By Sam Robinson, Senior Reporter
The United Auto Workers are mobilizing its local members in an attempt to make an impact in Detroit’s upcoming mayor’s race.
UAW members, local leaders and its international president rallied outside the UAW Solidarity House on Jefferson Saturday to support Triumph Church pastor Solomon Kinloch Jr.’s campaign for mayor.
The union says its members will join the thousands of volunteers who are already door knocking and making calls for Kinloch’s campaign.
On stage, Fain and Kinloch echoed their shared commitment to supporting the city’s working class and bolstering its neighborhoods.
“The UAW fought and won on the strike lines and at the bargaining table. We fought in the streets and at the ballot box. But we didn’t just fight for ourselves. We fought for the working class as a whole, and we stood together in solidarity when people were under attack 62 years ago during the dark era of Jim Crow segregation in the south and jobs and housing discrimination in the north.
Fain mentioned the union’s involvement in Martin Luther King Jr. ‘s Walk for Freedom on June 23, 1963, which led thousands down Woodward Avenue downtown Detroit. UAW president Walter Ruger who marched shoulder to shoulder with King and Detroit mayor Jerome Cavanagh during the demonstration.
Kinloch has also invoked King’s legacy on the campaign trail. He points to MLK Jr. and Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-GA, when asked why a minister would want to enter politics.
“We have so many other people whose interests are represented but not the interests of working class people,” Kinloch said. “We have got to make sure we put working class representation at the table so when decisions are made, they’re favorable for the people who live here.”
Fain said in an interview outside the union building that the UAW and Kinloch’s fight is the same, saying their efforts are focused on benefiting working class people who have been left behind.
“His mission is lifting people up, our mission is lifting people up — not just union people, everybody,” Fain said.
The UAW president gained a national following amid his successful negotiations for higher wages amid the union’s Stand Up Strike in 2023.
Fain met Kinloch during the endorsement process but had heard of him long before, as many UAW members are also members of Triumph Church, Fain said. Fain’s aggressive negotiation tactics were inspiring, Kinloch said.
The union’s endorsement has been the surprise of the race.
Horace Sheffield Jr., Sheffield’s grandfather, spent his career with the UAW dedicated to improving Black representation in the trades and union leadership, according to Wayne State’s Walter P. Reuther Library. He helped stage the landmark River Rouge Plant strike in 1941, during which he pressed Black strikebreakers to leave the plant.
Some close to City Council president and mayoral candidate Mary Sheffield questioned its legitimacy after Kinloch deleted posts from May 19 first announcing the UAW endorsement. His campaign says his initial posts to social media announcing the endorsement were deleted because they hadn’t yet received the endorsement from Fain himself.
Fain said the endorsement came as a result of its members.
“The thing that changed at the UAW when I took over is we’re trying to be more member driven,” Fain said. “I was in DC the week when the (endorsement) meetings were happening in Region 1 and 1A. I wasn’t aware of it because I was working on other issues with tariffs and all that. I reached out after I got the text and found out the regional directors already had the meetings and the members spoke — when they speak we move. They’re the ones who determined this.”
There are 120,000 UAW members in the city of Detroit, the largest union representation in the city.
“When we make an endorsement, we’re putting all of our resources behind it. We expect Solomon to win this race and we’re going to be behind him every step of the way. Anything I can do, I’m going to be doing it.”
Kinloch worked at the Chevrolet Gear and Axle Plant in west Hamtramck before becoming a minister. He’s a former member of UAW Local 235 and his father was a member of the same union.
About Post Author
