DETROIT (AP) — The United Auto Workers union expanded its strikes against Detroit automakers Friday, ordering 7,000 more workers to walk off the job in Illinois and Michigan to put more pressure on the companies to improve their offers.
It was the second time the union has widened the walkout, which started two weeks ago at three assembly plants before the most recent addition of a Ford plant in Chicago and a General Motors assembly factory near Lansing.
GM's manufacturing chief said the union was calling more strikes “just for the headlines, not real progress.” Stellantis, he said, made significant progress moments before his appearance on Facebook Live by agreeing to unspecified cost-of-living raises, the right not to cross a picket line and the right to strike over plant closures.
But in a note to workers Friday, Edwards' boss, GM manufacturing chief Gerald Johnson, said the company has yet to receive a counteroffer from union leaders to a Sept. 21 economic proposal. Automakers have long said that they're willing to give raises, but they fear that a costly contract will drive up vehicle prices, making them more expensive than models made at nonunion U.S. plants run by foreign automakers, largely in the South.
Republican front-runner Donald Trump also traveled to the Detroit area this week for a rally at a nonunion truck parts maker. The automakers' last known wage offers were around 20% over the life of a four-year contract, a little more than half of what the union has demanded. Other contract improvements, such as cost of living increases, restoration of defined-benefit pensions for newly hired workers and an end to tiers of wages within the union are also on the table.The UAW initially targeted one assembly plant from each company. Then last week it added 38 parts distribution centers run by GM and Stellantis.
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