TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) — United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain warned striking auto workers Saturday not to allow the three Detroit automakers to abandon their fight for “justice.”
“They are trying to create doubt between the membership and the leadership,” Fain told picketers at the Stellantis NV Jeep Wrangler and Gladiator plant in Toledo, Ohio, on the 16th day of their strike. “They are trying to cause division. This is how they work. This is how those in power work. We’re trying to divide everyone so they can do what they want to do. What they say is complete nonsense. —–, and it won’t work. We’re smarter than that.”
Fain accompanied Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, for several hours Saturday afternoon, walking from gate to gate at the facility while meeting with members. Fain’s comments came after Ford Motor Co. CEO Jim Farley said the Detroit-based union was holding an agreement on yet-to-open electric vehicle battery plants “hostage,” and General Motors Co. CEO Mary Barra blamed it in a statement, Union said it had “no real intention” of striking a deal.
The union says it is seeking a record contract in response to the automakers’ record profits and is demanding concessions made in 2007 and 2009 in the face of the economic downturn and bankruptcies at GM and Chrysler LLC, such as cost-of-living adjustments and a shorter timeline to reach top wages and the job exchange can be implemented. Meanwhile, companies say they are already making record proposals and recognizing that wages have not kept pace with inflation. But they emphasize that they must remain competitive against non-union foreign manufacturers.
Fain said that while progress has been made, “we are nowhere near where we need to be.” He highlighted retirement security, post-retirement health care and job security in the transition to electric vehicles as key issues.
Last week, Fain called the battery factory issue a “permissive subject,” meaning the parties can discuss it but are not required to. The National Labor Relations Act prohibits either the employer or the union from making a collective bargaining agreement conditional on the other party’s acceptance of a proposal for a discretionary bargaining item.
“These damn CEOs want to sit here and piss, moan and cry about how we’re trying to hold them hostage,” Fain said. “We are not holding anyone hostage. You have made this decision. They decided to fool around for seven weeks.”
During the week of July 30, the union put forward its economic demands, which it calls the “member demand.” A month later, Ford was the first to respond to these demands. GM and Stellantis responded after the union filed an unfair labor practice complaint against them, which has since been withdrawn.
GM pointed to leaked text messages, first reported by The Detroit News, that the union planned to “burden automakers for months” and cause “recurring reputational damage and operational chaos.”
“To be clear, the leaked text messages show that the UAW leadership planned from the beginning to engage its members in a long, unnecessary strike to advance their own personal agendas. There is no intention to reach an agreement,” GM spokesman David Barnas said in a statement on Saturday. “GM leadership and the work team were available 24/7 on behalf of our represented team members and our company.”
Toledo auto workers are among the longest-lasting members – since the early morning hours of September 15th. On Friday, the union expanded its strike against General Motors and Ford Motor to two midsize SUV plants and added 7,000 new members. In total, 25,300 of the approximately 146,000 UAW members at the Detroit Three went on strike.
Although the strike was in its third week, the picketers were mostly cheerful, waving American and UAW flags, chatting and laughing, and driving golf carts back and forth between the gates. In contrast to the first strike, tents were now set up outside the fence around the factory and there were supplies of snacks and water.
“We’re here for the long haul,” said Kristin Meridieth, 35, of Sylvania, a 10½-year autoworker. “It’s about pensions, COLA, retirement benefits. A raise is nice, but I’m more interested in the long term.”
Joshua Daniels, 37, of Toledo, has made it a tradition to wear a new mask every picket shift to attract attention. After a wild bear and a skeletal mouse in the past two weeks, Daniels donned a Joker mask during Fain’s visit on Saturday. He said he already has one planned for the fourth week.
“We have no doubts,” said the 10-year UAW member. “Maybe we have doubts about them, the car manufacturers. But we have no doubts, not with us. We are here to fight for what we deserve.”
In response to auto executives’ criticism that Fain had not taken the negotiations with TV and media appearances seriously, he called their complaints “a joke” and “pathetic.”
