UAW Spares Carmakers Further Strikes, but Says More Could Come
Union president says strike entering new phase, needs new approach
The United Auto Workers spared General Motors GM -1.55%decrease; red down pointing triangle and Chrysler-parent Stellantis STLA 0.20%increase; green up pointing triangle from a strike escalation Friday, two days after turning up the heat on Ford Motor F -1.04%decrease; red down pointing triangle with a surprise walkout that targeted one of its most profitable plants.
“We’re entering a new phase of this fight, and it demands a new approach,” UAW President Shawn Fain said in a livestream Friday. “We are prepared at any time to call on more locals to stand up and walk out.”
The UAW has sought to keep the pressure on all three automakers during bargaining with a strike strategy that targets specific facilities at each one depending on what movement, or lack thereof, happens at the negotiating table each week.
For the past month, Fain has typically announced additional walkouts during Friday livestreams, a pattern that he is now seeking to disrupt in an effort to keep the car companies on edge.
Fain specifically called out Ford as growing accustomed to the weekly updates and accused it of slow-walking the union with offers that aren’t substantially different.
“They stopped being interested in reaching a fair deal now and only became interested in gaming our system of announcing strike expansions on Friday,” Fain said.
The 88-year-old labor union initially walked out at three assembly plants for each automaker in mid-September and has since escalated the work stoppage unevenly among the Detroit Three, taking action at parts-distribution facilities as well as additional factories.
On Wednesday, the union suddenly ordered 8,700 workers to join the picket lines at a Ford pickup-truck factory in Kentucky, an assembly plant that is one of the nation’s largest and builds some of the company’s most profitable vehicles.
The move came after talks between Ford and the UAW during the week hit a standstill after a flurry of activity.
In all, more than 33,000 UAW workers are out on strike, about one-fifth of the union’s roughly 146,000 U.S. factory workers at GM, Ford and Stellantis.
Ford executives said Thursday the automaker was at the limit of what it could offer to the union. The latest proposal from the Dearborn, Mich. automaker included a 23% pay increase, the return of cost-of-living adjustments, and a faster timeline to convert temporary workers to full-time.
“We stretched to get to this point. Going further will hurt our ability to invest in the business,” Kumar Galhotra, president of Ford’s gas-engine business, said in a briefing with reporters Thursday.
Company executives said they had been bargaining this week around core economic issues, such as retirement benefits, as well as the future of Ford’s EV battery plants.
The battery facilities have become a core discussion topic after the union said last week that GM agreed to place battery production under its master agreement. Stellantis and Ford haven’t yet made similar commitments, with some executives noting that it is up to the workers to decide whether they want to join the union.