Reassembling the UAW
Insurgency, Contention, and the Struggle for Unionism in the American South
Book •
Abe Walker traces the UAW’s attempts to organize Volkswagen’s Chattanooga assembly plant from 2014 through a successful 2024 election, analyzing strategic failures and eventual innovations.
The book situates those campaigns within broader structural shifts in the auto industry and the UAW’s internal politics, including corruption and the rise of a reform caucus.
Walker emphasizes the role of rank-and-file insurgency, the 2023 stand-up strikes, and changing material conditions that enabled union victory.
He uses a strategic capacity framework—knowledge, motivation, learning, and innovation—to explain why earlier efforts failed and how a focal moment enabled organizational transformation.
The book offers lessons on solidarity, collective action, and the future prospects of labor organizing in the American South.
The book situates those campaigns within broader structural shifts in the auto industry and the UAW’s internal politics, including corruption and the rise of a reform caucus.
Walker emphasizes the role of rank-and-file insurgency, the 2023 stand-up strikes, and changing material conditions that enabled union victory.
He uses a strategic capacity framework—knowledge, motivation, learning, and innovation—to explain why earlier efforts failed and how a focal moment enabled organizational transformation.
The book offers lessons on solidarity, collective action, and the future prospects of labor organizing in the American South.
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Miranda Melcher
Abe Walker
Abe Walker, "Reassembling the UAW: Insurgency, Contention, and the Struggle for Unionism in the American South" (Temple UP, 2026)
Mentioned by 
Miranda Melcher
Abe Walker, "Reassembling the UAW: Insurgency, Contention, and the Struggle for Unionism in the American South" (Temple UP, 2026)
