your bargaining demands kind of has to be rethought a little bit but also you might not have workers that are agitated enough to go on strike and that's just part of your power analysis and I think power analysis leads really well into the political question which is how can we wield our political power as labor leaders in order to have political power we just need to get organized and I'll be the first one to say that economic struggle is not the be all end all and we have to engage in political struggle as well but to engage in that from the perspective of the labor movement we need to be powerful and right now we're making we're asking ourselves the question which candidate are we going to endorse and something that y'all talked about is maybe in 2028 the question isn't who we're going to endorse it's which of our candidates are we going to run I think that speaks to where we're at in terms of our political power and then we're already doing this within a lot of our locals but understanding the limitations of electoralism and the question is who are we going to endorse and we're not really excited or if our local is not excited about a particular candidate or something we need to look outside of electoral politics as well locals in California are working on a tenant's right to organize measure to get that on the ballot that's huge in Los Angeles we're working on a lot of local political campaigns and local elections as well and so I think in conclusion I think we're going to have a big round of applause next all right I know we had some other questions but we are out of time and over time I think that was a great way to close us out let's give our panel a big round of applause thank you Miley, Luigi, Scott and LaShawn thank everybody for what you're doing and we have a lot of work still to do I know a lot of people are going to be watching the Volkswagen vote tonight too thank you everybody