UAW Escalates Auto Strike as Contract Talks Stall

UAW President Shawn Fain joins union members picketing outside the Stellantis Parts Distribution Center in Center Line, Mich., after they walked off their jobs at noon on Sept. 22, 2023. Matthew Hatcher/AFP via Getty Images

The United Auto Workers (UAW) will escalate its strike with two of the Big Three automakers—Ford and General Motors—as progress in negotiations has stalled with the labor dispute entering its 15th day.

UAW President Shawn Fain announced on Sept. 29 that an additional roughly 7,000 members would “stand up and go out on strike,” with 4,600 from Ford’s Chicago assembly plant and 2,300 from GM’s Lansing Delta Township plant.

“Our courageous members of these two plants are the next wave of reinforcements,” Mr. Fain said in a Facebook Live video message, “in our fight for a record contract.”

In total, 25,000 UAW-represented members will be on strike.

As a result of the strike’s expansion, production of several brands will come to a halt, including the Buick Enclave, Chevrolet Traverse, Ford Explorer, and Lincoln Aviator.

Despite the UAW claiming that deliberations are at a standstill, GM says that it has yet to receive a “comprehensive counteroffer.”

“Calling more strikes is just for the headlines, not real progress. The number of people negatively impacted by these strikes is growing and includes our customers who buy and love the products we build,” said Gerald Johnson, GM Executive Vice President for Global Manufacturing, in a statement to The Epoch Times.

“For our part, we continue to stand ready and willing to negotiate in good faith to reach an agreement that benefits you and doesn’t let the non-union manufacturers win. Our current, record proposal that is on the table offers historic wage increases and job security while not jeopardizing our future. We’re here to reach an agreement so we can all get back to work, and that remains our 100% focus. Be safe.”

Stellantis will be omitted from the strike escalation as the company has presented substantial counter offers, including a cost of living allowance, the right not to cross a picket line, and the right to strike over product amendments and plant closures, and a moratorium on outsourcing.

Contract talks will continue, Mr. Fain confirmed.

“Until then, we will keep building our arsenal of democracy, and we will win. Our strategy is working,” he said. “We knew going into this fight that the road ahead was going to be difficult, and we knew that it was unlikely this will be quick.”

The announcement had been delayed after Mr. Fain received a “flurry of interest” from automakers in negotiations.

This comes one week after Mr. Fain escalated the strike to 38 GM and Stellantis parts and distribution facilities in 20 states. The union spared Ford from further escalation due to contract gains.

Thousands of UAW auto workers have been on strike since the union’s contract expired at 11:59 p.m. Eastern time on Sept. 14. The organization is demanding a significant pay increase, a 32-hour work week with full pay, the restoration of traditional retirement pensions, a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA), and inflation-protection benefits.

While the UAW has lowered its pay demands to about 36 percent, down from the initial 46 percent proposal, one union worker thinks “everything that we’re asking for is fair.”

“So, 46 percent is actually not an unfair place to start at,” Justin Green, a striking temporary full-time worker at Ford, told The Epoch Times on Sept. 26. “I personally would like to see close to 30. Just to get up to a point where everybody can live relatively comfortable.”

Becoming Violent

Two weeks into the strike, tensions are beginning to boil over as there have been multiple instances of violence at the picket lines.

According to Mr. Fain, the latest cases of violence against striking members were the fault of GM and Stellantis. The UAW leader cited three specific examples in a recorded message published on YouTube.

The first incident occurred when a non-union contractor allegedly assaulted five striking members near a Flint-area GMT plant. The second involved a Massachusetts member who was allegedly hit by a vehicle outside a Stellantis parts depot. The third included non-union members who allegedly pulled guns on two members.

Mr. Fain said this was an attack on anyone who is “fighting for economic and social justice,” adding that “it’s our civic duty” and “it’s our sacred right.”

“These members and allies are in our thoughts, and we condemn this violence that GM and Stellantis are enabling. These attacks on our members exercising their constitutional rights to strike and picket will not be tolerated,” Mr. Fain said. “Shame on these companies for hiring violent scabs to try to break our strike.”

In a statement to The Epoch Times, Stellantis rejected the union’s “characterization of the incidents occurring on the picket lines” and pointed the finger at UAW for making “misleading and inflammatory statements.”

“Since the UAW expanded its strike to our parts distribution centers last Friday, we’ve 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 are merely crossing the picket line to do their jobs,” a company spokesperson told The Epoch Times. “The fact is, Stellantis has not hired any outside replacement workers, who Shawn Fain calls ’scabs.' Only current employees who are protecting our business and third parties making pick-ups and deliveries as they normally would are entering our facilities.”

GM confirmed to The Epoch Times that a third-party housekeeping contractor employed by Malace was suspected of assaulting five picketing employees with his automobile as the individual tried to leave the Flint Processing Center. The automaker is working with local authorities in their investigation.

“In response to this event, we have informed Malace that the suspected employee along with two other Malace employees who were in the vehicle at the time are no longer allowed on any GM property,” the company said in a statement. “Additionally, we have conducted safety talks at all GM facilities with active picketing activity to reinforce the expectation and requirement that any employees who experience picketers blockading entry or exit to our property contact site security to help them safely proceed past the picketing employees. This reinforcement is in addition to picketing safety talks that had already been completed with salaried and contract employees across all GM sites with UAW-represented employees.”

Politics and Labor

This week, President Joe Biden visited a picket line in Michigan and spoke for 87 seconds, telling the crowd that he supports the union’s demand for a 40 percent pay increase.

“Folks, look, one thing is real simple—I’m going to be very brief—the fact of the matter is that you guys, the UAW—you saved the automobile industry back in 2008 and before. You made a lot of sacrifices. You gave up a lot. And the companies were in trouble,” President Biden said on Sept. 26. “But now they’re doing incredibly well. And guess what? You should be doing incredibly well, too. It’s a simple proposition.”

Speaking at a non-union factory in a northern suburb of Detroit, former President Donald Trump criticized President Biden and his administration’s policies, adding that it is unlikely the strikes will achieve much in the end.

“You’re all on picket lines and everything, but it doesn’t make a damn bit of difference what you get because in two years—you’re all going to be out of business. You’re not getting anything,” former President Trump said. “What they’re doing to the auto industry in Michigan and throughout the country is absolutely horrible and ridiculous.”

The UAW is the only major labor union that has not endorsed President Biden’s 2024 reelection bid, but Mr. Fain has had harsh words for the Republican front runner.