Seize the Moment:
Members Building the Future of UAW Region 9A
Our Record
Region 9A’s Progress Under Brandon’s Leadership
Brandon Mancilla was elected and sworn in as Region 9A Director in December 2022. He ran on a promise to chart a new direction for Region 9A, where members lead and the Region puts its full resources behind the membership’s fights at our workplaces and in our communities.
Over the last four years, Region 9A has done exactly that—and experienced our most successful period in recent history as a result. With Brandon’s leadership, UAW members in Region 9A are setting the standard for what a growing, militant, and participatory region looks like.
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We have fought for and won strong contracts in every sector we represent, making historic gains through ambitious contract campaigns.
We’ve made these gains by instilling a new bargaining culture across sectors based on ending blackout bargaining, communicating directly with members, escalating through member-led actions, and building strike readiness.
We have not been afraid to strike (when necessary) and have waged the threat of our strongest weapon with enormous success.
We set the standard for postdocs nationwide at Columbia, Mt. Sinai, and Weill Cornell.
We won record wage increases with a strike threat at General Dynamics Electric Boat with MDA-UAW Local 571.
We achieved the best contract in recent history with UAW Local 379 at Cummins Jacobs Vehicles System after just a few hours on strike.
We supported ALAA-UAW Local 2325’s historic campaign in July 2025 to lift sectoral standards through a coordinated contract campaign and strike. We’re now setting the foundations for city funding to achieve pay parity and retirement security.
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In the past four years, Region 9A has organized nearly 20,000 new workers in higher education, cultural institutions and museums, movie theaters, legal services and non-profit organizations, auto dealerships, and more.
In higher education alone, we have reached first contracts at Mt. Sinai, Weill Cornell Medicine, University of Maine, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Wellesley College, and New York University. This has resulted in thousands of new UAW members under contract. We are currently working to win over a dozen more first contracts in higher education.
Unique within the UAW, Region 9A has a proud tradition of local union-led organizing. We have bolstered support for those organizing drives through direct staffing support, new communications strategies, and rallying political support for workers to win.
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We revived our Community Action Program (CAP) through member participation. We focused the CAP on our members’ issues and campaigns that impact the working class. This approach has led to a renewed interest in a transparent endorsement process and increased participation in advocacy efforts and canvassing.
Our endorsements are earned, not given, so candidates for political office submit themselves to a democratic and participatory endorsement process. Candidates submit issue questionnaires and participate in interviews with our CAP Councils.
Region 9A was the first union to endorse Zohran Mamdani for New York City Mayor and is credited with playing a major role in legitimizing his campaign focused on addressing the cost of living affecting New Yorkers.
Our region has continued our proud tradition of working to elect UAW members to political office, with UAW members serving in the state legislatures of Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New York—and hopefully soon the United States Congress.
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Essential to Brandon’s vision for the region, the UAW, and the labor movement as a whole is the building of a diverse labor movement across sectors, backgrounds, and generations. Brandon has consistently centered that vision in all of the work of the region.
During the 2023 Stand Up Strike, Region 9A ensured that our members at Big Three parts distribution centers from New York and Massachusetts (Stellantis) and Connecticut (Ford) had the support of members in other sectors showing up for them at their picket lines.
Brandon has drawn upon our union’s history and tradition to share with members in newly organized industries the struggle and sacrifice of retirees and members in the Big Three and manufacturing.
All region-wide trainings, conferences, and events have created opportunities for members to meet each other from Higher Education to Gaming, General Dynamics, IPS, and beyond.
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Brandon understands, like our members do, that the working class struggle is international. Taking the lead from our membership, Brandon fought for the UAW to become one of the first unions to call for a ceasefire and peace in Gaza and later an arms embargo against the state of Israel for its genocide against the Palestinian people.
Brandon took strides to not only advocate for resolutions and educate the IEB on the issue, but also to ensure that the Region 9A membership had the support to fight for their constitutional right to free speech and protest. The UAW is now recognized as pivotal in the shift within the U.S. labor movement away from an uncritical pro-Israel stance toward advocacy for peace, justice, and Palestinian rights.
Our union has continued to fight for a new trade policy that both protects jobs for our members in the United States and also fights for the right to organize real independent unions in Mexico. By ending the whipsaw, we can lift the standards and conditions for autoworkers across borders. Among other international outreach efforts, we have also stood up for the human rights and democracy movement in the Philippines, which is deeply intertwined with the labor movement.
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Region 9A members overwhelmingly voted for One Member, One Vote in the 2021 referendum, and Brandon has represented that commitment on the IEB, consistently advocating for further democratization of the union and increased transparency.
Brandon committed to end favoritism, nepotism, and patronage in the UAW’s hiring practices, in line with the Monitor’s recommendations. At the regional level, he has prioritized hiring experienced, professional staff across multiple sectors so that all of our members and locals have guaranteed high-quality support in terms of bargaining, contract enforcement, representation, and training.
Brandon instituted the first job description and open application process for international representative positions. When he took this important step in early 2023, he got a call from the former UAW President (before Shawn Fain) to cease, an order that Brandon refused to comply with. Through Brandon’s advocacy at the International level, the UAW now has a formal hiring process for International staff positions and stronger ethical standards.
