Proposal for the 2026 UAW Constitutional Convention

This resolution was passed at the August 2025 Special Membership Meeting via Zoom on August 3, 2025.

Building a democratic UAW requires that the UAWD with UAW rank and file members organize a collaboration to develop a rank-and-file class struggle platform and program for the 2026-2030 UAW to be presented for adoption by elected local union delegates at the 2026 Constitutional Convention. The development of that platform/program will require a concerted effort by a committee to (1) study, analyze and develop a critique of the platform/program presented and passed at the 2022 Con Con under the auspices of the moribund and corrupt Administration Caucus and (2) the composition of a popular-based comprehensive document that will outline what will be required of the UAW to achieve in the ensuing four years to grow as a militant, class-struggle union as part of a global working class movement that can grow the necessary power to seriously challenge global capital and the havoc it is wreaking for all working class and oppressed people. The subjects of that platform/program will not be confined to the same addressed at the 2022 Con Con, but will dramatically challenge threats such as the growing neo-fascist regime unfolding under Trump 2.0, the deepening climate crisis, escalating militarization and threat of nuclear war, the Zionist genocide in Gaza, growing threats of jobless economies in the face of the development of Artificial Intelligence, as just some examples.  A fundamental requirement of this endeavor is to change the mode of thinking by UAW members, especially in the manufacturing sector, that relegates the development of such a platform/program to the elite – the UAW International Executive Board, its hand selected “Resolutions Committee,” UAW Research Dept, etc. The UAWD can solicit the assistance of “experts” in the service of the rank and file in developing the above and must encourage members aspiring to represent their local unions to promote this kind of thinking and approach to the UAW Convention. After decades of “dumbing down” the rank and file, this will be a challenging endeavor. We must be up for this challenge if we are for real change. Be it resolved, the UAWD Steering Committee will facilitate the creation of a 2026 Con Con Working Group to explore the capacity we have to build the type of Con Con program described above, based in our UAWD Member Platform. This Working Group will meet regularly and host town halls. The Working Group’s efforts shall focus on possibilities for using the Con Con for more radical political education of the UAW membership about what action the UAW should be taking to meet the political moment, not on narrower reforms that could only be achieved with a large number of Con Con delegates. The Working Group will aim to present a proposal of a concrete plan of action for the Con Con at this year’s UAWD Annual National Meeting.