The United Auto Workers (UAW) walked off the job at an additional plant each at General Motors and Ford, but the union spared Stellantis after last-minutes concessions by the Chrysler parent, union president Shawn Fain said yesterday. The first-ever simultaneous strike against the Detroit Three automakers enters its third week, expanding to Ford’s Chicago assembly plant and GM’s Lansing, Michigan, assembly plant, covering about 7,000 workers, Fain said in an announcement.
That brings the total number of workers on the picket lines to 25,000, or about 17 per cent of the union’s 146,000 members at the three automakers. Rather than the hammer blow of a mass walkout it has wielded historically, the UAW is strategically playing the companies against each other, using reprieves from expansion of work stoppages as encouragement with different automakers the last two weeks.
The expanded strike was still avoiding pickup trucks, Detroit’s biggest profit-makers, a further sign of restraint. Workers yesterday walked out of the Ford assembly plant in Chicago that builds the Ford Explorer and Lincoln Aviator SUVs, as well as the GM plant in Lansing that makes the Chevy Traverse and Buick Enclave SUVs.
“Despite our willingness to bargain Ford and GM have refused to make meaningful progress,” Fain said in a video address yesterday morning. He noted that prior to his announcement, the UAW had seen a “flurry” of interest from the companies yesterday morning. Ford and did not immediately comment while GM said in an email to employees it still has not received a comprehensive counteroffer to its Sept. 21 proposal.
“Calling more strikes is just for the headlines, not real progress,” GM said. Stellantis, which was spared an additional walkout yesterday, said: “We have made progress in our discussions, but gaps remain. We are committed to continue working through these issues in an expeditious manner.”
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