New Books Network Abe Walker, "Reassembling the UAW: Insurgency, Contention, and the Struggle for Unionism in the American South" (Temple UP, 2026)
Mar 17, 2026
Abe Walker, sociologist and author of Reassembling the UAW, traces the UAW’s decade-long struggle to organize Volkswagen’s Chattanooga plant. He recounts three elections, shifting strategies from accommodation to militant reform, and how rank-and-file insurgency and post-2023 strikes reshaped union tactics. He also considers limits of the victory and future organizing targets like supply chains and battery plants.
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Works Council Deal Cost The 2014 Campaign
- The UAW lost at Chattanooga in 2014 partly because it pursued backroom deals and sought a German-style works council.
- Abe Walker recounts UAW staff flew to Germany, prioritized corporate talks, and neglected shop-floor relationships, alienating workers.
Weak UAW Contracts Undermined Southern Organizing
- The South's low union density is structural not cultural; the UAW sold an unattractive product due to concessionary national contracts.
- Walker links two-tier wages and frozen benefits to fractured shop-floor solidarity that repelled Southern transplant workers.
Develop Strategic Capacity Not Just Tactics
- Build strategic capacity across knowledge, motivation, learning, and innovation rather than relying on one dimension.
- Walker emphasizes innovation matters most during focal moments when organizations can break entrenched habits.
