Negotiations between Ford and the United Auto Workers (UAW) union on a new master contract agreement certainly got ugly through the summer and fall of 2023, with both sides dragging out that battle in a very public manner on numerous occasions. However, following a six-week-long targeted strike by the UAW, the union and Ford (not to mention its Detroit Big Three counterparts) eventually found common ground and reached a tentative agreement on a new contract, which was subsequently ratified by workers in mid-November. Now, one UAW leader who was instrumental in those negotiations will retire after more than two decades with the union.
According to Reuters, that leader is Chuck Browning, who announced his upcoming retirement to fellow UAW members just yesterday. Browning is currently in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where he’s been leading negotiations with Volkswagen as the two sides work on a new contract, which became the first foreign-owned automotive production plant in the south to organize last year. Previously, Browning helped negotiate a new contract with Ford – followed by General Motors and Stellantis – in late 2023, and is one of the union’s more prominent leaders behind President Shawn Fain.
Browning now plans to retire after he finishes hammering out the deal with Volkswagen, a move that comes before the next scheduled union presidential election, slated for 2026. He has remained on the union’s international staff since 2000 and was subsequently elected by the UAW’s International Executive Board as vice president in 2021, after which Browning was sworn in for a second term in 2023 through the UAW’s first direct election, in which Fain was selected as president.
“Chuck Browning is not only one of the greatest bargainers in the labor movement, but one of our most powerful, generous and capable leaders. Our union is immeasurably stronger thanks to his decades of service to our members,” Fain said in a statement.
Comments
I don’t know how UAW Chuck sleeps at night with the knowledge his bully tactics will bring an end to a couple of hundred thousand jobs (Ford will not survive the next recession)… while he’d flew around the country in the 1st class cabin.
As long as Ford is paying Failure Farley 20 million or more per year and other executives a 7-8 figure salary they’ll survive. Given over automation in the auto industry, labor only makes up 9.1% of MSRP, the rest is corporate greed.
I don’t how Failure Farley sleeps at night given quality control issues at Ford resulting in endless recalls. Failure Farley has no shame accepting more than $20 million/year.