In a blow to the labor movement, the auto union reform caucus Unite All Workers for Democracy (UAWD) voted in late April to dissolve itself by a vote of 160–137. The Steering Committee Majority, which proposed dissolution, claims there were two irreconcilable visions for the reform movement in the United Auto Workers (UAW). Debate in the labor movement is inevitable. But only the full weight of the working class, unified around fighting demands and strategy, can defeat Trump’s attacks.

Workers on both sides of the UAWD split have undoubtedly contributed to reshaping UAW—an important industrial union of 400,000 strong—for the better. UAWD gained prominence during its successful campaign to win “one member, one vote” in the UAW, which led to the first direct election in the union’s long history. This was an important step in voting out the old conservative and bureaucratic leadership known as the Administration Caucus. UAWD ran a slate, including now-president Shawn Fain. The slate was narrowly voted in over the previous leadership, who were embroiled in corruption charges.

Without the efforts of UAWD, it is extremely unlikely the 2023 Big Three strike or the UAW’s current organizing campaign at non-union Southern auto plants would have happened. Both represented significant steps forward for the labor movement in recent years. UAWD was seen as a model for reform groups in other unions. Its dissolution leaves a major vacuum in the UAW and the labor movement more broadly. 

The Majority’s resolution claims the growth of UAWD was being hindered by weaknesses, including increasingly tense meetings dominated by higher education and legal sector workers as opposed to manufacturing workers, with members citing a toxic culture around disagreement and a decline in new recruitment. The Minority claims dissolution is a bureaucratic maneuver by the Majority. They say differences have emerged around the Majority wanting to align more with the Administration Caucus, deprioritize organizing against the war in Gaza, and not hold the Fain leadership accountable for breaking with UAWD’s goals.

Now, the Majority is forming a network of union activists under the name UAW Member Action with a stated goal of building worker power in locals, which are still largely under control by the Administration Caucus. The Minority is planning to continue building a reform caucus within the union, though what that exactly looks like is unclear as of now.

Fain & the UAW Need to Fight Trump

The Trump administration and their anti-worker agenda pose the greatest existential threat to the labor movement since Ronald Reagan fired the PATCO air traffic controller strikers in 1981. Already, over one million federal workers have had their right to negotiate a union contract stripped. Former UAW member Mahmoud Khalil, a legal resident, is still being held in an ICE detention facility separated from his family for leading pro-Palestinian encampments last spring. Trump’s economic policies, including his tariffs, will only exacerbate the cost-of-living crisis. Mass layoffs are ramping up at workplaces like Stellantis, UPS, and the Los Angeles Ports.

The direction of the UAW following the dissolution of UAWD hangs in the balance. Fain has so far not provided the sort of leadership the labor movement so desperately needs to oppose the Trump administration’s attacks on workers. His statement that he will work to “find common ground” with Trump, his support of tariffs, and a lack of a clear strategy to defend UAW members against deportations and repression all point to the need for a militant rank-and-file movement in the union to force Fain and the leadership to take a stand. The dissolution of UAWD is a setback, but the need for further reform in the UAW is no less urgent.

The Minority’s point that the UAW needs to take on economic as well as political issues is absolutely correct. All unions need to organize rank-and-file members towards winning strong contracts that raise wages, improve job security, and address other “bread and butter” issues. This also needs to be connected to unions fighting bigger-picture political battles like opposing deportations and war and defending trans rights. Unionized federal workers losing their collective bargaining rights shows that the fight for a strong union contract is intimately connected to fighting Trump’s attacks on the working class and oppressed as a whole.

While Trump and the Republicans are leading anti-worker attacks now, the Democrats are also no friend of working people as evidenced by Biden’s breaking of the potential rail workers’ strike in 2022, among many other things. Unions need to break from both parties of big business to fight effectively for strong contracts and to fight for wider political issues. The UAWD’s resolution passed earlier this year in support of breaking from both parties to build a party for working people should be a model for all other unions. 

Labor Needs Class-Struggle Unionism

An upsurge in the labor movement was fueled in recent years by a growing reform movement within many unions, most prominently in UAW, and before that in many town, city, and statewide teachers’ unions. Since PATCO, most union leadership has taken a “business unionist” approach—to seek collaboration and concessions with the bosses instead of staunchly fighting them. This has only led to a substantial backsliding in wages, declining union density, and a hollowing out of the activist layer in many unions. 

Reform groups like the former UAWD have the potential to reshape unions into what they are meant to be: vehicles of class struggle for the working class. To do so means more than just ushering in new leaderships. They must organize around a clear program, hold their leaders accountable, and organize for the labor movement to break from both parties of big business.