UAW President Shawn Fain greets workers at the Stellantis Sterling Heights Assembly Plant, marking the start of contract negotiations, on July 12, 2023 in Sterling Heights, Michigan, USA.
Rebecca Cook | Reuters
DETROIT — The United Auto Workers union is preparing for an unprecedented, targeted strike against auto workers FordGeneral Motors and star If the two sides fail to reach a new agreement by 11:59 p.m. ET on Thursday.
Targeted strikes or bottleneck strikes are an alternative to national action where unions strike only at selected plants. This is different than when members walked out of all the factories and took to the picket lines, as happened four years ago during the final round of negotiations with the UAW. General Motors.
Targeted strikes often focus on key factories, which can then cause other factories to halt production due to a lack of parts. It’s not unprecedented, but the way UAW President Sean Fein planned the shutdown is not typical. These include launching targeted strikes at selected factories and then potentially increasing the number of strikes depending on the status of negotiations.
“We will hit all three companies, for the first time in history, initially in a limited number of target locations that we will announce. Then, depending on what is happening, in the bargain, we will announce more local People are going to be called out to stand up and strike,” Fein said Wednesday During Facebook Live.
Fein called the union’s plan a “stand-up strike,” a nod to the UAW’s historic “sit-down” strikes in the 1930s.
While “historic,” a targeted attack could have unintended ripple effects. It’s unclear how one plant will affect others. These actions could also push non-striking union members into the unemployment line if their state allows them to receive any benefits if they lose their job due to the strike.
What to do if work stops?
Labor experts say shutdowns also more easily open the door for companies to hire permanent replacement workers or even shut down factories.
Clark Hill senior counsel Dennis Devaney, who has served on the NLRB board, said the UAW’s tactics “put some pressure on companies” but also make them “more capable” of using such tactics.
Learn more about Detroit labor showdown
“I think from a UAW perspective, it’s clearly not a good thing,” said Devaney, a former lawyer for General Motors and Ford Motor Co.
Factory shutdowns, in which companies don’t allow workers into factories, are more common overseas than in the United States, but they do happen.
For example, workers at one factory were suspended for approximately 10 months. Exxon Mobil The Texas refinery closed last year after unions approved a new deal. The company said the move was in response to a strike notice issued by the union during new contract negotiations in January 2021.
However, if the strike intensifies, especially if supply chain disruptions are reduced due to parts shortages and the coronavirus pandemic, automakers may want to keep producing parts and vehicles at factories for as long as possible.
Jeffrey S. Kopp, a corporate labor lawyer with 26 years of experience and a partner at Foley & Lardner, said companies need to consider “significant and important factors” to determine whether such “conduct is legal and appropriate. “. .
A person familiar with the union’s plans said the UAW knew a work stoppage was an option and said “everything is on the table” for both sides if a strike were to proceed under the expired agreement.
Expired offer
The UAW has never conducted a strike like this before because, under the terms of the union’s national contract with the Detroit automakers, strikes at individual plants must be over local contracts, not national issues. But Fein said the United Auto Workers union would strike at local plants over national issues.
(For context, the UAW, as an organization, has an “international” unit that provides a leader or umbrella for local UAW units, which have their own contracts in addition to national agreements.)
Typically, such actions would be a breach of contract and could result in a lawsuit or complaint to the National Labor Relations Board, such as in 1998, when General Motors filed a lawsuit against the UAW, claiming a bottleneck strike at two Michigan plants affected several others. Ten corporate facilities are illegal.
However, according to the union, this rule is no longer relevant because the members’ work contracts have expired and the terms have expired.
Ben Dictor, who serves as UAW legal counsel, said that most contracts such as wages and working conditions are still in effect, but the “no strike, no lockout clause” has expired. That means unions can strike, but also opens the door for companies to potentially lock out workers.
“As part of the stand-up strike, some of us will be working without a contract. This is an important part of our strategy to call on local people to join the strike based on what happens in the negotiations so that the company loses Balance.” said in video the union posted online Thursday. “It will keep them guessing and speed up your national negotiators’ bargaining with the Big Three.”
strike fund
Conducting targeted strikes can be complicated because it’s unclear how one plant will affect others. These actions could send non-striking union members into the unemployment line if their state allows them to receive any benefits while out of work as a result of the strike.
Targeted strikes would also save the union cash because it would not have to pay “strike wages” to as many members from its $825 million strike fund.
The fund pays each eligible member $500 a week, meaning it has enough cash for about 11 weeks if everyone goes on strike. However, this does not include the health care costs that the union will bear, such as the temporary COBRA program, which could run out of money faster.
When asked about the strike fund’s ability to support the union, Fein often cited how union leaders in the past have held workdays without pay and how UAW members have rallied together.
“No one is coming to save us. No one is going to win this battle for us. Our best hope, or our only hope, is to stick together with each other,” Fein said. “I tell you, I feel at peace with the decision to strike, if necessary, because I know we are on the right side of this fight.”
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