September 16, 2023 UAW strike news

We've wrapped up our Saturday live coverage for the UAW strike.

Read more about the strike here.

Former President Barack Obama offered a brief statement Saturday on the UAW strike, saying it's time for auto companies to do right by their workers.

“Fourteen years ago, when the big three automakers were struggling to stay afloat, my administration and the American people stepped in to support them,” Obama said in the statement. “So did the auto workers in the UAW who sacrificed pay and benefits to help get the companies back on their feet.

“Now that our carmakers are enjoying robust profits, it’s time to do right by those same workers so the industry can emerge more united and competitive than ever,” Obama said.

As part of the larger Troubled Asset Relief Program, more than $62 billion in direct bailout bankruptcy assistance was given to General Motors and Chrysler, which is now part of Stellantis.

Stellantis made an 11th-hour offer to the United Auto Workers union for a 20% increase in the top wage scale, including an immediate 10% pay increase, Mark Stewart, the company's chief operating officer, told reporters Saturday in a briefing.

The offer from Stellantis, which makes vehicles for the US market under the Jeep, Ram, Dodge and Chrysler brands, essentially matches offers from General Motors and Ford to the union. But all three offers were rejected by the union, which started an unprecedented simultaneous strike against the traditional "Big Three" early Friday after their contracts with the companies expired at 11:59 p.m. ET on Thursday.

"We clearly understand we’re in inflationary environment," said Stewart about the pay increase offer.

Stellantis said starting pay for temporary workers would increase to $20 an hour in the company's offer, an increase of $4.22 an hour, or about 27%.

But none of the company's offers come close to union demands of closer to a 40% pay increase over the life of the contract, and the elimination or strict restrictions on the use of temporary workers. And it wants to reverse a number of concessions that the union made to Stellantis predecessor Chrysler and the other automakers in 2007 and 2009.

Stewart, echoing remarks by CEOs at Ford and GM in recent days, said the union's demands would not allow Stellantis to be financially viable.

"Going back to 2009 on every request is not affordable," he said. "At the end of the day, we have to be able to compete against the nonunion competitors here in the US."

The union insists with record or near-record profits for the automakers they can afford to meet the demands.

Ford and General Motors confirmed Friday that 2,600 UAW members will be laid off due to the strike. 

The union has had 12,700 workers at three assembly plants on strike since early Friday, but that's less than 10% of the 145,000 members at more than 100 factories, warehouses and other facilities across the nation.

But Ford said about 600 workers at Michigan Assembly Plant’s sub-assembly and stamping departments who were not on strike were told not to report to work Friday because their work couldn't be done without the final assembly and paint department at the plant, which are on strike.

GM said about 2,000 UAW members at the Fairfax assembly plant in Kansas City, will be laid off at some point early next week without a quick end to the strike because it depends upon stampings from the nearby plant in Wentzville, Missouri, which is one of the three plants on strike. Fairfax makes the Chevrolet Malibu and Cadillac XT4 and is the only factory to make those two models.

Stellantis, which builds vehicles for the US market under the Jeep, Ram, Dodge and Chrysler brands, has not announced any ripple effects from the strike leading to layoffs as of yet.

When the UAW announced plans for targeted strikes against only a certain number of facilities, many experts were expecting it to strike plants that made parts, such as engines and transmissions. Striking even one of the automakers' transmission plants would result in a cut of 75% of that company's US vehicle output, according to industry consultant Jeff Schuster, the global head of automotive for GlobalData.

“Two plants per company, you can pretty much idle North America,” he said.

The UAW decided to strike only three major assembly plants, one at each company, at least for now. That allowed each company to keep most of its assembly lines working, and most of the145,000 UAW members on the job.

The union criticized the GM and Ford layoffs and said it is ready if needed to expand the strike to other plants to ramp up pressure on the companies.

"If the Big Three decide to lay people off who aren’t on strike, that’s them trying to put the squeeze on our members to settle for less," UAW President Shawn Fain said Saturday in a statement. "With their record profits, they don’t have to lay off a single employee."

While there were some negotiations held Friday morning by various subcommittees of the United Auto Workers union and automakers, there have been no "main table" discussions between the two sides. The union instead was focused on a large rally in downtown Detroit, which included a march to the nearby General Motors' headquarters.

