Are you a GE Aerospace worker? Fill out the form at the end of this article to fight for a rank-and-file committee to oppose the sellout by the UAW bureaucracy.

United Auto Workers officials announced Friday that they had reached a tentative agreement with GE Aerospace and would hold a vote on a new five-year deal on Friday, September 19. Rank-and-file workers have received nothing but the most general claims about the supposed deal reached by the UAW, which several sources admit still has to be “finalized” this week.

More than 640 workers walked out at two Cincinnati, Ohio-area GE Aerospace facilities on August 28 to oppose crushing out-of-pocket health care costs, protect their jobs and overturn years of concessions accepted by the UAW bureaucracy. As of last week, UAW President Shawn Fain and other union officials said they were miles from an agreement and company executives were still pressing for additional concessions.

Now, UAW officials expect workers to believe the company has suddenly caved in and the union “secured victories on all fronts.” According to the UAW’s PR department, “The company will cover nearly all health care premium increases over the term of the contract and workers will receive additional vacation time. The deal also secures strong job security protections for both Erlanger and Evendale locations, including minimum headcount and new work.”

Striking workers have correctly been skeptical of these claims, with one worker posting a comment on the local’s Facebook page, saying, “Give a more detailed update. This crappy generic basic mass is over used and sloppy.”

Workers are also concerned about the rush to ratify the deal before they know what is in it. A post on the UAW Local 647’s Facebook page over the weekend indicated that the release of the “white book” of the contract was not scheduled until Wednesday or Thursday. This would give workers less than 48 hours to study hundreds of pages written in lawyer’s language before voting on a deal that will determine their fate for the next five years!

So much for the bargaining committee’s claims that it would be “completely transparent” with the members.

The International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees calls on workers to demand the immediate release of the entire contract, including letters of understanding, memorandums of agreement and any other side deals. The rank and file must demand a full week to study and discuss the contract, question union officials about it and hold mass meetings before any ratification vote takes place.

While the UAW claims the company will cover most premium increases, the fact is GE Aerospace runs the healthcare apparatus. So, while “nearly all” premiums might be covered—a discretionary sum of $3,500 has been touted by some media outlets—co-pays and other member-paid benefits might be greatly manipulated to make up for company money lost on increased premiums. And whether or not this new deal includes all GE Aerospace workers, or only a fraction of the workers in this tiered system or pay and benefits, remains to be seen.

Experience has proven that holiday claims about “historic victories” only conceal the fine print that contain more sacrifices. The same claims were used to cover up a string of betrayals by the Fain apparatus, from Clarios battery in Toledo, Ohio, and GM, Ford, Stellantis and Mack Trucks in 2023, to Daimler Trucks and Allison Transmission in 2024 and General Dynamics Electric Boat and Rolls Royce earlier this year.

The “life-changing” auto agreement, for example, led to the elimination of at least 3,000 jobs at Stellantis alone and the deaths of two workers, Antonio Gaston and Ronald Adams Sr., as a result of job-cutting, speed up and the sacrifice of safety for profit.

UAW Local 647 President Brian Strunk let the cat out of the bag saying the deal “may not be perfect” but “we will build on this momentum into the future.” The UAW has accepted decades of concessions in the name of “saving jobs” and “fighting another day.” That’s how pensions were lost and two-tier wages and other givebacks were justified.

In order to fight, GE Aerospace workers must form a rank-and-file committee, made up of the most trusted militants, to replace the stooges in the bargaining committee. This committee must take the following initiatives:

• Organize a mass meeting of Evendale and Erlanger workers to demand the immediate release of the full contract and to decisively defeat this sellout.

• Outline the non-negotiable demands of workers, including inflation busting raises, fully paid medical and retirement benefits, the end of tiers and the defense of every job.
• Demand the doubling of strike benefits to sustain this fight.
• Appeal to rank-and-file machinists and electricians to defy orders to return to work and prepare an all-out strike at all GE facilities to overturn concessions agreed to by the IUE-CWA, the IAM and other unions.

The UAW bureaucracy: the wartime labor police force

The UAW bureaucracy never wanted this strike in the first place and is determined to shut it down before it does any further damage to the war plans of the Trump administration and American imperialism.

Under conditions of Trump’s deployment of military troops to US cities and weaponization of Charlie Kirk’s killing to crush left-wing and anti-war opposition, Fain held a livestream event last week where he doubled down on the UAW bureaucracy’s support for Trump’s trade war against the rest of the world.

Hostile to any fight to unite US workers with their class brothers around the world against the transnational corporations, the UAW apparatus has become a pivotal tool for the administration’s wars for global conquest in Latin America, the Middle East and against China.

Striking workers at GE Aerospace produce critical weapons for the US military, Israel, Ukraine and other US allies and the UAW bureaucracy is determined to end the strike as soon as possible. Under Biden and now Trump, Fain has repeatedly praised the so-called “Arsenal of Democracy” during World War II when the UAW and other unions enforced a no-strike pledge against workers looking to fight wartime inflation and speed up by the war profiteering companies.

But workers must understand that Trump intends to use these same weapons against any worker who strikes or protests to defend their social and democratic rights.

GE Aerospace workers are not only fighting against the multinational corporation, they are fighting the US government and both corporate controlled parties that want workers to pay the enormous cost of war. This includes the Democrats who UAW officials brought for photo-ops on the picket lines, including Sherrod Brown who voted to outlaw the 2022 railroad strike and impose Biden’s pro-company contract that workers previously rejected.

In particular, GE Aerospace workers must appeal for unity with 3,200 striking Boeing defense workers in the St. Louis area. They have rejected three sellout contracts brought back to them by the IAM bureaucracy and have continued their six-week strike in defiance of company’s threats to replace them with scabs. But they cannot fight alone.

A decisive defeat of the UAW bureaucracy’s sabotage of the strike will create the best conditions for GE Aerospace workers to unite with Boeing workers in a common fight.

If workers are going to defend our living standards and basic rights, including the right to organize and strike, then they must build new organizations of struggle, independent of and against the pro-company stooges in the UAW bureaucracy. This was the fight taken up by Will Lehman, the Mack Trucks worker and socialist candidate candidate for UAW president who won nearly 5,000 votes in 2022 from rank-and-file workers, including solid support from GE Aerospace workers.

The International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees (IWA-RFC) is spearheading the fight to build new organizations of workers self-determination in every factory and workplace. This is the only way to defend the jobs and living standards of workers and organize an industrial and political counter-offensive by the whole working class against social inequality, war and dictatorship.

To get more information about building the rank-and-file committee, fill out the form below.