AFT Signs On to UAW's Push for 2028 General Strike

At the American Federation of Teachers' annual convention in Houston on Wednesday, the AFT's 1.8 million members got a round of applause from one of the country's top union leaders—United Auto Workers president Shawn Fain, who has called on the U.S. labor movement to join a nationwide strike in 2028.

"We want to create a mass movement—a general strike if we have to—to win our fair share not just for workers here but for... working-class people all over this globe," said Fain. "You guys passed a resolution to push unions to do just that... And that's how we do this. When we fight and when we win, people want to be a part of that, they want to join the movement."

Fain's comments came a day after the AFT passed a resolution to support May 1, 2028 as the expiration of all contracts for local unions—the same date chosen by the UAW when Fain led negotiations with the Big Three automakers after the union's historic "stand-up strike" late last year.

The strategic date would ensure union contacts end on May Day, 2028—the holiday marking the struggles and successes of the international labor movement—setting the stage for a nationwide work stoppage across the U.S., where, as the AFT said in its resolution, "big business and their political allies have waged a war on workers."

"We want to create a mass movement—a general strike if we have to—to win our fair share not just for workers here but for... working-class people all over this globe... You guys passed a resolution to push unions to do just that."

Fain said earlier this year that the nation's workers "should have stood up and walked the hell out" in 1980 when then-President Ronald Reagan fired air traffic controllers who went on strike.

"We missed the opportunity then, but we're not going to miss it in 2028. That's the plan. We want a general strike. We want everybody walking out just like they do in other countries," said Fain in January.

In the AFT's resolution passed on Tuesday, the teachers union noted that "union workers are fighting back, in order to secure fair contracts for themselves and for their communities," and called on labor organizations to "find creative ways to maximize our economic power and fight against corporate greed."

The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU), part of the AFT, had already proposed a May 1, 2028 expiration date for its next contract in negotiations with Chicago Public Schools.

The AFT said in its resolution that it would encourage all of its locals "to consider this common expiration as a useful tactic in the fight to advance racial, economic, and social justice."

The adoption of the resolution, said CTU vice president Jackson Potter, is s step toward winning "more for working people in bargaining, at the statehouse, and all the way up to the White House."

The pro-labor media organization More Perfect Union added that the AFT's move "adds significant power" to Fain's call for a general strike.