Labor Upsurge in the North American Automobile Transition: Towards a New Industrial and Labor Relations Stage?

Many scholars have observed that the North American labor movement is experiencing a resurgence. Whilst spanning different economic sectors, the resurgence is a striking phenomenon in the auto sector across all three North American countries. After decades of union decline, concessionary bargaining, and labor laws broken by employers and pro-business governments, a new labor movement momentum has become a common feature of the post-pandemic “new normal.” This resurgence is manifested in increased labor rights and collective bargaining gains coupled with a socially sanctioned union voice to fight back for better wages and working conditions and the right to engage freely in union organizing and collective bargaining. Conceptually, the structural, associational, societal, and institutional power exercised by labor are all gaining in strength. This became most apparent across North American countries during the 2023 automobile labor strikes. The objective of this paper is to analyze the recent labor upsurge in the North American automobile industry. Our thesis is that the labor upsurge is part of a critical juncture unfolding amid a deep transition within the auto industry towards a paradigm of new electric mobilities and a renegotiation of the employment relationship. This opens a window of opportunity for labor to tip the balance of power in its favor. The paper identifies the productive and permissive conditions that both foster and restrain labor’s possibilities, within the context of the industrial and labor regime legacies of each country.