UAW Releases Video about Fourth Generation Ford Worker Who’s Fallen Behind the Standards Her Family Once Enjoyed

LIVONIA, Mich. – The UAW released a video today profiling fourth generation Ford worker Sara Schambers. The video was released at UAW.org and on the union’s Facebook page, YouTube channel and Twitter account.

Schambers, a 17-year UAW member currently working at Ford’s Livonia Transmission Plant, is the fourth generation in her family to work at Ford. But her pay and benefit standards have fallen behind those of the generations before her.

She spent six years at one of Ford’s wholly owned subsidiaries as a “temporary worker” — working a full-time schedule — to get to the then-starting full-time wage of just over $16 an hour. It took her almost another decade to reach the top rate of pay for a production employee.

Unfortunately, Sara’s story is not unique at Ford, the iconic American automaker still linked closely to the Ford family. Many workers like Sara also struggle at General Motors and Stellantis.

Despite making a quarter-trillion dollars in North American profits over the last decade, all three companies still employ temporary workers.

Even after being hired as permanent employees, all workers hired after 2007 are denied pensions and post-retirement health care. A majority of the workers at the Big Three are now post-2007, second-tier workers.

Contract negotiations between the union and the Big Three kicked off in mid-July, and UAW members are currently holding strike authorization votes that are scheduled to conclude Aug. 24. The union’s current contract with the automakers expires on Sept. 14.

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