Three weeks ago, workers at the Nexteer Automotive plant in Saginaw, Michigan, overwhelmingly rejected a pro-company contract backed by the United Auto Workers International Union and UAW Local 699 officials. The vote by workers has been ignored by the UAW bureaucracy, which conspired with management to extend the contract and has provided no information to workers since. The following is a statement by the Nexteer Workers Rank-and-File Committee. To join the committee, fill out the form at the end of this statement.

“Fifteen years ago we were told by management and the union that this was just a ‘bump in the road.’ It’s time to pay the hard-working floor workers what is owed after 15 years of concessions.” Those were the comments of a brother at our factory to the Nexteer Workers Rank-and-File Committee.

On April 2, we voted down the rotten tentative agreement pushed by the UAW International and UAW Local 699 officials by 96.2 percent. On that very same day, UAW leaders extended the 2021 contract behind our backs and then told us it would be illegal to strike!

Since then, Local 699 officials have posted three items on the union’s Facebook page: the cancellation of a fishing tournament, an announcement of a casino bus trip, and a “sip and paint” karaoke event.

What an insult to our intelligence!

UAW President Shawn Fain and his toadies in the local union have no right to ignore our vote and overwhelming support for strike action. No contract means no work. We should be on strike right now. By defying the will of the membership, these union aparatchiks have forfeited any claims to “represent” us.

The Nexteer Rank-and-File Committee has been formed to enforce the will of Nexteer workers. We cannot wait for permission from Fain, UAW Region 1D Director Steven Dawes or Local 699 officials Jason Jimenez and Carl McKee to take action. By extending the contract, the UAW officials have only given Nexteer time to prepare for a strike and undermine its effectiveness.

We have the power—if we use it now.

We occupy a powerful position in the auto industry, producing steering systems for the most profitable models built by our brothers and sisters at General Motors, Ford and Stellantis. If steering components stop, assembly lines stop. We play a strategic role in the supply chain and can shut it down.

We were not consulted, let alone given a vote in the extension of the contract. Therefore, it is completely illegitimate and should be treated that way. Calls to Solidarity House and the local asking for union officials to explain their actions have gone unanswered.

Therefore, we call on workers in every department and shift to discuss this with your co-workers and demand the calling of a mass membership meeting to vote on immediate strike action.

The Nexteer Workers Rank-and-File Committee has drafted a list of strike demands for discussion and approval. These include:

• Abolish all tiers—Equal pay and benefits for equal work by raising everyone’s income.
• Major wage increases for all and COLA to keep up with inflation—No more stagnation while executives enrich themselves. 
• A real living starting wage and a sharply reduced progression to top pay. 
• Affordable healthcare for every worker and family—No premium hikes, no doubled weekly contributions. 
• Enforceable limits on overtime and scheduling abuse, including binding notice requirements (ending contract violations like the “ninth hour” manipulation). 
• Job security and anti-outsourcing protections—Full transparency and the right to oppose shifting work to lower-wage operations. 
• Real grievance rights with enforcement, not a toothless process where the company faces no consequences. 
• Workers’ control over safety and staffing, with elected rank-and-file safety reps empowered to halt unsafe work.

At the same time, we cannot win this struggle without financial resources. Workers should demand strike pay of at least $1,000 a week. The UAW’s nearly $1 billion strike fund is not a slush fund for the bureaucrats; it belongs to the rank and file. It must be used to sustain our fight against this multinational corporation and the Big Three automakers who want to squeeze auto parts workers for ever more profits.

History also demonstrates that what happens to auto parts workers immediately rebounds on workers at the Big Three. The UAW sellout of the 1999 GM strike in Flint led to the spinoff of Delphi and later its use of bankruptcy courts to destroy wages and pensions. We were told these sacrifices were needed to “save the company.” Instead, Delphi returned to profitability, and the steering operations were spun off again as Nexteer—a global supplier making billions in revenue and profits.

The sellout of the 2008 American Axle strike was followed the next year by the restructuring of GM and Chrysler by the Obama administration and the halving of wages of all new hires. Fain’s sellout of the Clarios battery strike in Toledo in 2023 was followed by the bogus “Stand Up” strike and the sellout deals that led to massive job cuts at GM, Ford and Stellantis, and the deaths of workers due to speedup and cost-cutting.

That is why the Nexteer Workers Rank-and-File Committee calls on our brothers and sisters at the Big Three automakers to fully back any strike action we take, to join our picket lines, and impose a 100 percent ban on any parts produced by scabs at the Saginaw plant.

There is absolutely nothing in the record of the UAW apparatus that should lead any of us to believe that they are going to come back with a better contract because we shot down their first one. In 2015, our strike was shut down after just 20 hours. In 2021, workers rejected a proposed contract by roughly 85 percent, but the UAW forced through another five-year deal. Now, after our 96.2 percent rejection vote, they are trying to do it again.

As the old saying goes, “Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.”

The Nexteer Rank-and-File Committee endorses the campaign by Pennsylvania Mack Trucks worker Will Lehman, who is running for president against Fain and the rest of the UAW apparatus. Lehman is calling for the abolition of the UAW bureaucracy and the transfer of power to workers on the shop floor.

At the same time, Lehman has said these are not “normal times.” The illegal war against Iran is driving up the cost of gas, groceries, utilities and housing. Every trip to the gas pump and grocery store is taking a bigger bite out of our paychecks while Big Oil is making massive profits.

Now, we hear that GM and Ford executives have been in discussions with the Trump administration about converting auto plants into weapons factories. Soon we will be told that strikes are illegal, we must accept massive cuts in wages, Social Security, Medicare and other programs to pay for the war. They also want to restore the draft and send our sons and daughters to fight their wars. In reality, the only ones who benefit are the same billionaires who are robbing us at home.

It is time to take a stand! If we do, we can win the support of American Axle, Bridgewater Interiors, Dana and tens of thousands of other auto parts workers whose contracts are expiring in the coming weeks. We can also win the support of UAW members from the Big Three auto plants in Flint, Detroit and other cities, striking Harvard University academic workers and other workers.

It is time we take this struggle into our own hands. Join the Nexteer Workers Rank-and-File Committee to take up this fight.

Fill out the form below.