DETROIT (AP/WXYZ) — About 146,000 members of the United Auto Workers union will vote next week whether to authorize their leaders to call strikes against the Detroit automakers.
Union President Shawn Fain told members in a Facebook Live appearance Tuesday that the talks, which started in mid-July, are moving slowly and have yet to get to wages and other economic issues.
The union's contracts with General Motors, Ford and Stellantis expire in about a month, at 11:59 p.m. Sept. 14.
“If we want to make progress at the bargaining table, we need to show the companies that it's not just talk,” Fain said of the strike vote.
He told local offices to report the results of their votes to the union headquarters by Aug. 24.
Strike authorization votes are a routine part of contract talks and are often overwhelmingly approved, but Fain said the vote is a sign of the union's strength.
Fain has set high expectations for the contract talks and says the union will seek more than 40% general pay raises over four years, restoration of pensions for newer hires, cost-of-living increases, an end to wage tiers, and other benefits. He has said workers can make big gains but must be ready to strike to get them.
“Companies like to socialize their losses and privatize profits. During hard times, the Big 3 gets massive taxpayer bailouts. Meanwhile workers are told to give up pensions, vacations and raises — their standard of living,” Fain said.
The union also wants guarantees that it will represent workers at 10 U.S. electric vehicle battery plants proposed by the companies. Most are joint ventures with Korean battery companies.
Much of Fain's rhetoric has been focused on Stellantis, the most profitable of the three companies with the highest profit margins. Fain has complained that Stellantis is seeking concessions in the contract when the union wants gains. But a union spokesman said singling out Stellantis doesn’t mean the UAW has picked a company as a strike target, and it could choose all three.
He said the union doesn't plan to extend the contracts beyond Sept. 14.
Automakers say they are facing billions of dollars in development costs as the industry shifts from combustion engines to electric vehicles.
In a letter to employees last week, Stellantis Chief Operating Officer Mark Stewart accused Fain of “theatrics and personal insults” that Stewart said will not help to reach a deal. He wrote that the company is committed to an agreement based on “economic realism” that supports the viability of Stellantis' operations while rewarding workers.
The company, he wrote, wants to find solutions to protect Stellantis from nonunion companies with lower costs and additional costs from moving to electric vehicles. “Mr. Fain's demands could endanger our ability to make decisions in the future that provide job security for our employees,” the letter said.
Fain called Stewart's letter patronizing and said the company is making billions in profits and spends millions on executive salaries “while the rest of us live paycheck to paycheck.” Labor costs, he said, are only 5% to 10% of a vehicle's cost.
“We later learned Stewart wrote that letter from his second million-dollar mansion in Acapulco, Mexico,” Fain said.
7 Action News visited a truck assembly plant in Warren to hear from workers. They say they're ready to strike if need be.
“The regular workers haven’t gotten a raise. In my 22 years, I haven’t gotten one," auto worker Stanford Martin said.
Workers say 12-hours shifts for six days a week have been expected in some cases, suggesting companies are building up inventory in the event of a strike.
Another worker said it doesn't seem like progress is being made in the negotiations. Still, health care, wages and temporary employees are top of mind for auto workers.
"I still have a daughter in school, still have to pay my bills. If a strike happened, I’d look for a job too,” an auto worker said.
GM, Stellantis and Ford released updated statements about negotiations:
Ford:
“Ford is proud to build more vehicles in America and employ more UAW-represented hourly workers in America than any other automaker. We look forward to working with the UAW on creative solutions during this time when our dramatically changing industry needs a skilled and competitive workforce more than ever.”
Stellantis:
The discussions between the Company and the UAW’s bargaining team continue to be constructive and collaborative with a focus on reaching a new agreement that balances the concerns of our 43,000 employees with our vision for the future – one that better positions the business to meet the challenges of the U.S. marketplace and secures the future for all of our employees, their families and our company.
General Motors:
"We've been working hard with the UAW every day to ensure we get this agreement right for all our stakeholders. We know that our U.S. economic impact supports more than 6 jobs for every job created by GM. We take that responsibility very seriously, and we continue to bargain in good faith each day to support our team members, our customers, the community and the business.”
“The last 10 years have been the most profitable in Big 3 history. They’ve collectively made a quarter of a trillion dollars in North American profits in a decade. Instead of investing in us, the workers who made it, they’ve squandered it on giveaways to rich investors and CEOs,” Fain said.
