Fight Layoffs With Work Sharing
UAWD Priority Amendment for
the 2026 UAW Constitutional Convention
Fight Layoffs With Work Sharing
Amendment to Article 19
Bosses use layoffs to burden the working class with the costs of economic downturns, a deliberate strategy to weaken and divide workers. The billionaire class lays off workers to protect profits, dividends and shareholder returns. Layoff and work reductions must be fought with work sharing practices, which spread available work across the entire bargaining unit, instead of throwing some workers out of a job.
Amendment Summary
Be it resolved that Article 19 shall be amended by adding a new section:
The UAW, including the International Union and any Local Union, shall only agree to collective bargaining agreements that:
- prohibit unilateral layoffs and instead allow union members to democratically decide whether and how to allocate their total work hours to implement work sharing;
- preserve health insurance, pensions, and all other benefits during periods of reduced hours;
- mandate full disclosure of financial data, production plans, and technological changes used to justify reductions in hours or staffing;
- require recall and restoration of full-time hours before any new hiring, subcontracting, or overtime;
- preserve the right of workers to strike or take other collective action to enforce these provisions or resist unjustified reductions in hours.
Background
- Thousands of UAW members have recently been laid off at John Deere, Stellantis, General Motors, Ultium, and numerous IPS facilities. Layoffs happen with regularity across all industries during times of economic downturn, recession, and depression.
- Worker control over production during reduced work hours as an alternative to layoffs was once commonplace, with contract provisions including voluntary layoffs, job sharing, and shorter work weeks, especially after union militancy peaked in the 1940s and ’50s.
- A 1956 Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) study describes a wide variety of different types of “work-sharing” provisions in collective bargaining agreements that gave unions control over how work reductions were managed. Another BLS study describes agreements requiring reduction in hours to 30 per week, or that days per week be reduced to 3 or 4, before any layoffs are imposed. It also cites agreements requiring that, during production slowdowns, “the number of shifts […] be temporarily reduced and work equally divided among remaining employees.”
A CLASS STRUGGLE APPROACH
- Rather than the negative repercussions of bad management decisions and changes in economic conditions being ruled by the bosses, workers must lead in taking shop floor control and fight layoffs by sharing the workload across the entire bargaining unit.
- Maintaining shop-floor organization and solidarity is vital for all aspects of workers’ rights —fighting layoffs and concessions, strengthening workers ability to bargain or strike — all to protect and uplift the working class.
- Work sharing prevents any single worker from being singled out for total job loss, unemployment, and the loss of income and stability while keeping workers united, preserving shop-floor organization, and strengthening our ability to bargain, strike, and fight concessions.
UAW POSITION AND APPROACH
- To protect workers from dangerous mandatory overtime when profits are high, and to protect workers from being laid off during economic downturns, UAW must not cede control of shop-floor solutions to the bosses, but must strengthen power through contract bargaining their rank-and-file proposals.
- Worker control over production during reduced work hours as an alternative to layoffs was once common practice — it’s time to bring this back.
