The following statement was emailed to all UAWD members on May 6, 2025
Dear UAWD members,
We, the members of the Steering Committee (SC) of Unite All Workers for Democracy (UAWD) who fought against the illegitimate effort to dissolve our caucus, are saddened and disturbed by the events that transpired at our Spring Membership Meeting on Sunday, April 27. Despite the declaration of the seven pro-dissolution SC members, we are writing to all UAWD members to let you know that UAWD has not been dissolved and will continue on as a democratic membership organization composed of rank-and-file UAW members.
We realize this is a disorienting time for many, especially when the working class is under such immense attack from the Trump administration and with the right-wing turn in this country. Our answer to that is working class solidarity — across all sectors and beyond borders and oceans — and building a class struggle approach to our shop floor organizing.
We applaud the militancy and energy of the 2023 “Stand Up Strike.” But the only way to expand and build upon it is through class struggle unionism. The democratic reforms in the UAW are hugely significant, but structural reforms are not enough. We have to re-establish our union as a fighting force from the bottom up. That’s not a quick fix but an ongoing process. To make it successful, we need a rank-and-file caucus that can maintain its independence from top leadership and fights for greater worker control on the shop floor and for the entire working class. This also means, concretely, openly speaking out against the genocide in Palestine! All of us have had to fight for this for years inside the SC — against a perspective that focuses narrowly on economic issues and “reforming the UAW.” We have to push our top leaders forward, not just take direction from them, especially when they put the brakes on our goals and our militancy.
To make this vision a reality, we need YOU! All UAWD members will be invited to our Summer Membership Meeting, to be scheduled in the coming weeks, where we will collectively decide the future of our caucus together, as we have at membership meetings for over five years.
Why was the attempt to dissolve UAWD improper?
There is an extensive list of reasons why we are asserting that the vote to dissolve was illegitimate – and that therefore UAWD members have a right and responsibility to continue UAWD.
Here are just a few in a long list of undemocratic tactics the seven SC members used to improperly push through their illegitimate resolution to dissolve our caucus:
- Members in good standing who were known to be against dissolution were barred from the meeting, either left in the waiting room or removed mid-meeting, while members who were not in good standing or were non-members were permitted into the meeting. Detailed analysis concludes that a possible swing of 25 votes can be attributed to these illegitimate undemocratic tactics during the meeting, more than the reported vote margin of 23.
- Early in the meeting, all members were unilaterally muted at the behest of the UAWD Chairperson, Scott Houldieson, and were unable to unmute themselves, though a few — specifically known allies of the Chairperson — were unmuted immediately after he called for motions to be made; this muting meant that Robert’s Rules were, in effect, suspended and almost all points of order were unable to be made.
- More than 50 of the 356 members present did not vote in the Zoom poll, a number because of how quickly it was closed — after only 90 seconds; closing the vote at an advantageous time for the pro-dissolution position would’ve been easy for the Chairperson to do using the Zoom feature that allows meeting hosts to watch the results in real-time.
- Showing the results of the incomplete Zoom poll, that a narrow 52% of members who voted in the poll had favored dissolution, the Chairperson immediately – with many members being blocked from unmuting, so that they couldn’t say “Point of Order! I haven’t voted yet! – declared UAWD dissolved and ended the meeting.
We are incredibly disappointed by and categorically condemn the profoundly undemocratic nature of the meeting, which represents a blatant disregard for the principles on which UAWD was founded. Far from a mandate, this amounts to a completely underhanded process. But beyond these blatant attempts to rig the vote, there is the simple issue underlying the entire premise of the illegitimate maneuver: Under the UAWD Bylaws, a resolution to dissolve UAWD must be proposed as an amendment to the UAWD Bylaws, which would require a two-thirds majority to pass and would’ve needed to be heard at the next membership meeting. So even considering dissolution at the April meeting was illegitimate.
To assure UAWD members and our supporters around the world that our claims are valid, we have been thorough in documenting the extensive evidence of the numerous improprieties, in the lead-up to and during the membership meeting itself. To set the record straight, we are also publishing an anonymized transcript and an analysis of the meeting attendance and UAWD growth, which includes systematic counts of how many anti-dissolution members were illegitimately blocked from entry and of the number of pro-dissolution Administration Caucus allies who were present.
What legitimate business was conducted at the April 27 Membership Meeting?
Because of the repressive and undemocratic nature of the meeting, proper and important items of business were skipped over by the Chairperson:
- The election by acclamation of Martha Grevatt to the vacant Retiree Representative position on the SC
- Two Bylaws amendment proposals were introduced, for consideration at the next membership meeting, with the goal of further democratizing UAWD and setting it more definitively on a democratic and class struggle path:
- Six resolutions that were legitimately introduced were not considered when the meeting was improperly adjourned unilaterally by the Chairperson, these will be eligible for consideration at the next membership meeting if the movers so choose:
- UAWD Endorsement of the Strategic Use of Wildcat Strikes to Exert Worker Control and Win Political Demands
- Launching a Class Struggle Publication in the UAW
- Proportional Representation in UAWD Elections
- UAWD Denounces the UAW’s Position on Trump’s Tariffs and Organizes for Working Class Solidarity
- Disbursal of Funds Upon the Legitimate Dissolution of UAWD
- Support and Participate in the 3rd International Automotive Workers Conference
What’s next for UAWD?
What can you expect from UAWD in the coming weeks?
- Relaunching UAWD communications platforms: After illegitimately declaring UAWD dissolved, the seven departing SC members also shut down UAWD’s communications infrastructure, which had allowed our members to stay connected and build a democratic organization. In the coming days and weeks, we’ll be relaunching our UAWD General Chat on WhatsApp, relaunching the UAWD Slack, and relaunching the UAWD website from its comprehensive archive.
- Biweekly SC meetings: Following our membership resolution, the UAWD SC will continue to meet biweekly on Zoom, with meetings open to all UAWD members and recordings shared afterward — our next SC meeting will be at our usual time, 5pm ET, on Friday, May 9.
- Open membership discussions: In the coming weeks, we’ll be hosting open discussions and town halls, on the important political questions facing UAWD, the concrete bylaws amendment proposals above, and to enable members to get to know each other and think about how to build a stronger UAWD together.
- Summer membership meeting: These discussions will culminate at UAWD’s next General Membership Meeting, which, following our bylaws, will take place this summer and be scheduled in the coming weeks.
If you’d like to support or participate in these efforts, please reach out to us at uniteallworkers4democracy@gmail.com. We remain proud of the work that UAWD has accomplished, and we know there are more exciting opportunities to build worker power ahead!
In solidarity,
Andrew Bergman, Trustee on the UAWD Steering Committee
Martha Grevatt, Retiree Representative on the UAWD Steering Committee
Judy Wraight, Retiree Representative on the UAWD Steering Committee
Nolan Tabb, Member At Large on the UAWD Steering Committee
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