UAW Announces Another Strike Expansion

by Matt Posky

Published: September 29th, 2023

The United Auto Workers (UAW) has decided to broaden its strike on Friday. This week’s targets include Ford’s Chicago Assembly Plant, responsible for the Explorer and Lincoln Aviator, and General Motors’ Lansing Delta Township Assembly, responsible for the Chevrolet Traverse and Buick Enclave.

Stellantis managed to dodge the bullet this time around, with union leadership citing progress made in contract negotiations. It seems the union liked what the automaker had to say regarding the right to strike over plant closures and cost-of-living adjustments. Ford managed to achieve something similar last week. But with the UAW hoping to pit the companies against each other by subjecting them all to strikes, it was inevitable that Blue Oval would be back under union scrutiny.

“We are excited about this momentum at Stellantis and hope it continues,” stated UAW President Shawn Fain.

Fain said about 7,000 employees would be taking part in the latest round of work stoppages, joining roughly 18,300 workers who are currently on strike for the union. Last week, the UAW expanded its strike to 38 parts and distribution locations owned by GM and Stellantis. The plan has been to gradually turn up the heat on the industry, allowing the union to stretch its strike budget a little further while drawing media attention to its demands. By incorporating all three Detroit automakers, something previous eras of union leadership opted against, the UAW is also hoping to play them off each other as contract negotiations continue.

While Friday’s talks were said to be frantic, with the union claiming a lot of last-minute chatter coming from the industry, the plan was to have the 7,000 employees working in Chicago and Lansing walk off at noon if no deal had been reached.

Though automakers have issued public complaints that the union has been slow to respond to updated proposals. They’re also not particularly keen on the UAW’s updated tactics. Last week, CNBC reported that the industry was “questioning” the union’s strike motives after messages were leaked from UAW communications director Jonah Furman claiming that the union was causing “recurring reputations damage and operational chaos.”

Automakers, supported by corporate media, attempted to frame the above as scandalous — even though these have been the tactics of unionized labor for over a century.

“It’s now clear that the UAW leadership has always intended to cause months-long disruption, regardless of the harm it causes to its members and their communities,” General Motors said in an emailed statement to CNBC. “The leaked information calls into question who is actually in charge of UAW strategy and shows a callous disregard for the seriousness of what is at stake.”

Stellantis called the above “incredibly disturbing” and claimed it indicated that the “UAW’s approach to these talks is not in the best interest of the workforce.”

“We are disappointed that it appears our employees are being used as pawns in an agenda that is not intended to meet their needs,” Stellantis stated.

I suppose some of the allegations that the union is perpetually available to continue in good-faith negotiations could stick if the UAW has indeed been slow to respond with counter-proposals. But this is how the game has always been played by both sides. The whole thing is an optics war with each group hoping to win the hearts and minds of the American people before the other side blinks.

But that could take a while, as the UAW has made some big demands.

We’ve covered them before. However, the most important items likely include a 40-percent pay increase over the next four years (the same pay bump industry CEOs have enjoyed. This demand was later walked back to 36 percent), the restoration of traditional pensions, cost-of-living adjustments, and the elimination of compensation tiers that keep newer hires from being treated as fully fledged employees.

Much of the above stems from how much was given up during previous rounds of bargaining. Today’s union leaders are hoping to move away from the corruption of their predecessors and win back some of the concessions workers made over the last several decades. The worst of this took place in the run-up to the 2008 automotive bailout when the industry was financially crippled and laying off employees in large numbers.

While layoffs have also been relatively common over the last few years, industry finances are comparatively healthy. Even as production volumes plunged and news broke that the average American household could no longer afford to purchase brand-new vehicles, domestic automakers and dealerships enjoyed extremely high levels of profitability. The phenomenon has been something the UAW has brought up repeatedly as it hopes to garner public support.

[Image: UAW]

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Matt Posky

A staunch consumer advocate tracking industry trends and regulation. Before joining TTAC, Matt spent a decade working for marketing and research firms based in NYC. Clients included several of the world’s largest automakers, global tire brands, and aftermarket part suppliers. Dissatisfied with the corporate world and resentful of having to wear suits everyday, he pivoted to writing about cars. Since then, that man has become an ardent supporter of the right-to-repair movement, been interviewed on the auto industry by national radio broadcasts, driven more rental cars than anyone ever should, participated in amateur rallying events, and received the requisite minimum training as sanctioned by the SCCA. Handy with a wrench, Matt grew up surrounded by Detroit auto workers and managed to get a pizza delivery job before he was legally eligible. He later found himself driving box trucks through Manhattan, guaranteeing future sympathy for actual truckers. He continues to conduct research pertaining to the automotive sector as an independent contractor and has since moved back to his native Michigan, closer to where the cars are born. A contrarian, Matt claims to prefer understeer — stating that front and all-wheel drive vehicles cater best to his driving style.

