The United Auto Workers union said workers would walk out of additional factories on Friday if it did not make progress in negotiations in talks with General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis.
The United Auto Workers union said it would expand its strike to more plants on Friday if negotiations with automakers did not yield sufficient progress.Credit…Cydni Elledge for The New York Times
The United Auto Workers said on Tuesday that it will increase the strike to three U.S. automakers on Friday in the event that it is not able to make significant advancement in negotiations with them.
Nearly 13,000 U.A.W. members left the production lines of three factories on Friday last week, including one at three companieswhich include General Motors, Ford Motor and Stellantis, which is the parent company of Chrysler. The union has been demanding a wage hike of 40 percent over the next four years, improved benefits, and other improvements. The automakers, who are headquartered in or have an extensive presence in Michigan and Michigan, have provided increases of around half that.
In a post via Facebook this week, new union head of the union, Shawn Fain, said workers may walk out of further plants before the end of the week.
“If we don’t see serious progress to noon Friday, Sept. 22, more locals will be called on to stand up and go on strike,” the official declared. “We’re going to keep hitting the companies where we need to.”
On Tuesday On Tuesday, Fain also spoke on Tuesday. Fain responded to criticism from ex-President Donald J. Trump, who is scheduled to be in the Detroit area later this week..
“Every fiber of our union is being poured into fighting the billionaire class and an economy that enriched people like Donald Trump at the expense of workers,” Mr. Fain said. “We can’t keep electing billionaires and millionaires that don’t have any understanding of what it is like to live paycheck to paycheck and struggle to get by and expecting them to solve the problems of the working class.”
In an interview with the NBC show “Meet the Press” last weekend during the weekend, Mr. Trump said Mr. Fain and the union were “failing” workers in the transition to electric vehicles, which has been pushed by the president Biden.
“The autoworkers are being sold down the river by their leadership,” said the man. He added: “All of these cars are expected to be built in China. Electric cars, which are automatically, will be built by China.”
The former vice president. Biden has expressed support for the workers striking. However, the U.A.W. has not yet endorsed his reelection so far. The union has always backed Democratic Presidential candidates; however, certain members of the union voted for Trump. Trump in the last two elections.
Both the union as well as businesses that are in three separate negotiations remain in a tense relationship. The companies have proposed raises of approximately 20 percent, however the union has said that. Fain has said that does not go far enough to cover the effects of inflation as well as concessions made by the union over the past 15 years.
The union is also seeking pensions that cover more workers, retirement health insurance as well as shorter working hours, and other measures to hinder companies to close their plants located in the United States. The automakers have refused to meet many of the other demands.
In their statements and interviews, auto executives have stated that complying with all union demands would place them at a competitive disadvantage against nonunion-owned plants run by Tesla and other foreign automakers, such as Toyota or Volkswagen. G.M., Ford and Stellantis already have higher costs for labor than the majority of nonunion car manufacturers.