Our Vision
What We Continue to Fight for in Our Union
With Brandon as UAW Region 9A Director, our members are seizing this generation’s defining moment. We have gotten back to our roots as a militant and democratic union—and we won’t stop at the workplace. We will continue building our union into a political force that takes on the billionaires and fights for the future of the working class.
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Evolve our bargaining strategy. In the last four years, we’ve changed how we bargain—and won more as a result. Locals across sectors can attest that strong participatory campaigns with member-led communication and organizing at their core have resulted in record breakthroughs. Our region will continue to work with every local and mobilize every resource possible to support our members’ fights for dignity and justice on the job.
Aim high and involve the membership. Instead of dividing the membership and telling workers to settle for scraps, we have encouraged our members to demand more, bargain transparently, and organize to take action together. We will continue to use this battle-tested strategy to win strong contracts.
Invest in our members. Our members deserve every resource to win the strongest contracts possible. By educating our member leaders in communication, research, and bargaining strategies during our contract fights, we are investing hard-won dues dollars in building the future of our union.
Set new standards across all industries. Continue to set, defend, and expand hard-fought standards. Fight for COLA, retirement security, and fully covered healthcare in all our contracts.
Get creative to win. In sectors where we have yet to establish high standards for wages, retirement security, and health care, we will need to seek creative solutions from the bargaining table to state legislatures. Exploring region-wide pension and health insurance funds to reclaim benefits from our employers’ control would especially benefit our members at small and nonprofit employers.
Know we are stronger together. We will continue to facilitate discussions on the power of coordinated bargaining within sectors and encourage strategies from contract deadline alignment to joint action where such action could prove decisive to victory.
End divide-and-conquer tactics. Our unity is our strength, but the boss keeps us separated by pitting us against each other through tiers, whipsawing, and divide-and-conquer management. Our union must be committed to ending all tiers, from wages to benefits to retirement security, in every sector.
Kill tiers in every sector, and win back retirement security at the Big Three. While we have ended wage tiers at many employers, we need to expand that success into every sector we represent. In 2028, we’re going to take on the Big Three to overcome the biggest tier of all by winning retirement health care and pensions for all. We will use every tool we have to fight for retirement security for all members and retirees.
Fight for equal pay for equal work. The UAW has successfully ended wage tiers at dozens of workplaces across the country, and enshrined Equal Pay for Equal Work into our contracts. We will take the fight against tiers, especially wage tiers, everywhere they still exist in the region.
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Grow our region to 75,000 members by 2030. We are currently working every day to fight against some of the toughest employers in higher education, cultural institutions, auto dealerships, and nonprofits to win life-changing first contracts. We will escalate these fights and be ready to strike if necessary. After that, we will not stop organizing.
Strategize new organizing targets. Identify and organize industries and sectors where we can build power—for example, in child care, where our region already has a foothold. With union popularity at an all-time high, there is no reason why we should limit our organizing to certain industries. We want to help any workers we can to win a union and take control over their lives from the bosses.
Support local organizing. The UAW has renewed its commitment to new organizing under President Shawn Fain, and Region 9A because of our specific history has a strong tradition of local union-led organizing drives. Some of our biggest locals—from Local 2110 to 259 to 2325—have expanded their organizing outside of their home base to even other states in our region. We will develop new initiatives that give locals the resources to win, with the goal of increasing our membership by the thousands.
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Lead on working class issues. UAW is leading the fight for wages, health care, retirement security, and time off the job. In our region, we will continue to pressure politicians at every level of government and build our political power so that our members’ demands are heard and enacted.
Strengthen our member-led CAP Councils. Over the last four years, our region has revived our CAP program and won breakthroughs on major legislation and electoral campaigns. We have once again made the UAW a major working class political force within our region. At the core of this work are strong CAP councils with real membership involvement. Where we succeed it is because members lead the way, and we commit to continue to build that participation.
Deepen solidarity in the face of escalating attacks. We will deepen solidarity ties with coalitions and organizations fighting for justice and democracy. From fighting back against illegal attacks on our neighbors to organizing against war and genocide abroad, we will continue to speak out and advocate to make political change.
Win groundbreaking pro-worker policies. From universal childcare in New York to region-wide efforts to win unemployment insurance for striking workers, we have worked to advance model legislation that would improve the lives of workers not just in our regions but nationwide.
Promote your voice in 2028. Begin a strategic conversation around our priorities so that our members through our Regional CAPs have a direct say in the union’s orientation to the 2028 presidential election.
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Protect One Member, One Vote. Secure the direct election system beyond this cycle and ensure that our members control the future of our union, so that we never return to the corruption and concessions that harmed our union for too long.
Defend members from financial hardship. Update the union’s policy on hardship fundraising, which will help build power for our striking members, especially in cities with significantly higher cost of living.
Establish finances that reflect our values. We will continue to advocate for a portfolio that responsibly invests our members’ dues by divesting from states that are violating international law, including the state of Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people.
Build a clean union. Continue to build a culture of accountability and transparency in the union’s operations at all levels, from our locals to Solidarity House.
Seize the Moment for UAW Region 9A
About Brandon
Learn more about Brandon and his experience to realize a new direction for Region 9A.
How to Vote
Read about how to vote in this election and share information with your coworkers.
How to Help
Get involved to support Brandon and a New Direction for Region 9A.
