‘We are burned out’: UAW ready to take on automakers in contract negotiations

Amid record profits, workers want to roll back concessions made to auto industry after the 2008 economic recession

For decades, the head of the powerful United Auto Workers (UAW) union has started negotiations with the CEOs of the US's top auto executives with a ceremonial handshake. Those days are over.

As UAW members become the latest American workers to consider a massive strike over their union contract, newly elected UAW president Shawn Fain chose to mark the start of the talks by shaking hands with workers instead. There's no point in having a big pomp and ceremony where we act like we're friends, and we're working together, when we're not," said Fain, while meeting with workers at a Ram truck factory in Sterling Heights, Michigan. The membership comes first. That's our job."