HAMTRAMCK, Mich. (WXYZ) — With just hours before a contract between the United Auto Workers and Detroit's Big Three automakers is set to expire, workers are getting strike ready.
"We're tearing our bodies up in these plants and at the end of the day or when we get finished at the end of our career, we don't have nothing but our 401K," Lewis Jackson, who works for Stellantis, said.
Jackson says he's hopeful the strike plan will yield results.
"I like the plan. Everybody needs to be involved, and the more the merrier," said Jackson.
This comes after UAW President Shawn Fain laid out a plan for the "Stand Up Strike."
"We fight for the entire working class and the poor," Fain said in a Wednesday night Facebook Live.
Fain says the plan is to target a limited number of plants at a time. The UAW says it can call on additional workers to walk off the job at later dates to increase the pressure on General Motors, Stellantis and Ford Motor Co. if a strike drags on.
The plan will also help the union to preserve its $825 million strike fund, which would run out in under 11 weeks if all workers went on strike at the same time. However, Fain says an all-strike is still possible.
Workers who are still on the job will be working under an expired contract. The working conditions agreed upon under the old contract stay the same, but workers are set to lose some arbitration rights.
Union members are also being told not to engage in a so called partial strike, which would involve working more slowly or refusing duties.
Workers say while the future remains uncertain, they’re hopeful the automakers will deliver a fair deal soon.
"They putting they bodies on the line every day, dealing with those heavy parts, those hours, time away from their family. It’s worth it if they get that raise," auto worker Devaughn Gibson said.
It’s unclear how many and which plants the union plans to target first.
