About 13,000 U.S. autoworkers stopped building cars and went on strike on Friday because their leaders were unable to bridge a wide gap between what the union is demanding in contract negotiations and what Detroit’s Big Three automakers are willing to pay.
Members of the United Auto Workers union began picketing at the General Motors assembly plant in Wentzville, Missouri, the Ford plant in Wayne, Michigan, near Detroit, and the Strantis Jeep plant in Toledo, Ohio.
It is the first time in the union’s 88-year history that it has quit all three companies simultaneously, as four-year contracts with all three expire at 11.59pm on Thursday.
strike May chart the future of unions and the domestic auto industry The U.S. workforce is flexing its muscle at a time when companies are facing a historic shift from building internal combustion engine vehicles to building electric vehicles.
If it lasts for a long time, dealers may experience vehicle shortages and prices may rise. The strike could even become a factor in next year’s presidential election, as it tests Joe Biden’s proud claim to be president. The most union-friendly president in American history.
“Workers everywhere are watching this,” said Liz Shuler, president of the AFL-CIO, a coalition of 60 unions with 12.5 million members .
This strike is significantly different from previous strikes during UAW negotiations. The union is targeting not one company, led by combative new president Shawn Fain, but all three. But not all of the 146,000 UAW members at the company’s plants are on the picket lines, at least not yet.
In contrast, the UAW For a few factories Company negotiators were urged to raise their offer, which was well below the union’s demand for a 36% pay increase over four years. General Motors and Ford offered 20%, and Stellantis (formerly Fiat Chrysler) offered 17.5%.
Outside a Ford plant in suburban Detroit, Britney Johnson, a 35-year-old worker who has been with the company for about 3 1/2 years and has yet to reach the union’s maximum wage, said she hopes for higher wages, pensions and pensions. Cash back and costs. Increase in life. “I love this job. It’s just that we deserve more,” she said.
She was on the picket line outside the factory with about 400 workers.
At the Toledo Jeep plant, Candace Bowles, 52, an assembly line worker, said it felt “weird” to leave work. “I didn’t want to do it, but it had to be done,” Powers said.
As the deadline approached, she cleared her workstation and walked out as the clock struck midnight. “I’m really happy that everyone is standing together,” she said.
A limited strike would help preserve the union’s $825 million strike fund, which would be depleted in about 11 weeks if all workers strike. But Fein said if the companies don’t come up with better offers, more factories may be added.
Even Fein called the union’s demands bold, but insisted the automakers were making billions of dollars and could afford them. He scoffed at companies’ claims that costly settlements would force them to raise vehicle prices, saying labor only accounts for 4 to 5 percent of a vehicle’s cost.
“They could double our raises without raising the price of our cars and still make millions of dollars in profit,” Fein said. “We are not the problem. Corporate greed is the problem. “
The strike ends for a day with both sides complaining about the other Not enough changes have been made from the original position.
In addition to general wage increases, the union is seeking the restoration of cost-of-living raises, an end to varying pay levels for factory jobs, a 32-hour work week, a 40-hour wage, and a return to traditional defined benefits now only available through 401(k)-style retirement plans. Pensions for new employees, increases in pensions for retirees and other items.
Starting in 2007, workers gave up cost-of-living increases and defined-benefit pensions for new hires. The UAW created the pay scale in an attempt to help companies avoid financial difficulties before and during the Great Recession. Even so, only Ford avoided government-sponsored bankruptcy protection.
Many say it’s time to roll back concessions because these companies are making huge profits and CEOs are making millions.They also want to ensure unions represent workers Joint venture electric vehicle battery factory These companies are building factories like this so workers have jobs to build the vehicles of the future.
Workers at top assembly plants earn about $32 an hour, plus large annual profit-sharing checks. Ford said the average annual salary last year, including overtime and bonuses, was $78,000.
About 3,300 workers are on strike at the Ford plant, which makes the Bronco SUV and Ranger midsize pickup truck. The Toledo Jeep plant has about 5,800 workers and produces the Jeep Wrangler SUV and Gladiator pickup truck. GM’s Wentzville plant, which employs about 3,600 workers, builds GMC Canyon and Chevrolet Colorado midsize pickup trucks, as well as GMC Savana and Chevrolet Express full-size vans.
Marick Masters, a business professor at Wayne State University, said the union is not targeting the companies’ big cash cows, which are full-size pickup trucks and large SUVs, but is more targeting those whose production margins are lower car factory. Detroit.
“They want to give these companies some space and not put them against a wall,” Masters said. “They’re not cornering them. You put an animal in a corner and that’s dangerous.”
Automakers say they are facing unprecedented demand as they develop and build new electric vehicles while also making gasoline-powered cars, SUVs and trucks to stay afloat. They worry labor costs will rise so much that their cars will have to be priced higher than foreign automakers with U.S. factories.
General Motors CEO Mary Barra told workers in a letter Thursday that the company is delivering historic wage increases and new vehicle commitments to U.S. plants. She wrote that GM’s proposal “addresses what you told us is most important to you, despite the fiery rhetoric from UAW leadership.”
Ford CEO Farley said on CNBC on Thursday that the company would have lost $15 billion over the past 10 years and gone bankrupt if it agreed to the union’s demands.
Under the UAW strategy, striking workers will receive strike pay of $500 per week from the union, while other workers will continue to receive full pay. These companies are unlikely to lock their remaining workers out of their factories because they want to keep building vehicles.
It’s hard to say how long it will take for the strike to reduce dealer inventories and start hurting the company’s bottom line.
Jeff Schuster, head of automotive at Global Data Research, said Stellantis has the most inventory and can maintain it longer. The company has enough vehicles at dealers or on the way to dealers to last 75 days. Ford has a 62-day supply and General Motors has a 51-day supply.
Still, Schuster expects the strike could last longer than previous shutdowns, such as the 40-day strike against General Motors in 2019.
“It feels like there’s greater risk on both sides,” he said.
Svlook
