Policy to Buy Union Cars Advances

Milwaukee County Courthouse. Photo by Graham Kilmer.

A new policy to buy only union-made cars received its first approval from the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors Tuesday.

The resolution was authored by Sup. Peter Burgelis and, if passed by the county board, would require, “all eligible vehicle class fleet purchases, when possible, be vehicles produced by workers represented by the [United Auto Workers (UAW)] to promote and support American-built products,” as the resolution states.

Burgelis said manufacturers like Kia have “done so much damage to our community” at a meeting of the board’s Committee on Transportation and Transit Tuesday, adding that taxpayer funds should not be used to purchase vehicles from such a company. (A manufacturing defect in Kia cars which made them easy to steal helped fuel a wave of auto thefts and reckless driving in Milwaukee.)

“And here, we have an opportunity to place our priorities and our values in front of our pocketbook,” he said.

In the U.S. the big three automakers –Ford, General Motors and Stellantis (created by the merger of Fiat Chrysler and Peugeot in 2021)— are unionized. The following manufacturers have manufacturing footprints in North America but are not unionized: Tesla, Nissan, Toyota, Mercedes, BMW, Hyundai, Kia and Honda. UAW publishes an annual list of vehicles in the U.S. that union workers make.

Sup. Willie Johnson, Jr., a former AFSCME member, added his name as a co-sponsor to the resolution and said that his father was a member of the United Auto Workers Local 72 in Kenosha, which represented workers at Kenosha Engine, a plant operated by the American Motors Corporation and later Chrysler.

“I know that the work that my father did as a welder and the work that others did there contributed to making America as strong as it was at the time,” Johnson Jr. said.

John Drew, a former UAW member and official at the local and regional level, spoke in favor of the resolution. “Encouraging fleet purchases to be UAW means that the county supports not only the US economy, but it makes a statement that Milwaukee County believes it is important to give preference to vehicles built by union labor, built by workers who have a seat at the table to collective bargaining.”

Drew noted the UAW was a primary sponsor of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his famous speech “I Have a Dream.”

“Throughout our history the UAW has been at the forefront in the fight for economic and racial justice in this country,” Drew said. “What have companies like Honda and Kia done for the common good?”

The committee unanimously recommended the resolution for approval. It will be considered by the full board later this month.