The United Automobile Workers union increased pressure on Ford Motor and General Motors by expanding its strike to two more auto assembly plants on Friday, saying the companies had not progressed far enough to meet their demands for higher wages and benefits.
The move is the second escalation of strikes that began Sept. 15 at three plants, one each owned by GM, Ford and Stellantis, the parent company of Chrysler, Jeep and Ram. The union said it would not expand the strike against Stellantis this week due to progress in negotiations there.
UAW President Shawn Fain said workers at a Ford plant in Chicago and a GM plant in Lansing, Michigan, would walk off their jobs Friday. GM produces the Buick Enclave and Chevrolet Traverse sport utility vehicles at the Lansing plant. Ford makes the Explorer, Police Interceptor Utility and Lincoln Aviator in Chicago.
“Ford and GM have refused to make meaningful progress at the negotiating table,” Mr. Fain said in a live video.
The Ford plant in Chicago employs about 4,600 UAW members and the GM plant in Lansing employs 2,300 union members. Including workers who resigned earlier, more than 25,000 UAW members at the three companies were asked to resign. The three automakers collectively employ nearly 150,000 UAW members.
A week ago, workers walked out of 38 GM and Stellantis parts distribution centers. The UAW did not expand its strike at Ford because, as the union explained at the time, it had made significant progress in contract negotiations with that company.
The UAW is demanding a significant wage increase for workers and called for a 40 percent increase at the start of negotiations. She pointed to the significant profits all three companies have made over the past decade and the level of pay increases for their chief executives over the past four years.
The companies each offered around 20 percent over a four-year period. Ford and the union have agreed to several other demands, including cost-of-living adjustments if inflation rises again and the right to strike if the company closes plants.
“Fain negotiates better than the auto companies and he enjoys making them dance while he insults them,” said Erik Gordon, an economics professor at the University of Michigan who follows the auto industry. “For a week he gets Ford to give more in the hope of not being targeted for closure again. The next week he tells Ford they haven’t donated enough and is closing one of their plants.”
But if the companies agree to most of the union’s demands, they could struggle to compete in the fast-growing electric vehicle market dominated by Tesla, a non-union automaker, Professor Gordon said. “The union will make big gains for a few years until companies’ lack of competitiveness leads to job losses,” he said.
The parties have met regularly and on Thursday the Stellantis union presented its latest counteroffer, the union said. The UAW and GM negotiating teams met on Wednesday for a meeting attended by Mr. Fain.
The union leader’s online comments on Friday were delayed by nearly half an hour, citing what he called “the great interest of companies in resolving a serious collective bargaining issue.” He did not provide any further details.
Ford Chief Executive Jim Farley said Friday that the company and the UAW are “very close” to an agreement but disagree over possible contract terms for workers at four electric vehicle battery plants the company is building. “If the UAW’s goal is a record deal, they already have it,” he told reporters on a conference call.
From the company’s perspective, the discussions surrounding the battery plants are unlikely to delay negotiations on a new four-year contract, as these will not be completed for another two or more years.
The UAW sees things differently. Union leaders fear automakers will use the transition to electric vehicles to drive down wages and reduce the number of union workers they employ.
The union wants to include workers at battery plants partially or fully owned by automakers in its nationwide contracts with the UAW. Mr. Fain said workers at battery factories face more dangerous working conditions but are paid much less than union members at vehicle assembly plants.
Automakers have said they cannot include workers at battery factories in their domestic contracts because most plants are set up as joint ventures with foreign companies such as LG Energy Solution and SK On.
Of the three automakers, only GM has started producing batteries at a plant it co-owns with LG Energy Solution in Lordstown, Ohio. Ford is building three battery factories in Kentucky and Tennessee with SK On. Ford announced this week that it was halting work on another 100%-owned battery plant to be built in Michigan because it was uncertain whether it could produce competitively priced products.
Mr. Farley said starting production at battery plants would not result in the loss of UAW jobs elsewhere at Ford. The company employs 57,000 UAW members, more than GM and Stellantis.
A GM executive told employees Friday that the company is waiting for a “comprehensive counteroffer” to a Sept. 21 proposal.
“The call for more strikes is just for headlines and does not represent real progress,” said Gerald Johnson, executive vice president of global manufacturing at GM. “The number of people negatively impacted by these strikes is growing and includes our customers who buy and love the products we make.”
Stellantis said progress had been made in the talks but there were “still gaps”. The company said it has “worked extensively with the UAW to find solutions to the issues of greatest concern to our employees while ensuring the company remains competitive.”
Tensions at the picket lines have increased this week. According to the union, five picket line workers suffered minor injuries when they were struck by a car outside a GM plant in Flint, Michigan. Other confrontations occurred at picket lines in California, Massachusetts and Michigan, the union said.
“We will not be intimidated into backing down,” said Mr. Fain, who has often likened the strike to a “war on corporate greed.”
In a statement on Thursday, Stellantis criticized Mr. Fain’s characterization of the negotiations and accused the union of violence. Some strikers slashed tires on trucks and harassed non-striking employees in spare parts warehouses.
“The deliberate use of inflammatory and violent rhetoric is dangerous and must be stopped,” Stellantis said. “The companies are not ‘the enemy’ and we are not at ‘war.'” We respect our employees’ right to advocate for their position, including their right to peacefully picket. But the violence must stop.”
The strategy of striking at only a limited number of locations but spreading strikes across plants at all three automakers is a break from the UAW’s traditional approach of shutting down most or all of a company’s operations. In 2019, union workers went on strike at GM for 40 days before a tentative agreement was reached.
Mr Fain said the strategy aimed to keep companies unclear about which parts of their operations would be affected next, in the hope of improving the union’s bargaining position. The first three plants affected by the strike produce some of the automakers’ most profitable vehicles, including the Chevrolet Colorado, Ford Bronco and Jeep Wrangler.
A limited strike also reduces companies’ profits while limiting damage to their suppliers, local businesses and the national economy.
The extension of the strike also increases the financial costs for the union. It pays striking workers $500 a week from its $825 million strike fund.
Santul Nerkar contributed reporting.