UAW members go on strike at three Ford, GM and Stellantis plants

DETROIT – Thousands of UAW members went on strike at three U.S. assembly plants of General Motors, Ford Motor Co. and Stellantis, after the union and automakers failed to reach an agreement on a new labor contract Thursday night.

The facilities are GM’s mid-duty truck and full-size truck plant in Wentzville, Missouri. Ford Ranger midsize and Bronco SUVs are manufactured in Wayne, Michigan; and Stellantis’ Jeep Wrangler and Gladiator plant in Toledo, Ohio. As for Ford, UAW President Sean Fine said only workers in paint and final assembly would strike.

The selected plants produce highly profitable vehicles for automakers for which demand remains largely high. The union said about 12,700 workers — 5,800 at Stellantis, 3,600 at General Motors and 3,300 at Ford — would strike at plants in total. The UAW represents about 146,000 workers at Ford, GM and Stellantis.

The plants were selected by the union as part of targeted strike plans initially announced Wednesday night by Fine, which had been unconventionally negotiating with all three automakers simultaneously and was reluctant to concede much to the union’s demands.

“For the first time in our history, we will be hitting the Big Three simultaneously,” Fine said just after 10 p.m. Thursday in live remarks broadcast on Facebook and YouTube. “We are using a new strategy, which is the ‘standby strike.’ We will call on selected facilities, local residents or units to stand up and strike.”

Fine referred to the union’s plans as a “stand strike,” a reference to the historic “sit-down” strikes organized by the UAW in the 1930s.

Key proposals presented by the union included 40% hourly wage increases, reducing the 32-hour workweek, returning to traditional pensions, eliminating compensation levels and restoring cost of living adjustments (COLA), among other items. On the table are including enhanced retiree benefits and enhanced vacation and family leave benefits.

By late Thursday, it was clear there would be no deal, even with President Joe Biden participating. Biden, who boasts of his blue-collar background and support for organized labor, spoke with Fine and leaders of automakers in Detroit, the White House said.

In a statement Thursday night, Ford said the UAW presented its “first substantive counterproposal” to four of the company’s offers, but it “showed little movement on the union’s initial demands.”

“If implemented, the proposal would more than double Ford’s current UAW-related labor costs, which are already much higher than labor costs at Tesla, Toyota and other foreign-owned automakers in the U.S. that use labor not represented in unions,” he said. Ford said. “The union has made clear that unless we agree to its unsustainable terms, it plans to stop work at 11:59 p.m. ET.”

Automakers have submitted standard proposals that address some of the UAW’s ambitious demands but not all of them. Specifically, the companies offered pay increases of about 20% and modified profit-sharing bonuses; and enhancing vacation and family leave, which the union found insufficient.

Targeted strikes typically focus on key factories that can then cause other factories to stop production due to parts shortages. They’re not unprecedented events, but the way Finn plans to conduct layoffs is not typical. These include launching targeted strikes on selected factories and then potentially increasing the number of strikes depending on the status of negotiations. The choice of assembly plants for such strikes is also unique.

This is a developing story. Please check back for additional details.