United Auto Workers President Sean Fein said Friday that while Detroit automakers have increased wages and benefit packages, he believes the union could have gained more if it had stayed the course longer in contract negotiations.
In an appearance on Facebook Live, Fein stopped short of announcing more additions to factories that have been on strike for five weeks. But he warned that the UAW could announce an expanded strike at any time, depending on how much progress talks with automakers make.
Fain said that in the past 24 hours, Stellantis and GM had made wage offers that were equivalent to 23 percent of what Ford would have paid over the course of the four-year contract. But the union president, in characteristically pointed tones, insisted the companies could go further.
“We still have cards to play and they have money to spend,” he said.
Fein noted that Ford was “pretending they couldn’t afford what we were asking for,” noting that the company was unhappy with a union strike at the Kentucky Truck Plant in Louisville, which had to close. The plant is the largest and most profitable Ford plant in the world.
“We took away their biggest factory, but they didn’t bring any new products,” he said.
While Fein said the UAW would work to get more generous offers from automakers, he told union members they were ready to vote on the deals. Fein claimed the companies were trying to split the union.
“They just wanted to wait for us to get out,” he said. “They want division. They want fear, they want uncertainty. What we have is unity.”
While Fein said the companies have been claiming they have made record offers to the UAW, he said those offers were not enough to cover the losses of ground workers over the past two decades. Fein said every time the automakers made an offer, they insisted it was the best they could make, only to come back days later with a better offer.
“That should tell you,” Fein said, “that there’s room to move.”
GM said in a statement that it made an offer on Friday that “takes substantial action in all key areas in an effort to reach a final agreement with the United Auto Workers to get our employees back to work.” .”
Strantis said it and the union have made progress in narrowing their differences on major issues “which will result in direct financial benefits and job security for our employees.” The company said it is focused on resolving these as quickly as possible question.
Ford says its contract with the United Auto Workers is the most generous of the three major automakers.
“We know our UAW employees are hurting during this long strike due to lost wages and lost profit sharing,” Ford said in a statement. “We are eager to end these negotiations with a contract that meaningfully improves their lives and provide a better future for everyone.”
All three companies say they cannot raise labor costs to the point where they don’t have enough money to invest in new vehicles and factories.
GM said its offer would raise wages for most employees to $40.39 an hour, or about $84,000 a year, by the end of the four-year contract. That’s a 23 percent increase from the $32.32 an hour most factory workers make. Calculated as annual compound interest, it is 25%.
The company also said it was reinstating cost-of-living pay increases for many employees in the first year of the contract, increasing them to more than 30% by September 2027. The company was struggling in 2009 when workers gave up on an inflation-fighting wage increase. Financial danger. GM had previously proposed putting 8% of employee salaries into a 401(k) defined-contribution plan, lower than the 9.5% offered by its two rivals.
The UAW has been seeking a 36 percent pay increase over four years and a traditional defined-benefit pension plan for workers hired after 2007.
Fein said GM refused to respond to Ford’s offer and gave workers the right to strike because of the plant closures. GM and Stellantis also failed to match Ford in bringing cost-of-living increases back to 2009 levels.
Stephen McCray, one of the striking workers at a GM plant in Wentzville, Missouri, near St. Louis, said the company’s latest offer seemed attractive. But he suspects GM may have to wait a year before approving a cost-of-living increase.
McCray, a former temporary worker, said he was concerned that part-time temporary workers would not be converted to full-time workers under the agreement. Still, McCray said he thinks workers would approve the contract if Fein told them it was the best deal he could get, given the raises, living expenses and other benefits.
But Adrian Mitchell, a striking worker at a GM parts warehouse in Van Buren, Miss., said he doesn’t think the proposed increases in 401(k) plan contributions and retiree health plan payments go far enough.
“I think he should probably be at the table a little bit more and try to get more stuff,” Mitchell said.
It’s unclear when Fein will call for more workers to strike and join the 34,000 already unemployed at the plant. 6 vehicle assembly plants and 38 parts distribution warehouses.
To reach a union settlement with the three companies, Ford and Stellantis must join, said Marick Masters, a business professor at Wayne State University General Motors to build electric vehicle battery factory in the future In UAW National Agreement. This would essentially ensure that future factories will be represented by unions, a key point for the UAW.
Last week, the union threatened to shut down a GM plant in Arlington, Texas, where it makes lucrative large SUVs, before the automaker agreed to terms for the battery plant.
The union’s strike at factories targeted by various companies began on September 15 and is now approaching its sixth week.
The UAW also seeks to increase retiree pensions and end different pay levels for workers and other programs. GM’s offer appears to wrap up the final year of the new contract’s tier.
strike Each company started with an assembly plant, the union later added parts warehouses, and then an assembly plant each for Ford and General Motors. Last week, the union took unexpected action by escalating the strike by adding an extra worker. Large Ford pickup and SUV plant in Louisville, Kentucky.
About 23% of the 146,000 union members employed by the three major automakers are on strike.
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Koenig reported from Dallas.
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