**For Immediate Release**

November 20, 2023

Contact: Emilia.Rowland@mail.house.gov 330.212.2065

Summer Lee Applauds UAW Workers for Winning Record Contract

UAW said “If the automakers have record profits, we should have record contracts” – Now They Do

(Washington DC) – Congresswoman Summer Lee (D-PA-12) released the following statement applauding United Auto Workers (UAW) for showing how to organize and win for workers everywhere. Today, 64% of the workers voted to ratify record agreements with the Detroit Three automakers. This vote locked in the UAW’s tentative agreements with the automakers through April 2028.

Lee said, “Thanks to UAW and every worker and organizer across the country who joined in solidarity, workers everywhere have a blueprint for how to win what they tell us is ‘impossible.’ UAW showed the world what it means to build a multi-racial, multi-generational movement of workers standing up and standing together. UAW showed us that the power can come from a working class that is fed up and fired up especially when over 70% of Americans stand with the labor movement. And they showed us how to not only remain fearless in the face of CEOs and politicians who tell workers to sit down, but to stand up taller, organize harder, and win bigger.”

Lee continued, “Western PA workers have had UAW’s backs since day one because Pittsburgh is a union town and we know that just as UPS workers, academic workers, tens of thousands of health care workers at Kaiser, airline pilots, writers with WGA lifted up UAW, UAW’s win will lift up Pennsylvania workers. UAW’s record contract will help striking workers at the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh, Starbucks Workers United, and SAG-AFTRA hold their ground, fight harder and win record contracts. And UAW’s exceptional organizing will show our hospital workers, coffee workers, and newsroom writers the power of unionization and collective bargaining for better wages, dignity on the job, and democracy at work.”

UAW won a 25% pay raise – meaning a factory worker working 48 hours a week will earn $84k a year, plus cost-of-living adjustments to protect against inflation. 71% of Americans have a favorable view of labor movements – higher than anytime since the 1960s. UAW’s win is already having a ripple effect: When the terms were announced, Toyota, Honda, and Hyundai – whose workers are not in the union – all announced a raise for their workers, presumably out of fear they will unionize.