Anymore, and with who’s running the country into the dirt in real time, I’m not so sure this guy isn’t en pointe with the Bolshevik reference.

That's part of the plan. Remember how the Russian Revolution really got kicked off? General strikes, after a series of smaller strikes in various factories and economic sectors spread nationwide. We're entering the end game now.

— JawjaJim 🇺🇸 (@JimJawja) October 9, 2023

I’ve been posting about the UAW for months now, with their ever expanding walkout over exorbitant raises – 40% among other demands – which started just shy of a month ago. The auto companies affected, or D-3 as they’re known (GM, Ford and Stellantis), have been holding the line as far as the wage demands go. They’ve bumped up offers a bit, bit are nowhere near the union ballpark.

As the union increases pressure, bringing more plants into the fold, and sending more members to the picket lines, the D-3 has played its own hand – postponing projects or materially changing ones were already in development.

All the while, firebrand autoworkers union president Shawn Fain exhorts his followers into the hostilities of strike action, against an industry already teetering on the edge of insolvency and ruin thanks to Biden admin EV and Green diktats. All before adding any labor disruptions from its employees.

But Fain hasn’t been quite that feisty with all the contracts and on behalf of ALL the union members he represents.

The UAW has, at the same time it’s gone to the mattresses for D-3 workers, been in negotiations with Vovlvo/Mack trucks for their 4000 UAW members. And on Sunday, Fain proudly announced they had a deal to avoid a strike at the truck manufacturer.

The United Auto Workers union reached a tentative labor contract with Volvo Group's Mack Trucks on Sunday, avoiding a potential strike from nearly 4,000 autoworkers. pic.twitter.com/bfUDzIpfBW

— The Messenger (@TheMessenger) October 2, 2023

It included, among other things, a 19% pay raise, $3500 ratification bonus, 401K increase to offset healthcare costs, plus lots of other pot-sweeteners.

Yay! Fain’s a hero! That was going to be the theme heading into this week’s D-3 strikes.

The only problem was the Mack Truck members voted the contract down just as fast as they read Fain’s announcement, and walked out at 7 this morning.

EGG ON HIS FACE

The last thing Shawn Fain wanted was for Mack Trucks workers to vote down the contract he endorsed. As Mack worker Will Lehman correctly notes, Fain (and the rest of the UAW bureaucracy) are complete frauds and opponents of rank and file workers. https://t.co/xW5txTjTlk

— Harvey Simpkins (@HarveySimpkins1) October 9, 2023

This is going to put a crimp in Fain’s style. See, his union has been using a strategy of stringing out the walk-out pain to stretch their strike war chest. If these ingrates at Mack go out, it eats into those bucks.

Fain quickly recovered to save face, but it had to be galling. It also gave Mack room to call him out on the double dealing.

…The proposed Mack deal had included a 19% pay hike, a $3,500 ratification bonus, improved retirement benefits, additional vacation for some employees and a reduction in the time needed to get to top pay.

“I’m inspired to see UAW members at Mack holding out for a better deal, and ready to stand up and walk off the job to win it,” UAW President Shawn Fain said late on Sunday.

After Mack workers voted down the deal, the UAW sent a strike notice to the company saying “many topics” remain at issue, including wage increases, cost-of-living allowance, job security and wage progression.

Mack President Stephen Roy said the company was “surprised and disappointed” that the UAW has chosen to strike and called the move unnecessary.

“We clearly demonstrated our commitment to good faith bargaining by arriving at a tentative agreement that was endorsed by both the International UAW and the UAW Mack Truck Council,” Roy said.

Why should the company even bother?

There’s another kind of bad-look wrinkle in the union double-dealing as far as striking a company that came quickly to the table.

Mack is a one off in the industry – a dinosaur, if you will. They might be Swedish owned, but they are made in the USA. So, sure, UAW – bite that hand, too. That’s a great look.

…Mack, which was bought by Volvo in 2000, is one of North America’s largest makers of medium-duty and heavy-duty trucks.

Roy said Mack is part of “the only heavy-truck manufacturing group that assembles all of its trucks and engines” in the United States.

Mack workers weren’t going to be the fall guys “taking less” so Fain’s big boys could get more.

"The vote by a significant majority of Mack Truck workers against the deal sends another signal to the union and the Detroit Three of the high expectations of the rank-and-file for new agreements."#StandUpUAW https://t.co/hW39CbtaUO

— UAW (@UAW) October 9, 2023

I love the UAW spin after it got thrown back at their boss.

The name “Yellow” probably rang a bell. I’ll bet Mack workers saw how the Teamsters hung Yellow truck drivers out to dry so they could squeeze UPS in that contract battle, and decided they weren’t going to be Fain’s sacrificial public relations lambs.

These contracts have started a feeding frenzy of strikes and work actions – it’s “contagious” as one expert says – that fly in the face of the economic realities of what the bottom lines are.

…Altogether, there have been 312 strikes involving roughly 453,000 workers so far in 2023, compared with 180 strikes involving 43,700 workers over the same period two years ago, according to data by Johnnie Kallas, a PhD candidate at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations, and the project director of the ILR Labor Action Tracker.

“This is a pretty considerable uptick relative to the rest of the 21st century,” Kallas said.

In the last few months alone, striking or threatening to strike has led to a string of labor deals where UPS drivers, airline pilots and aerospace manufacturing employees have pushed for and won higher pay. With each successful outcome, other labor actions are more likely to follow, Kallas said. “Strikes can often be contagious.”

When everybody gotta “get theirs” – whether there’s anything to be gotten – is when it all runs into trouble.

Fain’s carefully laid squeeze plan may prove to be his undoing and that of everyone else’s.