Bernie: The Podcast | Episode 9: Shawn Fain

In this episode, I am joined by someone who I greatly admire. He’s not the flashiest leader.

He doesn't make headlines every day, but in my opinion, he is a modern-day hero, and one of the brightest leaders in the labor movement.

His name is Shawn Fain and he is the President of the United Auto Workers. The UAW, under Shawn’s leadership, recently secured a historic contract with huge pay and benefit increases for workers at the Big Three automakers–GM, Ford and Stellantis.

But the UAW did not stop there. Under Shawn’s leadership, they have launched a massive new initiative to organize non-union auto plants in the South.

And they have notched several more historic victories in recent months. In April, workers at a Volkswagen plant in Tennessee voted to join the union, becoming the first large nonunion auto plant in the South to do so.

Weeks later, the union negotiated a new contract bringing significant pay and benefit improvements for its members at several North Carolina factories owned by Daimler Truck.

The campaign hasn’t been without its setbacks. Last month the UAW narrowly lost a unionization vote at the Mercedes-Benz plant in Alabama following a concerted anti-union effort from corporate interests and the state’s governor. Both the US and German governments are currently investigating Mercedes for the intimidation and harassment they inflicted on their own workers during the campaign.

But just this week, UAW electric vehicle workers in Lordstown, Ohio reached a tentative agreement that will more than double their wages by the end of the contract.

So I am very excited to talk about the success of the UAW and the resurgent labor movement with my guest, UAW President Shawn Fain.