"This year’s auto strike could never have unfolded the way it did without that leadership shake-up. In ways the previous leadership had not, the new guard put their faith in the rank and file rather than in amiable relations with the companies, which coalesced into an unusual and creative strike tactic: what the UAW termed a “stand-up strike.”
As president, Fain leads with a mixture of militancy and religiosity that Mancilla said reminds him of the socially progressive Christianity around which he grew up. “I am secure in every decision we have made because I have faith in our members,” Fain said during his strike announcement, after quoting from scripture. “So I have to ask you: Do you have faith? Are you ready to stand up together and move that mountain? Because nobody is coming to save us. Nobody can win this fight for us. Our greatest hope—our only hope—is each other.”
While the Big Three executives hoped that Fain was on his own and dismissed his proposals as fringe, the strike proved the opposite. Not only had Fain won the mandate of the membership; he and his fellow newly elected leaders had won the backing of many of the members who had voted against them—and they did it by proving that they trust the rank and file. “The more Shawn stood by the demands and the more we stood by them, the more the members said, ‘Oh, yeah, they really are our demands,’” Mancilla said.“The companies had no idea what to do.”
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#StandUpStrike #1u #SolidaritySeason
Assistant Trainer of Marine Mammals at Mystic Aquarium
1moThis is truly a new era for patriots football. I’m stoked to see how the team develops with them in those positions