The automakers, which are making billions in profits, have dismissed union's desired 46% pay raise, 32-hour workweek and pensions as 'unrealistic.'
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.
Currently, UAW workers who were hired after 2007 don't receive defined benefit pensions. Their health benefits are less generous, too. For years, the union gave up general pay raises and lost cost-of-living wage increases to help the companies control costs. Though top-scale assembly workers earn $32.32 an hour, temporary workers start at just under $17. Still, full-time workers have received profit-sharing checks ranging this year from $9,716 at Ford to $14,760 at Stellantis.
"These battery workers deserve the same wage and salary standards that generations of auto workers have fought for," Fain told members. Some auto workers regard the UPS contract, with a $49-an-hour top wage for experienced drivers, as a benchmark for their negotiations. Others say they're just hoping to get near that figure.
"More than half of the vehicles built in the U.S. are in nonunion plants," he said."So if you raise the price to build a unionized vehicle, you could price yourself out of competition with vehicles already built in North America."
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UAW's clash with Big 3 automakers shows off a more confrontational union as strike deadline loomsA 46% pay raise.
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UAW's clash with Big 3 automakers shows off a more confrontational union as strike deadline loomsA 46% pay raise.
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UAW's clash with Big 3 automakers shows off a more confrontational union as strike deadline loomsA 46% pay raise.
Read more »
UAW's clash with Big 3 automakers shows off a more confrontational union as strike deadline loomsA 46% pay raise
Read more »
UAW's clash with Big 3 automakers shows off a more confrontational union as strike deadline loomsA 46% pay raise
Read more »