- About 25,000 UAW workers are currently on strike
- New plants in Chicago and Lansing, Michigan are affected
- According to the Ford boss, the talks are not yet at an impasse
DETROIT, Sept 29 (Portal) – GM and Ford chief executives blasted United Auto Workers leaders on Friday and UAW chief Shawn Fain responded in kind, hours after the union escalated the strike, now in its third week goes.
Fain expanded the first-ever simultaneous strike against the Detroit Three on Friday, calling on workers to walk off their jobs at the Ford assembly plant in Chicago and GM’s (GM.N) Lansing, Michigan, assembly plant. He said Stellantis was spared after last-minute concessions from Chrysler’s parent company.
“It is clear that there is no real intention to reach an agreement,” GM Chief Executive Mary Barra said late Friday, while Ford Chief Executive Jim Farley said the union was holding out on a deal over a dispute over future electric vehicle battery factories. in hostage.” The UAW responded on social media that none of the CEOs participated in the negotiations this week.
“And yet Barra and Farley earned a combined $50 million last year,” the union added.
The strongly worded personal statements showed growing frustration with the pace of negotiations as they enter their third week.
Farley said the UAW claims “could have a devastating impact on our business.” He said the dispute centers on wages and benefits at new electric vehicle battery factories that have not yet started production.
“I don’t know why Jim Farley is lying about the status of negotiations,” Fain replied. “It could be because he didn’t show up to the hearings this week, as he has for most of the last 10 weeks.”
The union and companies remain far apart on key economic issues, and the CEO’s statements suggested they are nowhere near resolving many issues. Fain is sticking to his call for a 40% raise on a four-year contract, a position endorsed by President Joe Biden this week. The companies have offered salary increases of about 20%.
Barra accused Fain of dragging workers into a long, unnecessary strike and attempting to “make history” with the action. “Putting our future at risk is something I will not do,” Barra added.
The union continued its deliberate approach to the strike, opting to walk out on just two more assembly plants – rather than the broader impact of a strike at the Detroit Three’s most profitable plants, which make pickup trucks.
In addition, the union is trying to maintain a limited strike fund that could be strained by further strikes at Mack Trucks plants and casinos in the Detroit area, also represented by the UAW.
“The strike is costing the union a lot of money. It’s $500 per worker per week. With the additional 7,000 (leaving workers), we are talking about over $12 million a week from the strike fund,” said Sam Fiorani, vice president of global vehicle forecasting at AutoForecast Solutions.
Fain said differences from Ford include retirement benefits and job guarantees.
The total number of picketers has grown to 25,000, representing about 17% of the three automakers’ union members.
[1/2]Striking United Auto Workers (UAW) union workers strike outside the Ford Michigan assembly plant in Wayne, Michigan, U.S., September 23, 2023. Portal/Dieu-Nalio Chery/File Photo Acquire License Rights
Instead of the hammer blow of a mass strike that it has carried out in the past, the UAW is strategically pitting companies against each other, using the relief as encouragement by extending work stoppages at various automakers over the past two weeks.
Workers left the Ford assembly plant in Chicago, which builds the Ford Explorer and Lincoln Aviator SUVs, and the GM plant in Lansing, which makes the Chevy Traverse and Buick Enclave SUVs, on Friday.
Farley said the union’s decision to expand strikes at Ford puts thousands of supplier jobs at risk. He added that many suppliers are “on a knife edge” due to a more than two-week strike at the Michigan factory that makes Bronco SUVs and Ranger trucks.
Farley said the UAW chief has held a deal hostage to the fate of electric vehicle battery plants, including three that Ford is building with outside companies and one that the company plans to own in Marshall, Michigan. The UAW wants those workers represented by the union to pay the highest wages.
Ford is reconsidering the size and scope of its $3.5 billion battery plant in Marshall, in part because of uncertainty over labor costs, Farley said.
Stellantis also blamed the UAW for the failure of a new contract.
GM said in an earlier email to employees that it still had not received a comprehensive counteroffer to its Sept. 21 proposal. “The call for further strikes is just for headline purposes and does not represent real progress,” the company said.
Stellantis (STLAM.MI), which was spared another strike, said: “We have made progress in our talks but gaps remain. We are committed to continuing to resolve these issues expeditiously.”
Fain said Stellantis made significant changes to his proposal shortly before he was scheduled to address members at 10 a.m. EDT (1400 GMT). This resulted in a half-hour delay in his announcement and spared Stellantis an escalation.
Fain pointed to progress with Stellantis on cost-of-living allowance payments, as well as the right to strike on product commitments and factory closures. Discussions are continuing at all three companies.
Arthur Wheaton, director of work studies at Cornell University, said: “What Shawn Fain wanted is a given: If you’re good to us at the table, we won’t mess with you. If you are bad to us, we will escalate the strike at the table.”
The UAW has increased the pressure in the last two weeks. On September 15, workers went on strike at GM, Ford and Stellantis plants. The union escalated on September 22, when workers at GM and Stellantis dealerships in 20 states across the country walked off their jobs.
UAW workers on Sunday also threatened to quit their jobs at truck maker Mack Trucks and at three casinos in Detroit. A UAW strike closed a plant that makes axles for the Mercedes-Benz vehicle factory in Alabama.
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reporting by David Shepardson and Joseph White; additional reporting by Ben Klayman and Abhirup Roy, Bianca Flowers, Shivansh Tiwary, Abhijith G and Peter Henderson; Editing by Nick Zieminski, David Gregorio and Jonathan Oatis
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