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'Unbreakable Solidarity Is Working': UAW Wins Protections for GM Battery Plant Workers
"When workers stand together in the fight for economic justice there is nothing they cannot accomplish," said Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Oct 06, 2023
Wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with the words, "Eat the Rich" in his latest online broadcast Friday afternoon, United Auto Workers president Shawn Fain told the union's 145,000 members that brand-new progress made in contract negotiations with the Big Three automakers made one thing clear: "We are winning."
Fain addressed the union as thousands of its members concluded the third week of a "stand-up" strike, in which autoworkers have been gradually called to join the work stoppage to build pressure on the companies—Ford, General Motors (GM), and Stellantis—to provide a fair contract commensurate with their record-breaking profits and including a just transition to renewable energy.
Just minutes before Fain was planning to announce that workers at GM's assembly plant in Arlington, Texas were being called on to join the strike, the automaker told UAW negotiators it would include workers at its electric vehicle factories to be covered under the union's national agreement.
The Big Three have previously said their battery plants are being set up through joint ventures with other companies and shouldn't be a factor in negotiations—a position the UAW said would harm its ability to secure a just transition.
The threat of expanding the walkout to Arlington, where some of GM's top-selling cars are manufactured by 5,300 workers, "provided a transformative win," said Fain as he explained that the strike would hold off on further expansion for now.
"We've been told for months that this is impossible... and now we’ve called their bluff," he said. "Today, because of our power, GM has agreed to lay the foundation for a just transition."
The announcement made this week the first since the strike began that more workers were not called to join the work stoppage.
About 17% of UAW members—25,200 workers—are currently on strike. GM said this week that the work stoppage has cost the company $200 million so far, while the UAW has been able to preserve its $825 million strike fund and pay striking members $500 per week.
In his address, Fain rallied UAW members for the continued strike.
"The billionaires and company executives think us autoworkers are just dumb," he said. "They think we only understand the power of a supervisor yelling at us or an assembly line coming at us. They look at me and they see some redneck from Indiana. They look at you and see someone they would never have over for dinner or let ride on their yacht or fly on their private jet. They think they know us, but us autoworkers know better."
Sara Nelson, president of the President of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, applauded the UAW's securing of "major movement" from GM.
"The pressure of smart, creative tactics backed up by unbreakable solidarity is working," she said.
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) also congratulated Fain and the union and called on Stellantis and Ford to provide their own guarantees that workers making EV batteries at their plants would be covered by the UAW agreement.
"The power of the strike was made evident today," added Jobs With Justice. "It's now up to Ford and Stellantis to listen to the chorus of workers demanding a just transition."
Watch Fain's entire address below:
With the victory, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said, Fain and the UAW are showing "how union power can lead the economy in tackling the climate crisis and making a better world for workers."
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'We're Not Messing Around': Fain Says UAW Strikes Will Grow Unless Deals Are Reached by Friday
"We've been available 24/7 to bargain a deal that recognizes our members' sacrifices and contributions to these record profits," said UAW President Shawn Fain.
Sep 19, 2023
Days into a historic "Stand-Up Strike" at all three of the major U.S. car manufacturers, United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain said Monday evening that the union is getting ready to move into the next phase of its work stoppage strategy as the Big Three have made little progress in working to reach a fair deal with the bargaining unit's 145,000 members.
Fain, whose demands for wage increases to match the record profits of Ford, Stellantis, and General Motors (GM) have been deemed "frightening" by at least one corporate news anchor, addressed the union's members in a video posted to social media days after turning down an offer from Stellantis which would have provided a 21% raise for workers.
The company's offer amounted to less than half of what the UAW has demanded—a 36% raise% over course of the contract to reflect the rising cost of living and to match the raises that auto company CEOs have gotten over the last four years "while the companies have poured billions into stock buybacks and special dividends to enrich Wall Street," as Fain said.
"In the past four years the average price of a new car is up 34%," said the UAW leader. "You think UAW wages are driving that increase? Think again. Our pay has risen a mere 6% over the last four years. Due to inflation an autoworker today is making less in real wages than we made 20 years ago. That's why we have chosen to stand up... We told the Big Three that September 14 was a deadline and we meant it."
After about 12,700 workers at a GM plant in Missouri, a Stellantis facility in Ohio, and a Ford factory in Michigan started off the strike late last week, Fain said, the three companies now have a new deadline: Friday, September 22, after which more workers will be called to walk off the job and increase pressure on the Big Three unless executives make "serious progress."
