A final agreement could come too late to avoid walkouts by workers at factories in multiple states.
United Auto Workers members walk in the Labor Day parade in Detroit, Monday, Sept. 4, 2023. DETROIT — About 146,000 U.S. auto workers are set to go on strike this week if General Motors, Ford and Stellantis fail to meet their demands for big pay raises and the restoration of concessions the workers made years ago when the companies were in financial trouble.
Perhaps most important to the union is that it be allowed to represent workers at 10 electric vehicle battery factories, most of which are being built by joint ventures between automakers and South Korean battery makers. The union wants those plants to receive top UAW wages. In part, that is because workers who now make components for internal combustion engines will need a place to work as the auto industry increasingly transitions to EVs.
Over the past decade, the Detroit Three have emerged as robust profit-makers. They’ve collectively posted net income of $164 billion, $20 billion of it this year. The CEOs of all three major automakers earn multiple millions in annual compensation.A contract offer from Ford proposed a cumulative 10% pay raise over the course of the four-year contract, plus several lump-sum payments, including $6,000 to cover inflation. GM has offered 10% as well, with similar lump sums. Stellantis offered 14.
In a letter Friday, Mark Stewart, Stellantis’ chief operating officer, told employees that the company’s offer to the union would make it financially feasible to employ workers into the next generation. On the one hand, the UAW has struck a confrontational stance. Its members voted 97% in August to authorize leaders to call for walkouts. It has filed unfair labor practice charges with the federal government against Stellantis and GM — charges that the companies have denied. And the union has called contract offers from all three companies “disappointing.”
Sam Fiorani, an analyst with AutoForecast Solutions, a consulting firm, said the automakers had roughly 1.96 million vehicles on hand at the end of July. Before the pandemic, that figure was as high as 4 million.
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