The United Auto Workers union isn’t striking additional plants Friday, but may do so if talks don’t progress in the coming days.
This Wednesday, UAW workers representing Local 862 struck Ford’s Louisville, Kentucky truck plant — a sudden escalation marking a notable change in strategy from what we’ve seen throughout the first four weeks of the ongoing strike against Detroit’s Big Three automakers. Union president Shawn Fain usually announced whether workers would join the picket line at particular plants on Fridays, but now the labor action enters a new phase as bargaining with Ford, GM and Stellantis moves into its second month.
“We are prepared at any time to call on more locals to stand up and walk out,” Fain said during a livestream update on the state of the UAW’s negotiations. As part of union leadership’s strategy to keep the three automakers on the back foot, they could announce additional strikes against additional plants at any moment, as they did against Ford Wednesday.
“We changed the rules. Now there is only one rule — pony up.”
Major pillars of the UAW’s demands of all Big Three automakers are better wages (a 40% increase over four years), an elimination of the tiered wage system that inhibits recent hires from quickly reaching higher hourly rates, restoration of traditional pension benefits for retirees and cost-of-living adjustments (COLA) to protect against high inflation. So far, automakers have made concessions of 20-23% pay increases and agreed to some of the UAW’s other stipulations, such as GM bringing its battery plants into the UAW’s national agreement, protecting those workers’ unionized status. However, the parties have yet to reach tentative agreements that satisfy both sides, with no discernible end in sight to the ongoing strike actions.
Wednesday’s action was a major event, as the Kentucky Truck Plant is Ford’s largest factory in the world, production $25 billion in annual revenue for the company, or about one-sixth of its total annual revenue. With its 8,700 workers now on strike, the automaker is on track to lose at least $150 million in profits per week, according to Wells Fargo analyst Colin Langan. The Kentucky plant builds Super Duty trucks as well as the Ford Expedition and Lincoln Navigator.
Ford railed against the UAW’s decision, calling it “grossly irresponsible”.
Other potential strike sites in the near future could include GM’s Arlington, Texas plant, which builds its full-size SUVs, as well as Ford’s Dearborn Truck Plant, which builds the F-150, or Stellantis’ Warren Truck plant, which builds Ram 1500 trucks.
