New York CNN –
Shawn Fain, president of the United Auto Workers union, said Friday that Ford, General Motors and Stellantis will all prevent the UAW’s walkouts from extending at this time, suggesting that the unprecedented strikes against all three may be nearing an end .
Fain said the union made the decision after a major breakthrough in talks with GM over a key bargaining target regarding the future of jobs in the auto industry as automakers transition from traditional gasoline-powered cars to a range of electric vehicles.
GM agreed that workers at its future electric vehicle battery plants would be covered by the nationwide labor contract that applies to other UAW members at GM, Fain said, after the UAW began extending the strike to a GM plant in Arlington, Texas. had threatened to assemble the company’s full-size SUVs.
The agreement is a major breakthrough in meeting the union’s central demand for a “just transition” from gasoline-powered cars to electric vehicles, which are seen as a threat to union jobs.
“We have achieved a breakthrough that has not only dramatically changed the negotiations, but will also change the future of our union and our industry,” Fain said.
GM said in a statement Friday that negotiations with the UAW were continuing.
“Our goal remains to reach an agreement that rewards our employees and enables GM to continue to be successful in the future,” the company said.
GM has in the past insisted that workers at battery factories are not GM employees because the plants are operated by joint ventures with Asian battery companies. Workers at GM’s only electric vehicle battery plant open are represented by the UAW, but they are not part of the national collective bargaining agreement and are paid about a third less than members are currently paid, even after the union won wage increases there earlier this summer.
The company has stated that it does not object to all battery plants having union representation, but the company would need to be cost-competitive with workers at other non-union battery plants that have opened or are scheduled to open. These businesses generally pay about half of the current UAW wage rate.
Where things are
General Motors’ new written offer to include electric battery production in the new contract came just 30 minutes before Shawn Fain was set to announce an extended strike, according to a source familiar with the moves.
General Motors fell behind Ford and Stellantis in negotiations, the source added.
Stellantis avoided an extension of the strike this week because the company made progress on cost-of-living adjustments, job security and hiring skilled workers.
Ford is leading the way with the highest pay increase offer of 23% over four years, which is more than double the original offer of 9%, according to this source.
According to this source, retirement benefits remain a key issue at all three automakers.
About 20% of UAW members are transmission or engine workers, as the union faces questions about what would happen to those members’ jobs in a transition to electric vehicles. Today’s new offer from General Motors helps underscore that concern, as all of GM’s new battery workers will now be UAW workers, the source said.
Although the union is not expanding the strike as it did on the last two Fridays, it continues to strike at five assembly plants belonging to the three companies, as well as at a network of parts distribution centers.
“We are making significant progress. “In just three weeks, we are taking these companies further than anyone thought possible,” Fain said. “Our strike is working. But we’re not there yet.”
Fain takes a hard line in both his rhetoric and his ambitious negotiating demands. He made his comments Friday wearing a T-shirt that read “Eat the Rich.” He said his comments and demands were dismissed as “theatrics,” but they worked.
“It’s not about theatrics, it’s about power, the power that we have as working class people,” he said. “We showed the Big Three that we’re not afraid to use it. Strikes and the threat of strikes by a united membership are the key to success.”
GM admitted earlier this week that it lost $200 million in the first two weeks of the strike.
On Friday, Ford announced it would lay off 495 employees at its engine plants in Cleveland, Lima and Sterling Axle. The layoffs occurred even though Ford was spared from extensive strike action that day.
“While we are doing what we can to avoid layoffs, we have no choice but to reduce production of parts that would be destined for a striking factory,” said Bryce Currie, vice president of manufacturing and labor affairs in the Americas at Ford Blue. said in a statement. “Strike-related layoffs are an unfortunate result of the UAW’s strategy.”
Ford said this brings the total number of strike-related layoffs to 1,800 workers.
In addition to the deal with GM for battery factory workers, the companies are now offering pay increases totaling 20% at GM and Stellantis and 23% at Ford, Fain said.
“We don’t have to be there yet, but we’re a lot further away,” he said. And he added that Ford and Stellantis also agreed to readjust the cost of living to protect workers from rising prices, and that GM is “not far behind.”
While the union went on strike against all three unionized automakers for the first time in its history, the UAW launched the strike on September 15 with a targeted walkout by 12,700 members at one assembly plant at each company. A week later, it added a series of 38 parts and distribution centers operated in 20 states by GM and Stellantis, but did not expand the strike at Ford, saying the automaker had made significant progress in negotiations.
Then on September 29, the UAW declined to expand the strike against Stellantis, again citing progress in talks, but added a strike against one assembly plant at GM and one at Ford. Therefore, the decision not to extend Friday’s strike at any of the companies is a break with previous practice and a hopeful sign of progress.
The union has always said it is prepared to extend the strike to increase pressure on companies. And Fain said GM knows the next target at GM is the Arlington, Texas, assembly line that makes the Chevrolet Tahoe and Suburban, the GMC Yukon and the Cadillac Escalade. Fain described the Arlington plant as “GM’s biggest moneymaker.”
“It was that threat that brought GM to the table,” he said.