In a statement on Friday, UAW President Shawn Fain disputed President Joe Biden's comments that talks "broke down."

"Today we’re rallying with our members. Tomorrow, we expect to be at the bargaining table," Fain said.

The next move by the union could be to expand the strike beyond the three assembly plants now on strike: a Ford plant in Warren, Michigan; a Stellantis plant in Toledo, Ohio; and a General Motors plant Wentzville, Missouri. The union has made clear that it is prepared to expand the strike, pending the status of the negotiations.

Since most auto plants don't work seven days a week, it's less likely that there will be an expansion of the strike over the weekend, though that could change on Monday.

An announcement to expand the strike, as well as which plants will strike, would likely come in the evening.

Fain had disclosed the three strike targets just after 10 p.m. ET Wednesday night, and by midnight the UAW was on strike.

Proposals from the Big Three automakers haven’t addressed 80% of the striking United Auto Workers members' demands, UAW President Shawn Fain said following a rally on Friday.

“Eighty percent of our demands, 80% of our member demands were left off of their proposals. They fall way short of where they need to be,” Fain said.

The union went on strike against General Motors, Ford and Stellantis on Friday, the first time in its history that it has struck all three of America's unionized automakers at the same time.

Fain said the automakers have had a decade of excessive profits but union members have fallen further and further behind during that time.

Strikes at more plants are possible, Fain added, citing the ongoing negotiations.

Fain said:

It could be in a day, it could be in a week, it just depends on how things progress or don’t progress.

What about strike pay? CNN’s Vanessa Yurkevich told Fain that Ford announced they will lay off 600 workers and GM will idle about 2,000 workers starting next week. Yurkevich asked if they will get strike pay, given some of those individuals are not eligible for supplemental pay from the companies — and some may not be eligible for unemployment, either.

“Our members are going to be taken care of, no matter what happens,” Fain said. “We have their back and they have our back.”

Yurkevich pressed for more details on how, financially, the workers would be taken care of, but Fain didn’t provide an answer.

The Biden administration: President Joe Biden on Friday issued a strong statement of support for UAW workers in brief remarks from the White House but stopped short of explicitly endorsing their decision to strike.

Fain was asked if the Biden administration would help or hurt the union’s cause.

“I’m not worried about the Biden administration right now, this is our job, this is our fight,” he said.

“We have been very clear about our demands and if the companies don’t come to the pump and deliver for these members and give them their fair share of economic and social justice, we’ll amp up the pressure, we’ll take more plants out.”

The union has made ambitious demands in wages, benefits and job protections.

With all three automakers reporting record or near-record profits, the union says it is trying to recapture many benefits workers gave up more than a decade ago when the companies were on the brink of bankruptcy.

CNN’s Kate Trafecante and Maria Sole Campinoti contributed reporting to this post.

Time has run out to avert a strike at America’s unionized automakers.

The United Auto Workers contracts expired at 11:59 pm ET on Thursday. The contracts covered 145,000 UAW members at the three companies: General Motors, Ford and Stellantis, which builds vehicles under the Jeep, Ram, Dodge and Chrysler brands for North America.

With no deal reached by the contract expiration, the union said it has started targeted strikes against three facilities – one at each company.

Here’s what to know now that the strike has begun:

Where have workers walked off the job?

UAW President Shawn Fain announced that workers at a GM plant in Wentzville, Missouri; a Stellantis plant in Toledo, Ohio; and a Ford plant in Wayne, Michigan, would go on strike. Workers walked off the job there, picketing outside the plants Friday morning.

It might not take much to virtually shut down the output from all the companies. They operate a complex network of plants that depend on getting parts from different facilities.

Slowing or stopping the production of a few engine or transmission plants at each company could be as effective at stopping operations as a full strike at all plants, according to industry experts.

Key numbers motivating the UAW members:

$32.32: The hourly wage for most of the UAW members at GM, Ford and Stellantis 

$18: The starting wage of a UAW worker 

$15: The starting wage for temporary workers

Those wages haven't adjusted for inflation, which rose significantly over the past two years.

Will the automakers negotiate?

