The union has always targeted a single company in past negotiations, and used the contract as a pattern for the entire industry. This time is different.
The United Auto Workers’ novel tactic of staging partial strikes at each of the Big Three automakers thrusts labor negotiations into uncharted waters even as the industry retools for electric vehicles.
So far, the UAW has opted not to strike at engine plants or transmission plants that supply multiple assembly plants. Instead, at midnight Thursday, it struck three assembly plants: one each at Ford Motor , General Motors , and Stellantis , the parent of Chrysler and Jeep. After the UAW reached a contract with its initial target, it would then threaten to strike the competing auto companies unless they, too, signed similar contracts. This approach is called pattern bargaining, and it was a remarkably successful tactic in the 1960s and 1970s as the union negotiated increasingly generous contracts.
“Keep in mind the union negotiated multiple contracts under the old approach and ended up falling further and further behind,” say Robert Bruno, a labor professor at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. The current strikes are only the opening dance steps. The union could escalate its strikes at all three auto makers, or just at one. Or it could turn up the pressure at two of them, even while negotiating with the third one. Anything is possible. UAW President Fain has said the union is keeping all options on the table.
Shaiken says Ford has the best relations with the UAW. Even though both Ford and GM both are offering 20% pay increases over the contract, the union might decide to negotiate a contract at Ford, and make it the pattern for the entire industry, Shaiken says.
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