"We've been available 24/7 to bargain a deal that recognizes our members' sacrifices and contributions to these record profits," said Fain, noting the companies have already earned over a quarter of a trillion dollars in North American profits in 2023 so far. "I have been clear with the Big Three every step of the way and I'm going to be crystal clear again right now... Autoworkers have waited long enough to make things right at the Big Three. We're not waiting around and we're not messing around."
Calling up local union chapters piecemeal instead of shutting down plants across the Big Three en masse "is the only way this strategy works," Fain added. "We're going to keep hitting the company where we need to when we need to."
The strategy could help preserve the UAW's $825 million strike fund, University of Michigan-Flint economics professor Chris Douglas told WSMH in Flint on Monday, while affecting the Big Three's profits rapidly, since assembly plants are being targeted.
In addition to paying striking workers $500 per week, the union is now paying 2,600 workers at non-striking plants who were temporarily laid off last week by GM and Ford.
Fain did not say which locals may be called to join the strike on Friday, but urged all UAW members to "keep showing the companies that you are ready to join the strike if necessary."
In addition to a pay raise that reflects company profits, the union has demanded better retirement benefits, a four-day workweek, and an end to a tiered pay structure in which new employees earn less.
"This is our generation's defining moment," he told members, "so be ready to stand up."
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'Their Plan Won't Work': UAW Rips GM and Ford for Laying Off Workers Amid Historic Strike
United Auto Workers president Shawn Fain accused the companies of "trying to put the squeeze on our members to settle for less."
Sep 16, 2023
The president of the United Auto Workers condemned Ford and General Motors on Saturday after the companies said they plan to temporarily lay off thousands of nonstriking employees, blaming the union's walkouts at two plants in Michigan and Ohio.
Ford said in a statement Friday that it is laying off roughly 600 workers at its Michigan Assembly Plant, pointing to "knock-on effects" from the UAW's walkouts at the facility's final assembly and paint departments.
General Motors, meanwhile, said it expects 2,000 workers at its Fairfax Assembly plant in Kansas "to be idled as soon as next week," a decision the company called "a negative ripple effect" of the UAW's historic strike.
But UAW president Shawn Fain argued the layoffs are completely unnecessary—and an obvious attempt by Ford and General Motors to "put the squeeze on our members to settle for less."
"With their record profits, they don't have to lay off a single employee. In fact, they could double every autoworker's pay, not raise car prices, and still rake in billions of dollars," said Fain. "Their plan won't work. The UAW will make sure any worker laid off in the Big Three's latest attack will not go without an income. We'll organize one day longer than they can, and go the distance to win economic and social justice at the Big Three."
The UAW's response to the layoffs came as union negotiators and the Big Three automakers returned to the bargaining table to continue negotiating over a new contract.
More than 12,000 UAW autoworkers are currently on strike at three plants, and—as part of its "stand-up strike" strategy—the union is expected to call on additional locals to strike in the coming days if the car manufacturers don't make a sufficient contract offer.
The UAW says a gradual wave of strikes at select plants will give its negotiators maximal leverage—and keep the Big Three guessing—as the union attempts to win significant benefit and wage improvements. Fain has said an "all-out" strike is still on the table.
Reuters reported Saturday morning that Stellantis has increased its wage-hike offer to nearly 21% over the life of the contract—the biggest total wage boost proposed by a Big Three automaker thus far, but still well shy of the union's demand for a 36% raise.
Ford and General Motors have proposed raises of 20% and 18%, respectively.
Ford CEO Jim Farley, whose compensation package totaled nearly $21 million last year, faced backlash from the UAW and lawmakers for claiming earlier this week that the union's wage demands would "bankrupt" the company.
"There's no way you can continue wasting hundreds of millions of dollars on stock buybacks to manipulate prices, jack up CEO pay to ludicrous levels, all while starving the workers who actually make the product you sell," Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) replied on social media. "THAT is what is unsustainable. Pay your workers."
Fain, for his part, called Farley's claim "a lie like everything else that comes out of their mouths."
As Fortune reported on Friday, Morgan Stanley's auto analyst estimated in a recent note that a 40% pay raise for autoworkers would result in $2.6 billion in additional labor costs for Ford, which expects to bring in $168 billion in total revenue this year.
The company spent nearly $500 million on stock buybacks last year.
"They could double our wages and not raise the prices of vehicles, and they would still make billions of dollars," Fain said from the picket line on Friday.
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