The United Auto Workers (the UAW) is shifting to a new phase in its strike against the Detroit Big Three. One in which it says it could call a strike at any time.
In his weekly social media address Friday, UAW President Shawn Fain said the union was entering an entirely new phase of its strike, warning that the UAW could call another targeted strike against Ford, GM or Stellantis at any time. During his address he used the phrases "We're not messing around" and "Now there's only one rule - pony up" and "We're not waiting until Fridays anymore."
The UAW changed its tactics earlier this week, surprising Ford with a strike at its Kentucky Truck Plant. Fain said the UAW called the strike when Ford didn't sweeten the deal and came back with the same economic offer it rejected two weeks ago. Fain said at that point he told Ford: "You just cost yourself Kentucky Truck Plant".
Fain was also not swayed by a Ford exec's comments yesterday. Ford Blue CEO said the company was at it's limit of what it could do financially.
"We have been very clear that we are at the limit," Kumar Galhotra, head of Ford's combustion vehicle unit on the call. "We stretched to get to this point. Going further will hurt our ability to invest in the business."
Ford's Kentucky Truck Plant is its largest plant. It produces the F-Series Super Duty, Ford Expedition and the Lincoln Navigator.
A statement released on Wednesday by Ford reads:
DEARBORN, Mich., Oct. 11, 2023 – The decision by the UAW to call a strike at Ford’s Kentucky Truck Plant is grossly irresponsible but unsurprising given the union leadership’s stated strategy of keeping the Detroit 3 wounded for months through “reputational damage” and “industrial chaos.”
Ford made an outstanding offer that would make a meaningful positive difference in the quality of life for our 57,000 UAW-represented workers, who are already among the best compensated hourly manufacturing workers anywhere in the world. In addition to our offer on pay and benefits, Ford has been bargaining in good faith this week on joint venture battery plants, which are slated to begin production in the coming years.
The UAW leadership’s decision to reject this record contract offer – which the UAW has publicly described as the best offer on the table – and strike Kentucky Truck Plant, carries serious consequences for our workforce, suppliers, dealers and commercial customers.
Kentucky Truck is Ford’s largest plant and one of the largest auto factories in America and the world. The vehicles produced at the Louisville-based factory – the F-Series Super Duty, the Ford Expedition and the Lincoln Navigator – generate $25 billion a year in revenue. In addition to affecting approximately 9,000 direct employees at the plant, this work stoppage will generate painful aftershocks – including putting at risk approximately a dozen additional Ford operations and many more supplier operations that together employ well over 100,000 people.
This decision by the UAW is all the more wrongheaded given that Ford is the only automaker to add UAW jobs since the Great Recession and assemble all of its full-size trucks in America.
With the additional Ford strike, which involves roughly 8,700 workers, there are now currently roughly 33,000 UAW workers on strike against all three automakers.
More layoffs are expected by Ford due to the impact of the strike at the Kentucky Truck Plant. Currently, the number of Ford, GM and Stellantis workers laid off in relation to the strike actions is just under 5,000. GM's is the only automaker to completely close an assembly plant. Stellantis announced additional layoffs on Monday. Read a breakdown of the layoffs at each automakers as of October 11th here.
Last Friday, UAW President Shawn Fain announced the UAW had called off its next targeted strike against GM's biggest money making plant - its large SUV plant in Arlington, TX - due to a breakthrough in negotiations. The breakthrough was that GM agreed to place its electric vehicle (EV) battery manufacturing plants under the UAW's national master agreement.
(Speaking of batteries, Wednedsay, Stellantis N.V. and Samsung SDI announced that Kokomo, Indiana, will be the site for a second battery manufacturing facility in the United States as part of the StarPlus Energy joint venture.)
Last Friday, no new strike actions against any of the Detroit Three were announced.
UAW workers are currently on strike at two Ford plants, three GM plants and two Stellantis plants as well as 38 Stellantis and GM parts distribution centers.