The United Auto Workers union will announce Friday afternoon whether it will widen its strike to additional factories at Detroit’s biggest vehicle manufacturers after another week of tense contract bargaining.
The report of progress raises the possibility that the union might decide not to expand its walkouts at one or more of the companies.
The United Auto Workers strike against the Big Three automakers is once again having an effect on Indiana workers.
Union President Shawn Fain told workers on a video appearance Friday that negotiations haven’t broken down but Ford and GM have refused to make meaningful progress.
The United Auto Workers union said it will broaden its strike at noon Friday unless there is last-minute progress in contract talks with Detroit’s Big Three automakers.
Additional walkouts will take place at noon Friday without serious progress in contract talks, the United Auto Workers union said.
Labor historians say they cannot recall an instance when a sitting president has joined an ongoing strike, even during the tenures of the more ardent pro-union presidents such as Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Harry Truman.
In a statement, UAW President Shawn Fain called the move “a shameful, barely-veiled threat by Ford to cut jobs” at a plant that’s not open yet.
The UAW on Friday targeted GM and Stellantis distribution centers throughout the United States. Ford was spared additional walkouts because the company has met some of the union’s demands.
UAW President Shawn Fain has not said which plants would be affected next—the union’s stated strategy is to “keep the companies guessing.”
A clue of possible strike targets might be found in locations where UAW locals have announced they will hold rallies and practice picketing in the coming days. Those include a Ford plant in Louisville and a GM plant in Bedford, Indiana.
Stellantis, which makes Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep vehicles, said Wednesday that the layoffs are a consequence of the strike at its assembly plant in Toledo, Ohio.
UAW President Shawn Fain said workers at more factories will join those who are now in the fifth day of a strike at three plants.
UAW President Shawn Fain said more factories could be targeted if “serious progress” toward an agreement isn’t reached by Friday at noon. “We’re not messing around,” he said.
The United Auto Workers union has made pay disparity between CEOs and workers a central part of its argument for a big worker wage increase. A detailed look shows a more complicated picture.
UAW President Shawn Fain said that Stellantis’s 21 percent offer and other terms presented by the automakers aren’t sufficient and that the strike will continue.
Some 12,700 UAW members—or roughly 8% of the union’s autoworkers—are on strike at a Stellantis plant in Ohio, at a GM plant in Missouri and at a Ford assembly plant in Michigan.
Without addressing labor shortages, our reliance on imported crops grows.
The UAW’s initial list of demands was projected to cost each of the companies $80 billion over four years, according to people familiar with the companies’ estimates.
It was the first time in the UAW’s 88-year history that it walked out on all three companies simultaneously, as four-year contracts with the companies expired at 11:59 p.m. Thursday.
