Striking members of the United Auto Staff (UAW) picket outside the GM’s Willow Run Distribution Center, in Bellville, Wayne County, Michigan, U.S., September 26, 2023.
Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters
DETROIT – Tensions are rising and accusations are flying between the Detroit automakers and United Auto Staff, because the union threatens to expand U.S. plant strikes – marking two weeks of labor stoppages and the dwindling likelihood of an imminent breakthrough.
The UAW is predicted to announce additional strike targets at 10 a.m. ET Friday, barring substantial progress in negotiations with General Motors, Ford Motor and Stellantis for contracts covering some 146,000 autoworkers. UAW President Shawn Fain will host a Facebook Live event then to update members on the talks and discover additional strike locations, a source acquainted with the talks said.
Within the run-up, frustrations remain around key economic demands and what some see as an absence of urgency by the union to achieve a deal, based on people acquainted with the discussions who spoke on the condition of anonymity since the talks are private.
Specifically, GM and Stellantis have grown increasingly frustrated by an absence of participation from Fain and what they are saying are delays in receiving counterproposals from the union, a few of those sources said.
The union set a recent Friday deadline before holding any high-level meetings between Fain and the businesses, the people said, raising questions on the union’s commitment to reaching a deal and ending the strikes. As of the Wednesday announcement, the UAW also hadn’t put forth counterproposals to offers made by the automakers roughly every week earlier, the people said.
The primary high-level, “important table” talks between the union with Fain and the 2 automakers got here only after that Wednesday announcement, in a late-afternoon meeting the identical day with GM, without CEO Mary Barra, and a midday Thursday meeting with Stellantis, the sources said.
The union Thursday afternoon confirmed it submitted a counteroffer to Stellantis in the course of the meeting – giving the corporate lower than 24 hours to reply ahead of the fresh deadline.
The shortage of urgency is increasingly frustrating company negotiators, a lot of whom are more accustomed to around-the-clock bargaining to get a deal as soon as possible, the sources said. Such talks have been few and much between as Fain attempts to barter with all three firms directly, they said.
Fain has consistently said the union is on the market to barter 24/7, nonetheless the automakers have questioned his availability and the union’s tactics broadly, particularly in light of leaked private messages through which the UAW’s communications director, Jonah Furman, described keeping the businesses “wounded for months.”
A UAW spokesman declined to comment on the strategy, including on the union waiting every week to reply and giving Stellantis lower than 24 hours to reply.
Concerns across the pace of talks follow similar claims by Fain and the union. Before initiating strikes on Sept. 15, Fain heavily criticized the automakers for failing to offer counteroffers to the union’s proposals, which were first delivered to the businesses in early August.
All three automakers say they’ve made substantial offers to the union. The deals on the table include hourly wage increases of roughly 20%, 1000’s of dollars in bonuses and enhancements to the employees already-substantial advantages packages. Ford, for its part, has offered to reinstate prior cost-of-living adjustments to offset inflation.
However the UAW has demanded more, including 40% wage increases, an end to the “tier” system under which recent hires spend several years working as much as full wages, a 32-hour workweek, and advantages including additional time without work and assurances about electric vehicles.
About 18,300 employees, or roughly 12.5% of the UAW members covered by its contracts with the Detroit automakers, are currently on strike.
On the picket lines
In recent days, union members on the picket lines have reported confrontations, intimidation with guns, hit-and-run vehicle accidents, and vandalism of vehicles and company property.
Five people suffered minor injuries once they were hit by a vehicle that drove through the UAW’s picket line while leaving a GM parts facility in Flint, Michigan, on Wednesday. The vehicle was driven by a third-party contractor doing work for GM at the ability.
UAW members and employees on the Mopar Parts Center Line, a Stellantis Parts Distribution Center in Center Line, Michigan, picket outside the ability after walking off their jobs at noon on September 22, 2023.Â
Matthew Hatcher | AFP | Getty Images
GM issued an announcement saying that three contractors, including the motive force, had been banned from its properties. It urged its other contractors and salaried employees to follow established safety procedures when crossing a UAW picket line.
Individually, Stellantis released an announcement on Thursday accusing the UAW of mischaracterizing other incidents that didn’t – contrary to statements by Fain – involve alternative employees, or so-called scabs.
“Because the UAW expanded its strike to our parts distribution centers last Friday, we have witnessed an escalation of dangerous, and even violent, behavior by UAW picketers at several of those facilities, including slashing truck tires, jumping on vehicles, following people home and hurling racial slurs at dedicated Stellantis employees who’re merely crossing the picket line to do their jobs,” the statement said.
The corporate said it has not hired any outside employees to switch striking UAW members: “Only current employees who’re protecting our business and third parties making pick-ups and deliveries as they normally would are entering our facilities.”
The corporate called on Fain and other UAW leaders to assist ensure the security of all Stellantis employees, including those on the picket line.