Fain said Barra has been to about three meetings since mid-July and Farley has been to about four. Carlos Tavares, CEO of Stellantis, who is based in Europe, did not attend a single meeting. The companies have said they are negotiating around the clock.
“My a– was at the negotiating table every day,” Fain said. “I was there every day. Our committees were there every day. Their vice presidents were there every day.”
Despite traveling to the strike line about an hour outside of Detroit, Fain said, “I’m available today. I was in my office at nine o’clock this morning waiting. They didn’t want to meet. This is a They keep spreading false narratives and claiming we are not ready to meet. We were there every day. I can leave right now and go back and negotiate if they wanted. My phone isn’t ringing.”
On Friday, a last-minute memorandum from Stellantis NV saved the company from extending the strike. The memo agreed to the 2009 cost of living adjustment formula, the right for UAW members not to cross picket lines, the right to strike over product allocations and plant closings, and an outsourcing moratorium.
Workers on the picket line expressed surprise that the automaker was addressing the problems and hoped it meant a solution was in sight. Loretta Marshall, 42, of Toledo, a UAW member for 10 years, said she hopes a deal will allow for more time with her family after missing cheer games, pep rallies and preparing for school dances with her children.
“We often work six days, sometimes seven days a week,” she said. “It hurts to miss these milestones, not just as parents but also as children. They don’t understand what you’re doing and sacrifice to keep the job and provide for them. A 32-hour week would be nice.” this free time.
Meanwhile, workers at GM’s Lansing Delta Township assembly plant, which makes the Chevrolet Traverse and Buick Enclave, and Ford’s Chicago assembly plant, which makes the Explorer, Lincoln Aviator and police interceptors, went on strike with UAW members in the Ford -Plant Bronco and Ranger in Wayne, Stellantis. Toledo plant, GM’s midsize pickup truck and large commercial vehicle plant in Wentzville outside St. Louis, and GM and Stellantis’ 38 parts distribution centers across the country.
The ability to add factories based on progress or lack of progress at the negotiating table is part of the UAW’s “stand-up strike” strategy. This gives the union the opportunity to stage unexpected work stoppages, but also leaves uncertainty for members and the industry’s supply chain. In addition, the union’s strike and defense fund, which was worth $825 million before the Detroit Three strike and pays $500 a week to striking workers and workers laid off by automakers, will be spared.
The “stand-up strike” is similar to the AFA’s “chaos” strike against Alaska Airlines in 1993. The union temporarily struck a limited number of seemingly arbitrary flights beginning in May of that year, a strategy that was upheld in a federal court ruling in December . Two weeks later there was a deal with higher salaries, although only 24 of 1,500 flight attendants on seven flights went on strike over several months.
“It goes back to the time when we look back at our history, at our roots as sit-ins,” Fain said of the strategy. “But the AFA paved the way in the ’90s — a good way, and we feed off each other. That’s what the work should do.
Although there hasn’t been a campaign like AFA’s in 1992, Nelson says the strategy is embedded in the minds of airline executives in every negotiation.
“These executives don’t just want money, they want control, and they lose control when they don’t know what’s happening,” she said. “In our case in the airline industry, bookings fell because people who might have caught a flight through a picket line were unwilling to take the risk that their flight might be selected. So that’s the element of surprise that the UAW has incorporated here, and also the ability to put the pressure where it hurts the most. That’s up to you to decide, and that’s what they did with their Friday morning announcements. This week it worked with Stellantis.”
Auto workers are not the only ones striking or facing such potential actions. Detroit casino workers voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike in their negotiations on Friday. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan workers in Detroit, represented by the UAW, also continue to strike.
According to the UAW, more than 100 union workers at ZF Chassis Systems in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, marked their 10th day of strike on Saturday after rejecting a fourth proposal from the German auto supplier. Workers there are also seeking to eliminate the tier system and increase the starting wage to $15.50 an hour. The plant there supplies a nearby Mercedes-Benz plant.
The expiration date for the UAW’s contract with Mack Trucks Inc. is also approaching. If a tentative agreement isn’t reached a minute before midnight Sunday, workers in Pennsylvania, Maryland and Florida could go on strike.
X: @BreanaCNoble