GM and Ford CEOs trade barbs with union leader over strike

Detroit — The CEOs of GM and Ford blasted United Auto Workers (UAW) leaders on Friday, with UAW chief Shawn Fain responding in kind hours after the union escalated the strike.

Fain on Friday expanded the first simultaneous strike yet against the Detroit Three, ordering workers to walk off the job at Ford’s Chicago assembly plant and GM’s Lansing, Michigan, assembly plant. He said Stellantis was spared after last-minute concessions by the Chrysler parent.

“It’s clear that there is no real intent to get to an agreement,” GM CEO Mary Barra said late on Friday, while Ford CEO Jim Farley said the union is holding a deal “hostage” over a dispute over future electric vehicle (EV) battery plants.

The UAW responded on social media that neither CEO had attended bargaining sessions. “And yet, Barra and Farley made a combined $50m last year,” the union added.

The harshly worded personal statements showed increasing frustration with the pace of negotiations, which have entered their third week. Farley said the UAW demands “could have a devastating impact on our business”. He said the dispute centred on wages and benefits at new EV battery plants that have yet to start production.

“I don’t know why Jim Farley is lying about the state of negotiations,” Fain said in response. “It could be because he failed to show up for bargaining this week, as he has for most of the past 10 weeks.”

The union and the companies remain far apart on key economic issues and the CEO statements suggested they are not close to resolving many sticking points. Fain has stuck with a demand for 40% pay hikes over a four-year contract, a position supported by President Joe Biden. The companies have offered pay hikes of about 20%.

Barra accused Fain of dragging workers into a long, unnecessary strike and trying to “make history for himself” with the action. “Jeopardising our future is something I will not do,” Barra added.

The union continued its deliberate approach to the strike, choosing to walk out of just two additional assembly plants  rather than the sweeping effect of a walkout at the Detroit Three’s most profitable plants, which make pickup trucks. In addition, the union is trying to conserve a limited strike fund that may be strained by additional strikes at Mack Trucks facilities and Detroit-area casinos that are also represented by the UAW.

“The strike costs the union a lot of money. It’s $500 per worker per week. With the additional 7,000 [workers walking out] we are talking about over $12m a week out of the strike fund,” said Sam Fiorani, vice-president of global vehicle forecasting at AutoForecast Solutions.

The total number on picket lines has grown to 25,000, or about 17% of the union’s members at the three carmakers.

Rather than the hammer blow of a mass walkout it has wielded historically, the UAW is strategically playing the companies off against each other, using reprieves from expansion of work stoppages as encouragement with different carmakers for the past two weeks.

Workers on Friday walked out of the Ford assembly plant in Chicago that builds the Ford Explorer and Lincoln Aviator SUVs, as well as the GM plant in Lansing that makes the Chevy Traverse and Buick Enclave SUVs.

Farley said the union’s decision to expand walkouts at Ford threatened thousands of supplier jobs. He added that many suppliers are “on a knife’s edge” because a more than two-week strike at the Michigan factory that builds Bronco SUVs and Ranger trucks.

Farley said the UAW chief was holding a deal hostage to the fate of EV battery plants, including three that Ford is building with outside companies and one it has planned to own itself in Marshall, Michigan. The UAW wants those workers represented by the union and paid the highest-tier wages.

Ford is now reconsidering the size and scope of the $3.5bn Marshall battery plant, in part because of uncertainty over labour costs, Farley said.

Stellantis blamed the UAW for the failure to reach a new contract. GM said in an earlier email to employees that it still has not received a comprehensive counter-offer to its September 21 proposal. “Calling more strikes is just for the headlines, not real progress,” the company said.

Stellantis said: “We have made progress in our discussions, but gaps remain. We are committed to continue working through these issues in an expeditious manner.”

Fain said that moments before he was due to address members, Stellantis made significant changes in its proposal. That led to a half-hour delay in his announcement, and spared Stellantis from escalation.

Fain cited progress with Stellantis about cost-of-living allowance payments, as well as the right to strike over product commitments and plant closures. Talks continue at all three companies.

Arthur Wheaton, director of labour studies at Cornell University, said: “What Shawn Fain wanted is a tit for tat: if you’re good for us at the table, we won’t mess with you. If you’re bad with us at the table, we will escalate the strike.”

The UAW has ratcheted up pressure over the past two weeks. Workers went on strike on September 15 at one plant each from GM, Ford and Stellantis. The union escalated on September 22, when workers walked off the job at GM and Stellantis distribution facilities in 20 states nationwide.

UAW workers also are threatening to walk off the job at heavy truck maker Mack Trucks and at three Detroit casinos. A UAW strike has shut down a plant that builds axles for Mercedes-Benz’s Alabama vehicle factory.

Reuters