HEAD OF AUTO WORKERS UNION SAYS STRIKES WILL CONTINUE
As Detroit automakers raise wage offers to 23 percent, UAW is holding out for more
United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain said Friday that while Detroit’s automakers have increased their wage and benefit offers, he believes the union can gain more if it holds out longer in contract talks.
In a Facebook Live appearance, Fain didn’t announce any more factories to add to those that have been on strike for up to five weeks. But he warned that the UAW could announce such an expansion of its strikes at any time, depending on how much progress it makes in its negotiations with the automakers.
In the past 24 hours, Fain said, Stellantis and GM have made wage offers that matched Ford’s 23 percent over the life of a four-year contract. But, speaking in his characteristic sharp tones, the union president insisted that the companies can go further.
“We’ve got cards left to play, and they’ve got money left to spend,” he said.
Arguing that Ford “pretends they can’t afford what we’re asking for,” Fain noted that the company has complained about the union’s walkout at the Kentucky Truck Plant in Louisville, which has had to shut down. That plant is the largest and most profitable
Ford factory in the world.
“We took their biggest plant out and they haven’t come back with anything new,” he said.
Though Fain said the UAW will make a push to secure more generous offers from the automakers, he addressed union members who have said they’re ready to vote on the deals. Fain asserted that the companies are trying to divide the union.
“They just want to wait us out,” he said. “They want to divide. They want fear and they want uncertainty. What we have is solidarity.”
While Fain said the companies keep touting that they’ve made record offers to the UAW, he said they’re insufficient to make up for how much ground workers have lost during the past two decades. Each time the automakers make an offer, Fain said, they insist it’s the best they can do, only to return days later with a better offer.
“What that should tell you,” Fain said, is that “there’s room to move.”
GM said it made an offer Friday with “substantial movement in all key areas in an effort to reach a final agreement with the UAW and get our people back to work.”
Stellantis said it and the union have made progress to narrow gaps on significant issues “that will bring immediate financial gains and job security for our employees.” The company said it’s focused on resolving the issues as soon as possible.
Ford has said that, among the three automakers, its contract offers to the UAW have been the most generous.
All three companies have said they cannot increase labor costs to the point where they wouldn’t have enough to invest in new vehicles and factories.
GM said its offer raises pay for most of the work force to $40.39 an hour, or about $84,000 a year, by the end of a four-year contract. That’s a 23 percent increase over the $32.32 an hour that most factory workers earn. Compounded annually, it’s 25 percent.
The company also said it reinstated costof-living raises for many employees in the first year of the contract, boosting the pay increase above 30 percent by September 2027. Workers gave up the inflation-fighting raises in 2009, when the companies were in financial danger. GM previously has offered to contribute 8 percent of a worker’s salary into 401(k) defined-contribution plans, less than the 9.5 percent offered by its competitors.
The UAW has been seeking 36 percent raises over the four years and a traditional defined-benefit pension plan for workers hired after 2007.
Fain said GM refused to match Ford’s offer to give workers the right to strike over plant closings. Nor have GM and Stellantis matched Ford on restoring cost-of-living increases to 2009 levels.