Solidarity greetings to the United Auto Workers, UAW, on your "historic strike" against the "Big Three"
18 September 2023: Dear Shawn Fain, Dear colleagues of the UAW, It is with great respect that international media are reporting the start of your "historic strike." Your demand for a 40 percent wage increase, for the reinstatement of eliminated social benefits, and for a 32-hour workweek, 4 days a week, are just and long overdue. It is the outrageous arrogance of the international monopolies, which rake in huge profits and then claim that wage increases would drive them into bankruptcy. Your simultaneous strike against the Big Three, GM, Ford and Stellantis, is a most promising and courageous struggle that has already received worldwide attention and great solidarity. It is of high significance that you, as a major automotive union, have taken up this challenge head-on. In doing so, you have breathed new life into the reawakened American labor and trade union movement. Your fighting spirit radiates across borders worldwide.
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The intensified international competition, also as a result of the so-called "transformation", has already led to plant closures and job destruction in many countries and automotive corporations, to blackmail with cuts in wages and social benefits. Your struggle is an encouragement to all who do not submit to this, who do not allow themselves to be played off against each other, who fight courageously for the workers' interests and who work for a future worth living.
The International Automotive Workers Coordination congratulates you on your most promising strike and stands by your struggle. Good luck with your strike, in the spirit of the slogan "Whoever fights can win. But those who do not fight have already lost!"
For a future worth living without exploitation and oppression!
Long live International Solidarity!
Solidarity greetings
Dieter Schweizer
International Coordinating Group
of International Automotive Workers Coordination
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