Shawn Fain said in a video posted online by the union: “Autoworkers have waited long enough to make things right within the Big Three. We don’t wait and we don’t joke. Friday September 22 at noon is therefore a new deadline.
UAW to hit more factories if ‘serious progress is not made by noon Friday’
Let’s assume the parties fail to make “serious progress” in talks by Friday noon ET. In that case, the United Auto Workers union will announce new strikes at General Motors, Ford and Stellantis plants, UAW President Shawn Fain said Monday.
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Employees at GM’s Wentzville, Missouri, mid-size truck and full-size van plants, Ford in Wayne, Michigan plants for Ranger mid-size pickups and Bronco SUVs, as well as Stellantis’ Toledo, Ohio, Jeep Wrangler and Gladiator plants are currently on strike.
The timing of the additional sites would come just over a week after the union planned targeted strikes at the assembly plants of each of Detroit’s “big three” automakers, hiring about 12,700 workers to form lines of picketing.
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Fain had said earlier that the union planned to increase work stoppages depending on how negotiations with employers progressed. This announcement comes after a union meeting with each automaker since the targeted strikes began on Friday.
Contrary to the contract’s initial deadlines, Fain said “serious progress” was needed to end more strikes, not tentative agreements within companies. When asked to comment on what constitutes this other than an agreement in principle, a union representative did not respond.
As Fain and other UAW leaders negotiated unusually and simultaneously with all three automakers, the union singled out the factories for targeted strike plans. Targeted attacks often focus on key factories, which can force other factories to halt production when they run out of parts.
The main demands of the UAW strike were:
- The removal of pay levels.
- Reinstatement of cost of living adjustments.
- A work week reduced to 32 hours.
- A return to traditional retirements.
- A 40% increase in hourly wages
The new strike preparations come as automakers offer unions hourly wage increases of about 20 percent, thousands of dollars in incentives, continuation of the union’s platinum health insurance and other enticing benefits.
The work stoppages are called “standing strikes,” a throwback to the UAW’s famous “sit-down” strikes of the 1930s.
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“Stand Up Strike is a new way to strike. Some locals were asked to stand up and go on strike rather than shut down all factories simultaneously.
According to Fain, who spoke Monday, more people will be encouraged to stand up and join the strike if automakers do not make progress in negotiations and continue to negotiate in good faith.
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Ford and Stellantis did not immediately respond to requests for comment regarding the new “deadline.” Regarding the negotiations, GM released the following statement: “We continue to negotiate in good faith with the union to reach an agreement as quickly as possible in the interests of our team members, customers, suppliers and communities at large. across the United States. »
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