See Also: United Automobile Workers(encyclopedia)
United Farm Workers(dictionary)
UNITED WORKERS Credit Union(finance)
United Mine Workers of America (UMWA)(encyclopedia)
automobile(encyclopedia)
automobile(dictionary)
automobile(dictionary)
automobile racing(encyclopedia)
Automobile Insurance(law)
automobile driving(medicine)

United Automobile Workers (sh)




in full United Automobile, Aerospace, and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW)

U.S. industrial union of automotive and other vehicular workers, headquartered in Detroit.

The UAW was founded in 1935, when the Committee for Industrial Organization (see AFL-CIO) began to organize automotive workers. The union successfully countered automakers' initial resistance with sit-down strikes and a 1937 Supreme Court decision upholding the right to organize as declared in the Wagner Act. General Motors Corp. was the first to recognize the UAW, and most other automakers followed suit, though Ford Motor Co. continued its resistance until 1941. Under Walter Reuther, the union won contracts providing for cost-of-living adjustments, health plans, and vacations. Reuther's friction with George Meany led the UAW to withdraw from the AFL-CIO in 1968. A short-lived alliance with the Teamsters was dissolved in 1972, and the UAW rejoined the AFL-CIO in 1981. Competition from foreign imports eroded the union's benefits in the 1980s and '90s.