The following resolution was unanimously supported by workers and young people who attended the public hearing in Detroit on Sunday, July 27, on the death of Stellantis worker Ronald Adams Sr.
The International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees (IWA-RFC) convened the meeting to present the initial findings of its independent investigation into the death of the 63-year-old skilled tradesman, who was killed at the Dundee Engine Complex on April 7.
The resolution was presented by Will Lehman, a Pennsylvania Mack Trucks worker and a leader of the IWA-RFC, who ran as a socialist candidate for the United Auto Workers presidency in 2022. The resolution was enthusiastically adopted after more than two hours of reports and discussion on the staggering scales of industrial deaths in the US and internationally and widespread safety violations at the Dundee plant before Adams’ death.
During the discussion, Ronald Adams’ widow, Shamenia Stewart-Adams, and several Dundee workers appealed to rank-and-file workers to defy company and UAW threats and come forward with additional information to uncover the truth and hold accountable those responsible for this tragic and wholly preventable death.
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This meeting, organized by the International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees (IWA-RFC), solemnly commemorates the life of Ronald Adams Sr., a 63-year-old skilled trades worker killed on April 7, 2025, at the Stellantis Dundee Engine Complex under conditions that remain concealed by the company, the United Auto Workers (UAW), and state authorities.
We recognize that Ronald Adams’ death was not an isolated incident, but part of a broader pattern of systemic corporate negligence and cover-up that is claiming the lives of hundreds thousands of workers each year in the United States and around the world. We affirm our commitment to uncovering the truth about this preventable tragedy and all others like it.
We, hereby:
Pledge our full support for the continuation and expansion of the independent rank-and-file investigation into the death of Ronald Adams Sr., initiated by the IWA-RFC, and demand full transparency, including the release of all digital machine logs, safety reports, and communications involving Stellantis, its contractors, and the UAW.
Call for the extension of this investigation to include the deaths of other workers, including Antonio Gaston at the Toledo Jeep complex, Casen Garcia at Tyson Foods, and the 19-year-old sanitation worker at Tina’s Burritos—victims of the same system that subordinates human life to corporate profit.
Demand an end to the cover-up of the ongoing industrial slaughter taking place in factories, warehouses, construction sites, and processing plants. Those responsible—from corporate executives to union officials and government regulators—must be held accountable for their role in these preventable deaths.
Denounce the bipartisan assault on workplace safety and social programs, spearheaded by the Trump administration and aided by the Democrats, which is dismantling OSHA protections, gutting regulatory oversight, and turning workplaces into death traps. These actions are a conscious effort to return the working class to conditions of industrial slavery not seen since the 19th century.
Call for the building of rank-and-file safety committees in every workplace, democratically controlled by workers themselves and independent of the pro-corporate unions, to enforce safe working conditions and expose dangerous practices.
We, therefore, call on all workers—in the United States and internationally—to join the International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees and take up the fight for a national and international movement to end the sacrifice of workers’ lives and limbs on the altar of profit. The time has come to organize, to resist, and to reclaim the right to live and work in safety and dignity.
Unanimously endorsed by the July 27, 2025 Public Hearing of the IWA-RFC, “A life stolen for profit: The rank-and-file investigation into the death of Stellantis workers Ronald Adams, Sr.”