Shawn Fain has spent his thirty-two years in the UAW fighting for members and standing up for working people.

Shawn first joined the UAW as a member of Local 1166 in 1994, where he worked as an electrician at the Kokomo Casting Plant. Shawn served at all levels of our union, from the Education Committee at his local in Kokomo, Indiana, to five terms as a Skilled Trades Committeeman, to International President today.

As the union’s first directly-elected President, Shawn continued his lifelong mission of fighting for UAW members, while also inspiring the labor movement by confronting corporate greed and bad bosses.

Shawn led the fight during the UAW’s historic 46-day Stand Up Strike at the Big Three in 2023, a struggle which led to UAW autoworkers winning their best contracts in a generation.

President Fain played a pivotal role in the strike’s success, calling out the greed of Big Three executives on National TV, holding weekly Facebook Livestreams to keep members updated on negotiations, and calling on the public to support autoworkers in their fight for economic justice. 

The success of the Stand Up Strike compelled non-union automakers to offer their own workers wage increases in hopes of staving off UAW organizing drives at their facilities. These raises became known as the “UAW bump.”

Following the success of the Stand Up Strike, the UAW won record contracts at Daimler, Rolls-Royce, General Dynamics, Cornell University, and many more. Record wage increases and cost-of-living adjustments to protect workers from the effects of inflation have once again become the standard in UAW contracts. 

Under Shawn’s leadership, the UAW achieved a historic organizing breakthrough in 2024, when workers at the Volkswagen assembly plant in Chattanooga, TN, voted overwhelmingly to join the UAW. It was the first non-Big Three auto plant in the South to unionize in decades.  In February of this year, those same Volkswagen workers won a groundbreaking contract that secured major gains and put automakers outside the Big Three on notice. In just three years, the UAW has organized over 85,000 new members across multiple sectors. From manufacturing to higher education, the UAW is placing a priority on growing the ranks of organized labor. 

Since 2023, the UAW’s Strike & Defense Fund has grown significantly, not just because we are winning the best contracts our union has seen in years, but because we are organizing more successfully than we have in years. In fact, for the first time since first being implemented in 2014, the Strike & Defense Fund is expected to reach the $850 million threshold that triggers a half hour decrease in monthly member dues - a testament to the health of our union's financial position. Shawn remains committed to moving our union forward with a worker-led organizing approach, aggressive and innovative bargaining strategies to continue winning record contracts for UAW members, and developing an independent political program that prioritizes the issues that matter to working people.