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6 of 39 comments

Inside Looking Out on Sep 29, 2023

I did not notice, did they mention climate change? How they are going to fight climate change, racism and gender discrimination. I mean collective Big 3.

2 Reply
- CaddyDaddy on Sep 30, 2023
  
  ..... Let's get a strike goin' boys, we have an election coming up and we need to divide manufacturer v. labor. This is how we are going to pull it off regardless of the outcome. UAW members are too blind in their perspective to look past Friday's paycheck and Sunday's Lion's game. I have never seen UAW leadership take interest in the health of the manufacturer or the quality of the product they slap together.
  
  1
- Tassos on Sep 30, 2023
  oh, easy. they thought of everything.
  
  Cars will be made utterly unaffordable and fewer will buy them,
  the coming depression will lose so many millions of jobs, and so may trillions of commuting miles, the climate issue will be taken care of.
  Companies will be legally required to fire Caucasian whites first, especially the competent ones. Takes care of racism and discrimination..
  Like the "inflation Reduction act: of idiot Joe Briben took care of... inflation,
  Like
TheEndlessEnigma on Sep 30, 2023

GM, Ford and Stellantis have significant oversupply of product sitting on dealer lots and banked up in holding yards across the country. Big 3 management is taking advantage of UAW's action to bring their inventories inline to what they deem reasonable. When you have models pushing 6 months of supply having your productions lines shut down by a strike is not something that's going to worry you. UAW does not have any advantages here, but they are directly impacting the financial well being of their membership. Who will be the first to blink? Those UAW members waving the signs around and receiving "strike pay" that is, what, 20% of their wages? UAW is screwing up this time around.

2 Reply
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- Jeff on Oct 01, 2023
  
  I didn't think about it at the time but I wondered why GM, Ford, and Stellantis kept producing vehicles while dealers had large inventories. It makes sense now that they anticipated a strike and made sure the dealers had plenty of inventory. During the Summer I questioned why the dealer inventories were 100 plus days on many vehicle and why they were still adding large market adjustments on the full size pickups when the sales were slowing. Dealers anticipated a long strike and they stocked up on vehicles. If the UAW's goal is a long strike in hopes of getting most of their demands I doubt this will work. The manufacturers can take the loses in the short term because they have had record profits and can hold out for months. I do believe the UAW workers should get a raise and likely the auto companies would agree to give them a sizable raise but not what they are asking. I don't believe the auto companies will reinstate pension plans that likely will be nonnegotiable. As Lou stated in a previous post a 50/50 shared cost on a health care plan for retires could be a compromise that the auto companies could agree on but 100% employer paid health will just prolong a strike and will hurt the striking UAW members. The strike pay is not enough to support UAW members for months. I am not too sure about a 32 hour work week it could go either way if the manufacturers get some of the things they want that the UAW has not been willing in the past to compromise on. Manufacturers could be willing to give the workers a 32 hour work week if they get concessions from the UAW like not having to guarantee future production of products in plants that they want to eventually close. The manufacturers will be looking at how they can recoup much of the additional costs of pay increases through cutting costs some where else which include closing older less productive plants and more automation. Again this is speculation.
  
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- TheEndlessEnigma on Oct 01, 2023
  
  I think a 32 hour work week is a non-starter for a couple of reasons. UAW wants a 32 hour work week and yet be paid for 40 hours. Not going to happen. The hit on productivity a 32 hour work week represents is pretty substantial. You are either cutting factory production hours OR you are hiring additional shifts to continue producing in what would otherwise be down time. The way the plants run now, 3/8/5 runs a plant 24 hours a day, 5 days a week. What does UAW want? 3/8/4, now how does that make any sense at all? This leaves a production facility missing 24 hours of production or forces additional shifts work of employees to be hired at, what 3/8/3 (that's only 24 hours of work per week for an employee) or 2/12/3 (that's 36 hours per employee with isn't UAW's goal) or 2/10/3 (that's 30 hours over 3 shifts again doesn't make sense). UAW is taking some fairly stupid positions here.
  
  Like
- Art_Vandelay on Oct 01, 2023
  
  I figured they were going to work the same number of hours they just wanted that overtime pay to kick in sooner.
  
  1
- 28-Cars-Later on Oct 01, 2023
  
  I'm glad someone else has noticed the facts.
  
  Like
- Matt Posky on Oct 02, 2023
  
  Good points made. But I would mention that dealer inventories are only up since the dramatic lows seen during the height of the pandemic where nobody was manufacturing cars. We still aren't at the averages seen before 2020 (though we're starting to get close) and those vehicles supplies were considered normal for years.
  
  1

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