Based on their latest reports, Ford and GM are now offering a 20% raise during the life of the contract, and Stellantis is offering 17.5%. The union started with a demand for an immediate 20%, and four additional raises of 5% each over the course of a four-year deal.

GM CEO Mary Barra sent a letter to employees Thursday saying the company’s latest offer now includes a 20% raise, with an immediate 10% pay hike. The lower-paid temporary employees would get $20 an hour, which represents at 20% raise from current $16.67 an hour they receive.

Ford CEO Jim Farley told CNN that an offer from Ford of a 20% raise over the life of the contract is the most lucrative offer the company has made to the union in the 80 years it has been there. But he said meeting the union’s demands of close to a 40% raise, along with a four-day work week and other benefit improvements, would have been unaffordable.

Farley blamed the union for the lack of progress in negotiations. But the union has blamed the companies for waiting until the end of August or early September to make their first counteroffers.

Anger is mounting with Stellantis:

Stellantis is making greater use of lower-paid temporary workers than the other automakers. Eliminating or at least limiting use of temporary workers is a major issue for the union.

And there is still more anger at Stellantis after former executives of the company were caught giving bribes to former union officials, says Art Wheaton, director of labor studies at Cornell University’s Industrial and Labor Relations school in Buffalo.

Many of the members who are angry at the corruption scandal that resulted in two recent UAW presidents going to prison are angry with Stellantis as well.

UAW President Shawn Fain has become the X factor in the striking autoworkers’ pursuit of increased pay and benefits, injecting a level of chaos into negotiations that neither the automakers nor the White House predicted or quite know how to manage.

That confusion is purposeful.

The UAW on Friday struck at just three plants, one at each of the Big Three automakers. None of the plants is particularly crucial to the automakers’ operations, surprising industry insiders – even experts who predicted the UAW would implement a targeted strike.

Automakers have lambasted the UAW chief, calling the union’s demands unreasonable. Ford CEO Jim Farley on Thursday told CNN that the union’s call for a 40% pay raise and a 32-hour, four-day work week would bankrupt the company. GM CEO Mary Barra on Friday said the union is “asking for more than the company made,” calling the demands unrealistic. And GM and Stellantis lashed out at Fain late last month for his surprising tactic of filing unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board, accusing GM and Stellantis of not bargaining in good faith.

Fain told union members Thursday that the union’s strike strategy “will keep the companies guessing” and give union negotiators “maximum leverage” when they return to the bargaining table.

Just as Fain’s hefty demands and unique strike method were designed to maximize leverage with the automakers, his lack of deference to the White House added pressure on pro-union President Joe Biden.

Fain said the union would withhold its endorsement of Biden. Although Fain has at times praised Biden, he has also criticized the president for failing to do enough to help the autoworkers in their cause. The UAW routinely supports Democratic presidential candidates, and the president – who is fighting low approval ratings ahead of the 2024 campaign season – could use all the support he can get.

The unpredictable and unknown commodity in Fain has created a “uniquely challenging” predicament for the Biden administration, according to three sources briefed regularly on the discussions, who requested anonymity to describe sensitive conversations during ongoing negotiations.

Read more about Fain and his strategy here.

President Joe Biden on Friday issued a strong statement of support for UAW workers in brief remarks from the White House but stopped short of explicitly endorsing their decision to strike.

Biden, who frequently refers to himself as the most pro-union president in history, called on the Big Three auto companies to fairly share record profits with their employees.

“Auto companies have seen record profits, including in the last few years, because of the extraordinary skill and sacrifices of UAW workers,” Biden said. “But those record profits have not been shared fairly, in my view, with those workers.”

The president has been walking a fine line in recent weeks over the negotiations between autoworkers and the American companies. The strike is sure to affect the nation’s economy and the president has made his economic record central to his reelection message. However, he has also traditionally relied on the backing of union workers as a key part of his political coalition. Crucially, the UAW has withheld its endorsement of the president as leadership waits to see how he handles the situation.

It was against this backdrop that Biden gave a firmly pro-worker speech at the White House on Friday, noting a recent report done by his administration that argued unions “raise standards across the workplace and entire industries.”

“No one wants a strike, but I respect workers’ right to use their options under the collective bargaining system,” Biden said.