The demands that a more combative United Auto Workers union has pressed on General Motors, Stellantis and Ford -- demands that even the UAW's own president calls 'audacious' -- are edging it closer to a strike when its contract ends Sept. 14.
A 46% pay raise. A 32-hour week with 40 hours of pay. A restoration of traditional pensions.
Over the past decade, the Detroit Three have emerged as robust profit-makers. They've collectively posted net income of $164 billion over the past decade, $20 billion of it this year. The CEOs of all three major automakers earn multiple millions in annual compensation. The UAW hasn't said whether it will select one target automaker. It could strike all three, though doing so could deplete the union's strike fund in under three months.
Marick Masters, a business professor at Wayne State University in Detroit, suggested that the strong U.S. job market and the companies' outsize profits have given Fain leverage in negotiations. In addition, he noted, the automakers are poised to release a slew of new electric vehicles that would be delayed by a strike. And they have only a limited supply of vehicles to withstand a prolonged walkout.
Chris Lindsey, a union member who builds Ford trucks at a Louisville plant, argues that workers deserve a larger share of Ford's sizable profits.Perhaps the biggest issue blocking a contract agreement is union representation at 10 EV battery plants that the companies have proposed. Most of these plants are joint ventures with South Korean battery makers, which want to pay less.
Masters suggested that the automakers wouldn't be able to quickly replace striking workers. The tight job market, diminished interest in manufacturing jobs and comparatively modest wages would make it difficult to hire enough workers.
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