The United Auto Staff union will strike against the Detroit automakers if the edges don’t reach labor deals by an 11:59 p.m. ET Thursday deadline, UAW President Shawn Fain said Wednesday on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”
Fain’s comments got here the morning after he outlined plans to local union leaders about implementing targeted strikes at certain General Motors, Ford Motor and Stellantis plants, if agreements aren’t reached by Thursday.
“Because it stands immediately, all three are almost certainly to be struck unless we get a deal by Sept. 14 at midnight,” Fain said Wednesday to CNBC’s Phil LeBeau when asked whether Ford is the less more likely to be struck. “All three are expected to deliver for his or her employees and in the event that they don’t, there can be motion.”
Targeted strikes check with work stoppages only at certain plants, related to local contract issues that many, if not most, facilities have. That differs from national strikes where all union members exit plants, which occurred 4 years ago in the course of the last round of negotiations with GM.
Fain said the UAW and automakers “have lots of work” to do, but he believes the edges can reach contracts before the deadline.
“We will get there, but the businesses have to get serious and buckle down,” he said.
United Auto Staff President Shawn Fain greets employees on the Stellantis Sterling Heights Assembly Plant, to mark the start of contract negotiations in Sterling Heights, Michigan, U.S. July 12, 2023.Â
Rebecca Cook | Reuters
Fain said Wednesday the union continues to hunt double-digit wage increases. The UAW most recently sought 36% hikes – down from initial demands of 40%. The union’s raise proposals to the automakers haven’t fallen below 30%, he said.
Key demands from the union have included 40% hourly pay increases, a reduced 32-hour work week, a shift back to traditional pensions, the elimination of compensation tiers and a restoration of cost-of-living adjustments, amongst other items on the table.
Ford CEO Jim Farley said late Tuesday night the corporate stays “optimistic that we will reach an agreement with the UAW in the following two days.”
Nonetheless, he said there are limits to what Ford is willing to supply.
Farley said the corporate’s latest offer includes “pay increases, elimination of tiers, inflation protection, five weeks of vacation, 17 paid holidays [and] larger contributions for retirement.”
“We put a suggestion in today that is our most generous offer in 80 years of the UAW and Ford,” Farley said in the course of the reveal of the 2024 Ford F-150 in Detroit. “It’s a major enhancement, still optimistic that we’ll get a deal. But there’s a limit because we now have to guard for the long run, future investments and the profitability of the corporate funds those.”
Farley said Ford is “not going to support” a four-day workweek.
