UAW President Shawn Fain Makes 2024 Time100 List

Last fall, contract negotiations between Ford and the United Auto Workers (UAW) union – along with General Motors and Stellantis – were a bit more contentious and drama-filled than usual, much of which stemmed from newly-appointed UAW President Shawn Fain, who vowed from the start to take a different, more hardcore approach to negotiating than his predecessors. True to form, Fain wound up initiating a six-week-long strike that ended when the sides reached a new agreement in late October.

Since then, the UAW has set its sights on organizing non-unionized automaker facilities in the U.S., all while Fain continues to pan Ford CEO Jim Farley for everything from how much money he makes to the possibility that more vehicle production be moved to other countries. This approach has clearly endeared Fain to the press, as MotorTrend named him as its 2024 Person of the Year, and now, he has also made Time‘s list of the 100 Most Influential People of 2024, too.

Time didn’t have one of its staff writers lay out the reasoning behind this selection, but rather, looked to President Joe Biden to handle that particular task, however. “Shawn and I share a basic view of how workers deserve to be treated. Just as they sacrificed when their employers were on the brink, they deserve record contracts when those companies have record profits. It’s only fair,” Biden said.

“Shawn represents the hard-won success that unions – from the Teamsters, to the SEIU, to writers and actors, dockworkers and health care workers, baristas, warehouse workers, and more – had in making 2023 the year of the union,” the President added. “They proved what I’ve always said: Wall Street didn’t build America. The middle class built America. And unions built the middle class.”

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