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The United Auto Workers union will expand its strike against Ford and General Motors while withholding further action from Strantis, citing progress at the bargaining table with the company.
UAW President Shawn Fain said Friday that the union will hold meetings at noon at Ford’s Chicago assembly plant, which builds the Ford Explorer sport utility vehicle, and General Motors’ Lansing, Miss., plant that builds the Chevrolet Corvette. Milo and Cadillac CT4) went on strike. and CT5.
“Ford and General Motors refuse to make meaningful progress at the negotiating table,” Fein said on the live broadcast. “The negotiations have not broken down. We are still negotiating with these three companies, and I remain very hopeful that we can reach an agreement. . . But I also know that the wins we win at the bargaining table depend on the power we build in our work. Yes It’s time to use this power.”
Fearn also said the strike was likely to be a long fight, saying: “We know the road ahead is going to be difficult in this fight, and we know it’s unlikely to be quick.”
Gerald Johnson, GM’s executive vice president of global manufacturing, said the company “has not yet received a full counteroffer from the United Auto Workers to the proposal it made eight days ago.”
“Calls for more strikes are just for headlines rather than real progress,” he said. “The number of people negatively affected by these strikes is growing, including customers who buy and love the products we make.”
Stellantis said it “has been working closely with the UAW to find solutions to the issues that are of greatest concern to our employees.” It added that it had made progress but warned that differences remained between carmakers and unions.
The strike, which began two weeks ago, is the first time the UAW has launched a strike simultaneously against all three Detroit automakers. Friday’s move will increase the number of striking workers from 18,000 to 25,000, or about 17% of union membership at the three major automakers.
The union has adopted an unusual tactic of asking specific plants to stop work rather than go on strike en masse, preserving an $825 million strike fund to support picketing workers while still creating operational headaches for the automakers.
Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said the strike was “like watching a slow-moving car crash on black ice.”
The strike “is now getting more serious, both sides are digging trenches, and the battle between the UAW and Detroit’s automotive backbone is likely to be a long and drawn-out battle,” he said.
Workers at assembly plants in Ohio, Missouri and Michigan were the first to go on strike. A week later, workers at 38 parts warehouses owned by General Motors and Stellantis joined the pickets. Being out of business at these distribution warehouses limits the ability of car dealers to order parts to repair vehicles.
Last week, Ford escaped an expanded strike. This week, Strantis got a pass. Fein said the company was driven by workers’ demands for a return to cost-of-living adjustments that unions sacrificed after the 2008 financial crisis, a moratorium on outsourcing, workers’ rights not to cross picket lines and their right to strike against plant closures.
The need for plant closures is particularly important for Stellantis, which closed a plant in Belvedere, Ill., earlier this year.
The UAW is trying to turn the fight for better wages and working conditions for auto workers into a broader fight against social inequality. President Joe Biden joined pickets in Michigan on Tuesday, the first time a sitting U.S. president has done so.
In the second week of the strike, tensions increased and there were some violent incidents.
The United Auto Workers union criticized the automaker Thursday after five people were struck by a car at a Michigan machining center. Two other violent incidents were reported on picket lines in Massachusetts and California, in which truck drivers pointed guns at picket lines. “We will not be intimidated by these companies or their scabs,” Fein said Friday.
Stellantis said Thursday that the claims were “misleading and inflammatory” and that it was “shocked” by the UAW’s claims. It accused the UAW pickets of “dangerous and even violent behavior.” . . This includes slashing truck tires, jumping on vehicles, following people home and making racial slurs.”
It added: “We respect our employees’ right to assert their position, including the right to protest peacefully. But the violence must stop.”
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