The UAW’s stand up strike against the Big Three automakers enters its fourth day, with not much movement in sight as both sides appear stuck at an impasse.
Over the weekend, Stellantis improved its offer to the UAW, offering an immediate 10% pay increase, with wages increasing by 21% over the course of the contract. Though tiers would remain, Stellantis said it would bring down the number of years for union members to earn the highest wage, to four years from eight. Stellantis said it also offered an “inflation protection measure” to offset the costs of inflation, though details were not given.
In addition, Stellantis said it was willing to negotiate the future of the automaker’s Belvidere, Ill., assembly plant, which was idled earlier this year. The UAW was highly critical of the plant’s closure and now says Stellantis is using the plant’s future as a “bargaining chip.”
UAW president Shawn Fain appeared on the Sunday talk show circuit, criticizing the automakers and warning negotiations were dragging.
“Progress is slow,” Fain said on MSNBC’s “The Sunday Show with Jonathan Capehart,” adding, “I don’t really want to say we’re closer.” Fain also declined to elaborate on plans for the possibility of a second wave of plant strikes.
Around 12,700 UAW workers have walked off and remain on strike as part of a coordinated plan that affected three separate plants. The UAW is asking for wage hikes of nearly 40%, COLA (cost of living adjustments) built into a future contract, end of wage “tiers,” and a defined benefit pension plan, among other things.
The ripple effects of the current stand up strikes — at GM's Wentzville, Mo., plant (which assembles midsize trucks and full-size vans), Stellantis's Toledo Assembly (Jeep Wrangler and Gladiator), and Ford's Michigan Assembly Plant in Wayne (Ranger midsize pickup and Bronco SUV) — are starting to be felt on both sides.
Following the walk-offs at strike locations, Ford said it was laying off 600 workers in a different part of the Michigan Assembly plant, due to the striking workers in the paint and assembly division of that plant.
“This layoff is a consequence of the strike at Michigan Assembly Plant’s final assembly and paint departments, because the components built by these 600 employees use materials that must be e-coated for protection. E-coating is completed in the paint department, which is on strike," Ford said in a statement.
In addition, GM said the strike at the Wentzville Assembly plant in Missouri was affecting production at its Fairfax, Kan., factory, meaning 2,000 workers at the Fairfax location could be laid off by the end of the week. GM’s Fairfax plant assembles the Cadillac XT4 crossover, and the Chevrolet Malibu sedan.
"[The layoffs are] due to a shortage of critical stampings supplied by Wentzville's stamping operations to Fairfax," GM said in a statement. "We are working under an expired agreement at Fairfax. Unfortunately, there are no provisions that allow for company-provided SUB-pay in this circumstance."
Pras Subramanian is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. You can follow him on Twitter and on Instagram.
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