DETROIT – Talks between the United Auto Workers and Detroit’s Big Three automakers have been chugging along slowly, even amid the union’s third week striking against the companies. Negotiations finally warmed up Wednesday when Ford Motor Company offered a new deal to the UAW, but that progress was also met with the announcement of more layoffs amid the strike.
Since initiating the simultaneous strike against Ford, General Motors and Stellantis, the UAW has been using targeted strikes in an effort to expedite negotiations and achieve an aggressive list of demands that seeks to provide better pay and benefits to its workers. Talks have continued since the strike began on Sept. 15, and the union has appeared to be making better progress with Ford compared to the other automakers in recent weeks.
The week of Sept. 18, UAW President Shawn Fain said the automaker had come a long way and neared some of their demands, preventing Ford from being included in the additional 38 strike locations announced that week. One additional Ford plant was targeted with a new strike last week, however.
Now, the automaker is the latest to present a new offer to the union in hopes of reaching an agreement and ending the strike. UAW leader Fain has not yet publicly discussed the new offer, and hasn’t said whether it meets the union’s expectations. Fain is set to address union members in a live social media video on Friday, Oct. 6, when he could share that information.
Though a new offer on the table brings some hope to the situation, Ford also announced that an additional 400 workers would be laid off at its Livonia Transmission and Sterling Axle plants. That brings the total of laid-off Ford workers to around 1,330.
All three of Detroit’s major automakers have initiated layoffs, citing the strike and issues it has caused. Fain argues that Ford, GM and Stellantis could afford to keep all of its workers amid the strike, but are rather “trying to put the squeeze on our members to settle for less.”
“With their record profits, they don’t have to lay off a single employee,” Fain said in a statement last month. “In fact, they could double every autoworker’s pay, not raise car prices, and still rake in billions of dollars.”
According to the UAW, the Big Three automakers have amassed a combined total of $21 billion in profit in the first half of 2023, and a combined $250 billion in American profits in the last 10 years. The union argues those “record” profits made in the years after the financial crisis should translate to better compensation for autoworkers, who they say made sacrifices to help the companies stay afloat.
As the industry rebounds following pandemic-related issues, the automakers say those major profits are required for their massive investments in the shift to electric vehicles, which is being promoted by elected officials in Michigan and nationwide. The carmakers say they are looking to reach an agreement that is sustainable amid such investments.
The union’s talks with GM appear to be making the least progress so far. General Motors recently secured a $6 billion line of credit amid the strike, which is expected to help carry them through the strike, however long it may last.
“It’s just prudent in light of some of the messages we’ve seen from the UAW leadership that they intend to drag this on for months, and we need to continue to fund the transformation and really position GM for the future for all of our people,” GM CFO Paul Jacobson told CNBC.
The UAW is expecting to strike as long as it deems necessary.
Rather than striking at every Big Three facility all at once, the union is targeting strikes at increasingly valuable locations in hopes of creating leverage with the companies. The targeted strikes also help the union to stretch out its strike fund, which was around $825 million before the strike began. This fund helps pay members on the picket line while they’re not working.
“We’ll organize one day longer than they can, and go the distance to win economic and social justice at the Big Three,” UAW President Fain has said.
Workers on the picket line at Ford’s Michigan Assembly Plant in Wayne told Local 4 on Wednesday night that they are hopeful about the new offer, but they think they will be there for a while.
“We’ve never been in this situation before, so we don’t really know what tomorrow is going to bring,” said Sue Murphy, a 27-year Ford veteran. “We’re fighting for the next generation either way. So, it’s not about, ‘Do we have a choice?’ We don’t have a choice. We’re out here for the long haul, whether we like it or not.”
The UAW’s talks with Stellantis seem to be making some progress, since the automaker was not included in last week’s strike expansion. Still, there’s no word of a new offer from the carmaker.
During Fain’s live remarks scheduled for Friday, it’s possible the union leader could announce additional strike locations, as he has done each Friday in the last two weeks. About 25,000 of the UAW’s 146,000 autoworkers were striking at 43 locations as of Thursday.