## UAW Plans Strikes at Major Auto Assembly Plants
The United Auto Workers (UAW) union has announced its intention to strike at three major U.S. assembly plants. The plants, owned by General Motors, Ford Motor, and Stellantis, will be targeted should the union and automakers fail to reach agreements by an 11:59 p.m. ET deadline. The sides apparently remain significantly distant in their negotiations, making strikes highly likely, according to sources close to the discussions. The news follows UAW President Shawn Fain’s statement on Wednesday indicating that strikes were a strong possibility.
## Key Plants in Question
The plants under consideration for strike action include GM’s midsize truck and full-size van plant in Wentzville, Missouri; Ford’s Ranger midsize pickup and Bronco SUV plant in Wayne, Michigan; and Stellantis’ Jeep Wrangler and Gladiator plant in Toledo, Ohio. Fain specified that only workers in paint and final assembly will strike at Ford’s plant. These chosen plants produce highly profitable vehicles for the automakers and continue to see high demand. In total, about 12,700 workers – 5,800 at Stellantis, 3,600 at GM, and 3,300 at Ford – will go out on strike, according to the union. The UAW represents about 146,000 workers across Ford, GM, and Stellantis.
## New Strike Strategy
The selection of these plants was part of the targeted strike plans first announced by Fain, who has been concurrently negotiating with all three automakers and has been hesitant to significantly compromise on the union’s demands. “For the first time in our history, we will strike all three of the ‘Big Three’ at once,” Fain stated in a live address on Facebook and YouTube. “We are using a new strategy, the ‘stand-up’ strike. We will call on select facilities, locals or units to stand up and go on strike.” Fain’s approach refers to the union’s plans as a “stand-up strike,” harking back to historic “sit-down” strikes by the UAW in the 1930s.
## Union Demands and Automaker Responses
Key proposals from the union include a 40% hourly pay increase, a reduced 32-hour work week, a shift back to traditional pensions, compensation tier elimination, cost-of-living adjustments (COLA) restoration, and enhancements to retiree benefits and vacation and family leave benefits. In response to these demands, Ford stated that the union’s counterproposal showed little deviation from its initial demands, a move that would more than double Ford’s current UAW-related labor costs.
Despite the disagreement, the automakers have proposed record wage increases of roughly 20%, COLA, altered profit-sharing bonuses, and enhanced vacation and family leave benefits, though the union deemed these offers insufficient. The union’s targeted strikes typically focus on key plants, which can then cause other plants to cease production due to a lack of parts. Fain plans to initiate targeted strikes at select plants and potentially increase the number of strikes based on the status of the negotiations.
Original Story at www.cnbc.com – 2023-09-15 02:12:00
Comments are closed.