The United Auto Workers union has escalated its strike against Detroit’s three automakers with 8,700 members walking off the job at Ford’s largest factory and threats of further action against Jeep maker Stellantis.
In a surprise move, thousands more UAW members joined the general strike to down tools at Ford’s Louisville, Kentucky truck plant, which rakes in around $25 billion in revenue each year.
The factory makes some of the brand’s most lucrative products, including its F-Series pickup trucks and large Ford and Lincoln SUVs.
The action is estimated to cost Ford roughly $30 million per day, UAW leader Todd Dunn told the Louisville Courier-Journal.
Meanwhile, the manufacturer itself warned the ‘grossly irresponsible’ strike action means possible layoffs and closures at more than a dozen Ford facilities, including parts supply plants that employ over 100,000 people.
8,700 UAW members at Ford’s Kentucky truck plant decided to strike in a surprise move likely to cost the manufacturer $30 million per day
The action, which has raised the stakes for all the manufacturers, came after negotiations between the UAW and Ford broke down on Wednesday. On Thursday, union President Shawn Fain hinted at further action against Stellantis.
‘Here’s to hoping talks at Stellantis today are more productive than Ford yesterday,’ he wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
Fain said the union has waited long enough ‘but Ford hasn´t gotten the message’ to bargain for a fair contract.
‘If they can´t understand that after four weeks, the 8,700 workers shutting down this extremely profitable plant will help them understand it,’ he added.
The strike came nearly four weeks after the union began its walkouts against the three Detroit automakers – General Motors, Ford and Stellantis.
It brings the total number of autoworkers on strike to around 33,700 after 4,000 workers at Mack Trucks voted to join the general strike earlier this week.
The UAW is seeking 40 percent pay raise over four years, as well as a four-day work week, paid at five, and better retirement and health benefits.
The latest action unfolded after Ford executives failed to produce a significantly different economic proposal.
The UAW is seeking 40 percent pay raise over four years, as well as a four-day work week, paid at five, and better retirement and health benefits
At a meeting at Ford’s headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan, Fain was told the company put a strong offer on the table, but there wasn’t a lot of room to increase it and keep it affordable for the business.
Fain responded by saying, ‘if that’s the company’s best offer, “You just lost Kentucky Truck Plant,”‘ a senior executive said. ‘The meeting only lasted about 15 minutes,’ he added.
In a video, Fain said the union moved because Ford didn’t change its offer. ‘We’ve been very patient working with the company on this,’ he said. ‘They have not met expectations, they’re not even coming to the table on it.’
However, executives did say they are working on possibly bringing electric vehicle battery plants into the UAW national contract, essentially making them unionized.
Local union recording secretary Anthony Spencer, who has worked at the Ford truck plant for eight years and helped organize the walkout, said the surprise action would get Ford’s attention.
‘We know it´s going to hit them. We lose a lot of millions of dollars every day that we don´t run,’ he said. ‘This is a historic moment.’
Spencer said: ‘We´ve got people that´s got 30, 35, 40 years – they´ve never been on strike. So the morale is good.’
UAW President Shawn Fain threatened further action towards Stellantis in a post on X, formerly Twitter, unless negotiations progressed today
Workers at the Kentucky truck plant, which manufacturers some of Ford’s most popular vehicles including F-series pickup trucks and large Ford and Lincoln SUVs, arrived early in the morning to join the picket
He said there were a few sticking points with negotiations that prompted the strike, including the unionization of Ford´s electric vehicle workers and employee raises.
‘We all know if we ever go EV, we´re going to lose a lot of members that build engines, transmissions, and they got to have a place to go,’ Spencer said.
Marick Masters, a business professor at Wayne State University in Detroit, who follows labor issues, said the union is turning up the pressure on Ford.
But the automakers have made concessions, raised wage offers and ‘may have reached their resistance points to varying degrees.’ Executives, he said, have bottom-line positions they can´t cross in terms of staying competitive with other automakers.
The union´s move doesn´t leave him optimistic for a quick end to the strikes, Masters said: ‘I think the issues that remain on the table are quite thorny,’ and pointed to union demands that all workers get defined benefit pensions and health insurance when they retire.
The UAW expanded its strikes on Sept. 22, adding 38 GM and Stellantis parts warehouses. Assembly plants from Ford and GM were added the week after that.
Thus far, the union has decided to target a small number of plants from each company rather than have all 146,000 UAW members at the automakers go on strike at the same time.
Last week, the union reported progress in the talks and decided not to add any more plants. This came after GM agreed to bring joint-venture electric vehicle battery factories into the national master contract, almost assuring that the plants will be unionized.
The UAW general strike has been rumbling since September 15 and has seen almost 5,000 workers laid off as the manufacturers desperately try to cut costs
Battery plants are a major point of contention in the negotiations. The UAW wants those plants to be unionized to assure jobs and top wages for workers who will be displaced by the industry´s ongoing transition to electric vehicles.
In its first two weeks, the strike was estimated to have cost the US economy $4 billion, according to a report by the Anderson Economic Group.
And since the beginning of the industrial action the three Detroit automakers have laid off roughly 4,800 workers at factories that are not among the plants that have been hit by the UAW strikes.
Striking workers are receiving $500 a week from the union´s strike pay fund. In some states, laid-off workers could qualify for state unemployment aid, which, depending on a variety of circumstances, could be less or more than $500 a week.
Separate companies that manufacture parts for the automakers are likely to have laid off workers but might not report them publicly, said Patrick Anderson, CEO of the Anderson Economic Group in Lansing, Michigan.
A survey of parts supply companies by a trade association called MEMA Original Equipment Suppliers found that 30 percent of members have laid off workers and that more than 60 percent expect to start layoffs in mid-October.
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