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UAW President Shawn Fain speaks to union members at a rally.
Bill Pugliano/Getty Images
The head of the United Auto Workers said Wednesday evening that the union and the three major automakers are still “very far apart” on the union’s top priorities for wage increases – and that the union is preparing to pursue all three companies 11 years of striking with new tactics: 59 p.m. on Thursday.
“We’re probably going to have to take action,” Shawn Fain, the union’s president for five months, said in a Facebook livestream.
Fain’s comments sparked strong reactions from Ford Motor CEO Jim Farley, who defended his company’s counterproposals. This includes a “historically generous offer” that Farley put on the negotiating table on Tuesday together with Bill Ford, the company’s CEO.
Speaking to a group of reporters, Farley said the company had received no “real counteroffer” in return and that he was “concerned about the lack of feedback” during negotiations. “If a strike occurs, it won’t be because Ford didn’t make a great offer,” Farley said in a statement from Ford on Wednesday.
Fain said the union will not strike all facilities at once. The UAW leader calls the new tactic a “stand-up” strike, calling on local union chapters to strike at individual auto plants. Fain said it would create confusion among companies and give the UAW more influence at the bargaining table.
The contracts of the UAW’s approximately 150,000 members with Ford Motor, Stellantis and General Motors expire at midnight Thursday. The union has called for a 40% wage increase spread over the next four years, along with cost-of-living adjustments, job security measures and pension benefits.
“Overall, we see movement among companies,” said Fain. “But they are still unwilling to agree on the type of increase that will offset inflation on top of decades of declining wages. And their proposals do not reflect the enormous profits we have generated for these companies.”
The Big Three all said they wanted to reach an agreement. GM said Wednesday that it had made “additional strong offers,” while Stellantis, maker of Chrysler and Jeep, said it remained focused on having a “tentative agreement on the table” before Thursday night’s deadline.
As Farley put it, “We should be working creatively to solve difficult problems rather than planning strikes and public relations events.”
The UAW president said the union’s goal is a fair agreement, not a strike. But if no agreement is reached, Fain said he will announce at 10 p.m. Eastern time on Thursday which local union branches will strike first while others continue to work.
“Show the companies that you are ready to leave at any time,” Fain told union members in a livestream on Wednesday.
The approach represents a departure from previous negotiations in which the union first signed a contract with one of the Big Three and used that to strike similar deals with the other two companies.
The UAW has never initiated a strike against all three automakers at the same time. “We will initially target all three companies – a historic first – at a limited number of target locations, which we will announce,” Fain said.
Fain raised the possibility of massive attacks outside of the target locations. “A general strike is still possible,” he said. “We’re keeping all options open.”
If that happens, a total strike by UAW members could cost the U.S. economy about $500 million a day, according to estimates by Joe Brusuelas, chief economist at RSM. That’s a large sum, but not enough to trigger a recession, Brusuelas wrote this week.
Labor strikes are often averted at the last moment, but Fain’s unusually aggressive stance brings new urgency to this year’s talks. In 2019, a GM strike lasted 40 days and cost the company an estimated $3.6 billion.
Write to Catherine Dunn at [email protected]