The UAW is asking for 40% pay increases as well as 32-hour work weeks
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by Brad Anderson
September 14, 2023 at 07:59
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The United Auto Workers is inching closer to launching strikes targeted at Stellantis, General Motors, and Ford as the deadline to reach new contracts closes in.
UAW president Shawn Fain recently told union members that they will likely have to strike if the Detroit Three cannot concede to their demands by midnight Thursday when the current four-year contracts expire.
“To win, we’re likely going to have to take action,” Fain said. “We are preparing to strike these companies in a way they have never seen before.”
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Read: Stellantis Makes Offer To UAW As Possible Strike Looms
Stellantis, General Motors, and Ford have been going back and forth with the UAW in recent weeks to try and reach new agreements. The union is pushing for a sizeable 40% pay increase to its members but Fain says Ford has so far only proposed a 20% pay increase, General Motors has offered 18%, and Stellantis says it would do a 17.5% increase. The UAW has also asked for 32-hour work weeks, the restoration of defined benefit pensions for all workers, and additional job security guarantees. It is also calling for an end to the use of temporary workers.
While Fain has not said which facilities the UAW may hit, he wants to create a strategy to “create confusion” with strikes targeting individual plants across the United States. Reuters notes this would be the first time in history that the UAW strikes at all three of Detroit’s main automakers simultaneously.
Ford has hit out at the actions of the union. It says that it has made four counteroffers but the union has not provided it with any “genuine counteroffers.”
GM says it continues “to bargain directly and in good faith with the UAW and have presented additional strong offers. We are making progress in key areas.”
The Anderson Economic Group based in Michigan asserts that a strike that would shut facilities at the carmakers for 10 days could cost the Detroit Three, suppliers, and workers more than $5 million.
