WAYNE, Mich. – Workers remain energized Tuesday picketing in front of the Ford Michigan Assembly Plant in Wayne.
It’s one of three plants in the Midwest, belonging to Detroit’s Big Three automakers, that the United Auto Workers are striking.
Related: UAW: More workers to strike if ‘serious progress’ isn’t made with Big Three by Friday
“It’s a struggle, but we are going to make it. We are going to go all the way,” UAW member Judith Reynolds said.
Some Ford retirees came to stand with striking workers.
“The union stood by me while we were working here, I got to stand by my union,” Ford retiree Harry Porter said.
The strike could move into a new phase Friday, which would be one week after it started.
UAW president Shawn Fain promised to expand the strike Friday if negotiations don’t pick up with the automakers.
“I believe and have faith in him. He knows what he’s doing,” Reynolds said.
Erik Gordon is a professor at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan.
“I don’t think the threats of new plant closures or even actual plant closures are going to change the car companies’ minds on the basic economics they need in order to switch to (electric vehicles) and survive going forward,” he said.
If a deal is not reached by Sunday, Gorden believes the strike could last another few weeks or more.
“If we don’t have an announcement of a settlement by Sunday, I think we have another few weeks of slogging,” he said.
Former President Donald Trump is planning to deliver a speech to union workers in Detroit on the night of the second GOP debate next week.
Fain blasted Trump’s upcoming visit.
“Every fiber of our union is being poured into fighting the billionaire class and an economy that enriches people like Donald Trump at the expense of workers,” he said in a statement released Tuesday by the UAW.
More: UAW justifies wage demands by pointing to CEO pay raises. So how high were they?