A World Beyond Tariffs - Thje American Prospect

[justaprogressive]

In 1966, at the height of the labor movement’s postwar power, Walter Reuther, then president of the United Auto Workers, helped establish the first four “World Auto Councils.” Workers at General Motors, Volkswagen-Daimler-Benz, Fiat, and Chrysler (now Stellantis) could now meet across borders and, it was hoped, establish common international contract expiration dates.

The plan fell short of an international bargaining agreement, but the unions hoped it would “strengthen the hand of each union in the contract negotiations of its own country,” said World Auto Councils coordinator Burton Bendiner in 1978.

In 1971, French GM workers who supplied gearboxes and transmissions for the company’s European operations went on strike. They coordinated with their counterparts in Germany’s IG Metall and the UAW to pressure GM management. They refused work that management had diverted from a struck plant and created a common strike fund. The French union, said Bendiner, was able to draw strength from the more powerful UAW.

Similarly, when Ford workers in Britain went on strike in 1971, their counterparts in West Germany refused to pick up the slack with overtime. This increased striking workers’ leverage at the table while avoiding the legal challenges a sympathy strike would have provoked.

https://prospect.org/labor/2025-04-17-uaw-automakers-world-beyond-tariffs/