Around 13,000 staff at three of the United States’ biggest car manufacturers have gone on strike over pay.
Members of the United Auto Workers (UAW) union began picketing at a General Motors assembly plant in Wentzville, Missouri; a Ford factory in Wayne, Michigan, near Detroit; and a Stellantis Jeep plant in Toledo, Ohio.
It is the first time in the union’s 88-year history that all three companies were targeted simultaneously.
The workers’ action received support from President Joe Biden, who dispatched aides to Detroit to help resolve the impasse and said the “big three” car makers should share their “record profits”.
The strikes are likely to chart the future of the union and of America’s homegrown car industry at a time when US labour is flexing its might and the companies face a historic transition from building internal combustion automobiles to making electric vehicles.
If the strikes drag on, shortages could push vehicle prices higher and put more pressure on an economy already bruised by inflation. Walkouts may even become a factor in next year’s presidential election, testing Mr Biden’s claim to be the most union-friendly president in American history.
“Workers all over the world are watching this,” said Liz Shuler, president of the AFL-CIO, a federation of 60 unions with 12.5 million members.
The union’s tactics have changed. While the UAW is striking at all three car makers, led by its new president, Shawn Fain, not all of the 146,000 UAW members at company plants are on picket lines yet.
The UAW targeted a handful of factories this time in a bid to get manufacturers closer to the union’s demand of 36% wage increases over four years. GM and Ford offered 20% and Stellantis, formerly Fiat Chrysler, offered 17.5%.
The limited strikes will stretch the union’s 825 million US dollar (£665 million) strike fund, which would run dry in about 11 weeks if all workers walked out. Strikes at other plants may begin if car makers do not budge, Mr Fain said.
The limited strike strategy could have ripple effects, GM chief executive Mary Barra said in an interview on Friday.
“A lot of our assembly plants also have contiguous stamping plants that may serve other plants,” she told CNBC. “We’ve worked to have a very efficient manufacturing network, so yes, even one plant is going to start to have impact.”
Mr Fain has called the union’s demands audacious, but maintains the manufacturers are raking in billions and can afford them. He scoffs at car maker claims that costly settlements would force them to raise vehicle prices, saying labour accounts for only 4% to 5% of vehicle costs.
“They could double our raises and not raise car prices and still make millions of dollars in profits,” Mr Fain said. “We’re not the problem. Corporate greed is the problem.”
The strikes capped a day of both sides saying the other had not moved enough from their initial positions.
In addition to general wage increases, the union’s demands include restoration of cost-of-living pay rises, an end to varying tiers of wages for factory jobs, a 32-hour week with 40 hours of pay and pension increases for retirees.
Starting in 2007, workers gave up cost-of-living raises and defined benefit pensions for new recruits. Wage tiers were created as the UAW tried to help the companies avoid financial trouble. Even so, only Ford avoided government-funded bankruptcy protection.
Many say it is time to get the concessions back because the companies are making huge profits and CEOs are raking in millions. They also want to make sure the union represents workers at joint-venture electric vehicle battery factories that the companies are building so workers have jobs making vehicles of the future.
Top-scale assembly plant workers earn around 32 dollars (£26) per hour, plus large annual profit-sharing cheques. Ford said average annual pay including overtime and bonuses was 78,000 dollars (£63,000) last year.
