Striking United Auto Staff (UAW) members from the General Motors Lansing Delta Plant picket in Delta Township, Michigan September 29, 2023.
Rebecca Cook | Reuters
DETROIT – The United Auto Staff union believes there’s “more to be won” in ongoing contract negotiations with the Detroit automakers following five weeks of labor strikes against the businesses, UAW President Shawn Fain said Friday.
His comments come despite record contract offers from General Motors, Ford Motor and Stellantis that now include 23% hourly pay increases and other significantly enhanced advantages throughout the terms of the 4 and a half-year deal.
“There may be more to be won,” Fain said during a web based broadcast. “These are already record contracts, but they arrive at the tip of a long time of record decline. So it isn’t enough to be the perfect ever, when auto employees have gone backwards over the past 20 years. That is a really low bar.”
Despite Fain’s comments, the union didn’t announce additional strikes Friday against any of the businesses. He said the “bottom line is we have cards left to play, and so they’ve got money left to spend.”
Fain didn’t address a Friday report by Bloomberg that the union has asked for a 25% increase on the whole wages.
The union has not announced any additional strikes since initiating an unexpected walkout on Oct. 11 at Ford’s Kentucky Truck Plant that produces highly profitable pickup trucks and SUVs. That is despite Ford having the perfect proposal regarding economics, as outlined Friday by Fain.
Fain spent quite a notable period of time throughout the online broadcast discussing how the union plans to use these talks to assist in organizing non-union plans. He also heavily criticized the Monday comments of Ford Chair Bill Ford to bring an end to the negotiations.
“Bill Ford said it shouldn’t be Ford versus the UAW. He said it should be the UAW and Ford against foreign automakers,” Fain said. “I would like to be crystal clear on one thing: The times of the UAW and Ford being a team to fight other corporations are over … Non-union autoworkers will not be the enemy. Those are our future union family.”
Ford said it stays “eager to conclude these negotiations with a contract” that advantages its employees, citing it’s “good that Mr. Fain acknowledged Ford’s contract offer ‘already’ is a record and stays the perfect one on the table.”
Stellantis said the perimeters “proceed to be productive, constructing on the momentum from the past several weeks,” but declined to discuss specific details. GM declined to comment regarding Fain’s comments, citing details it released of its most up-to-date offer earlier Friday.
The UAW hasn’t expanded strikes at GM since Sept. 29 or at Stellantis since Sept. 22, despite offers made this week not meeting details of Ford’s proposal from last week and Fain last week saying the union was initiating a “recent phase” of strikes and contract negotiations.
“Right before a deal is when there’s probably the most aggressive push for that last mile. They simply want to wait us out,” Fain said. “They need division. They need fear. They need uncertainty. And what now we have is our solidarity.”
The strike at Ford’s Kentucky plant — answerable for $25 billion in revenue annually — marked a significant escalation within the UAW’s targeted, or “stand-up,” strikes. It also represents a shift in strategy, as Fain had previously publicly announced the targets before the work stoppages occurred.
The UAW has been step by step increasing the strikes because the work stoppages began after the perimeters failed to reach tentative agreements by Sept 14.
About 34,000 U.S. automakers with the businesses, or roughly 23% of UAW members covered by the expired contracts with the Detroit automakers, were on strike.
Listed below are details of current proposals by the businesses to UAW:
- Wages: All three automakers have offered a 23% pay increase over 4 and a half years.
- Wage tiers: All three automakers have agreed to eliminate wage tiers at parts facilities where employees have historically been paid lower than production-line employees.
- Wage progression: Ford has offered a three-year progression to the highest wage rate, a system that was in place from the mid-Nineties until the aftermath of the 2008 economic crisis. GM has also offered a three-year progression, but just for current employees. GM wants a more gradual four-year progression for future hires. Stellantis has offered only a four-year progression.
- Cost of living adjustments (COLA): Ford has offered to restore its COLA formula to the extent last utilized in 2009, meeting the UAW’s demand. Fain said that GM is “approaching restoration but not fully there,” while Stellantis wants to delay cost-of-living adjustments by a yr.
- Job security: Ford and Stellantis have agreed to give the union the appropriate to strike over plant closures, a key UAW demand. GM has thus far rejected that demand.
- Temporary employees: Ford has offered to convert current temp employees with 90 days of service to full-time employees, with a raise to $21 per hour for remaining and future temps. Whether those future temps will be converted to full-time employees robotically remains to be being negotiated, Fain said. GM has proposed to convert current and future temps with one yr of service to full time employees, and has matched Ford with a $21 per hour wage for remaining and future temps. Stellantis agreed to convert “hundreds” of current temps to full-time status, with a wage increase to $20 per hour for remaining and future temps. As with Ford, the automated conversion of future temps is “still being negotiated,” Fain said.
- Retirement plans: All three automakers have offered a $3 increase to pension advantages. Ford and Stellantis have offered to increase their 401(k) contributions to 9.5% plus $1 per hour. GM offered a rise to 8% plus $1.25 per hour.
- Payments to retired employees: Ford offered annual lump sum payments of $250 to retired employees, with surviving spouses eligible to proceed to receive the payments. GM offered a one-time lump sump payment of $1,000, with surviving spouses not eligible. Stellantis rejected all increases to retiree pay. Fain said all three offers were “deeply inadequate.”
- Profit sharing: Ford offered to improve its existing profit-sharing formula by including profits from Ford Credit, its financing subsidiary, and to make temp employees eligible to receive profit-sharing payments. Stellantis and GM each want to maintain their current profit-sharing formulas, but GM has offered to make temp employees with 1,000 hours of service eligible to receive payments. Stellantis has not offered to make its temporary employees eligible to receive profit-sharing payments.
- Work-life balance: All three automakers have offered to make Juneteenth an official paid holiday and have offered two weeks of paid parental leave.