Autoworkers strike enters its fourth day. Now automakers face another walkout

The union representing Canadian autoworkers at Ford has put its strike plans there on hold, keeping its more than 5,000 members on the job at three plants there and providing some good news for an industry dealing with unprecedented labor disruptions.

According to an update posted on the union site: “Unifor is extending negotiations with Ford Motor Company for a 24-hour period. The union received a substantive offer from the employer minutes before the deadline and bargaining is continuing throughout the night. Unifor members should continue to maintain strike readiness.”

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Unifor, the union that represents autoworkers in Canada, posted Monday night on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, that negotiations are continuing down to the wire in efforts to avert a strike.

The union tweeted: "Negotiations between Unifor and Ford Motor Company are continuing with a late caucus meeting scheduled to take place within the hour. A reminder that Unifor Ford members should remain on shift UNLESS they receive explicit instructions from the union indicating otherwise."

While negotiations between the Big Three automakers and the union are ongoing, there are no main table meetings with lead negotiators scheduled for Tuesday, a source with knowledge of the meetings told CNN. 

The next main table meetings with both sides are scheduled with GM and Ford on Wednesday, and Stellantis on Thursday, the source said.

However, the timing of those main table talks could move up after UAW President Shawn Fain announced a new deadline for targeted strikes late Monday, the source added. 

 In a video message posted to X Monday night, UAW President Shawn Fain said more strikes could happen Friday.

 "If we don’t make serious progress by noon on Friday, September 22nd, more locals will be called on to Stand Up and join the strike," Fain said in the message. 

United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain on Monday said that more local UAW units would go on strike if the Big Three automakers don't make what Fain called "serious progress" in their contract negotiations with the union.

In a video, Fain announced a new deadline of noon on Friday, September 22.

"If we don’t make serious progress by noon on Friday, September 22nd, more locals will be called on to Stand Up and join the strike," Fain said. "That will mark more than a week since our first members walked out. And that will mark more than a week of the Big Three failing to make progress in negotiations toward reaching a deal that does right by our members."

Former President Donald Trump will skip the second Republican presidential primary debate in California next week and instead will travel to Detroit to deliver a speech in front of current and former union members, according to a source familiar with his plans.

His prime-time remarks will serve as counterprogramming to the September 27 debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley.

The revelation comes as the United Auto Workers’ strike has entered its fourth day.

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Stellantis and the UAW resumed negotiations on Monday.

Stellantis said its most recent economic offer included "nearly 21% in cumulative raises for hourly employees, an inflation protection measure, reduction of tiers from eight years to four and $1 billion in retirement funding."

The union initially demanded an immediate 20% raise, and then four additional raises of 5% each — together that equates to a 46% hourly pain increase over the four-year life of the contract.

CNN has reached out to UAW for comment.

Stellantis said the discussion was "constructive" and was focused on where the two sides can reach an agreement that also helps the carmaker "meet the challenges of electrification."

Stellantis said a framework will help in "identifying a solution for Belvidere," an Illinois plant it idled citing increasing costs in the electric vehicle market.

"Together with the UAW, we have the opportunity to establish a framework in this contract that will allow the Company to be competitive during this historic transformation and bring our workforce along on this journey," Stellantis said.

Tony Totty, the president of UAW Local 14 in Toledo, Ohio, told CNN's Jake Tapper on Monday that the labor movement is spreading "across the country."

Totty represents the GM facility that was on strike in 2019 and could possibly shut down again in the current strike.

Looking at UPS Teamsters, the airline industry and the strikes in Hollywood, "this country is tired of working for these companies through high inflation. We feel like we're falling behind. And these corporations are making out like bandits and we're not accepting it anymore," Totty said.

Workers are still "structurally broken" from the bankruptcy deal over a decade ago, Totty said, while GM CEO Mary Barra made $29 million last year, representing a 34% increase over the last four years.

"They do all the stock buybacks for the shareholders but when it gets to us, they say, 'whoa, we can't afford that,'" he said.

The Toledo GM factory was on strike for 40 days. It made a major impact on the local community from tax revenue for emergency services to the local businesses workers frequented.

"Nobody's excited to go on strike once you've been on strike recently. But we're prepared," Totty said.

Ford faces a growing chance of another union strike on Monday night, according to Unifor, the union representing 5,600 workers at its facilities in Canada.

The union's contract expires at 11:59 pm Monday. The union said Monday afternoon that talks with the company continue, but chances of reaching an 11th deal to avert a strike are growing slim.

"The likelihood of a strike increases with each passing hour," Unifor's president Lana Payne said in a statement.

The union's contracts with General Motors and Stellantis were also due to expire Monday night, but the union granted an extension to those companies as it tried to reach a pattern-setting deal with Ford.

The issues in Canada are similar to those in the US negotiations between the "Big Three" unionized automakers and the United Auto Workers Union, which started its first-ever simultaneous strike against all three on Friday when it picked one assembly plant at each to strike.

The Canadian strike could affect Ford operations at some of its US plants. The union represents two engine plants in Windsor, Ontario, just across the river from Detroit, that makes V-8 engines for the F-150 pickup, its best selling vehicle, as well for the Mustang sports car. It also represents an assembly plant that builds the Ford Edge and Lincoln Nautilus SUV, so a strike in Canada could have a larger impact on Ford than the lone UAW strike in Wayne, Michigan.

Ford did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Unifor's statement.

Erika Mitchell, who works at Jeep's Toledo, Ohio, factory is partaking in the United Auto Workers strike that started on Friday.

Even though she makes almost $32 an hour as a top-tier worker, she said it's not fair that under the two-tier worker system, lower-tier workers get paid less when they are often doing more cumbersome work.

"At the end of the day I'm still breaking down my body," Mitchell said on Monday in an interview with CNN's Gabe Cohen outside the Toledo factory. She said she arrives at work at 5:30 a.m. and doesn't leave until 4 p.m. and as a result has to pay for childcare services for her kids.

Mitchell, a single mom, told CNN she signed up for Instacart so she could earn more money to support her kids while on strike. That's in addition to the $500 a week she receives in strike pay from UAW.

But union rules prohibit Mitchell from earning more than $500 a week from outside jobs.

In the meantime, Mitchell said she's sticking to a tight budget. That includes packing her kids' lunches instead of them buying food at school and refraining from dining out. But on the flip side, she said she's saving some money during the strike because she doesn't have to pay for childcare.