New outbreak of motor union strike in the United States. Workers at the largest Stellantis factory in the country joined the call and unexpectedly paralyzed on Monday the assembly plant in Sterling Heights, where the RAM 1500 truck, a very profitable best-seller for the group, is manufactured. With 6,800 employees participating today, there are now more than 40,000 workers in the first motor strike in the United States that simultaneously affects the Big Three of Detroit’s motor industry: General Motors, Ford and Stellantis (which absorbed Chrysler).
The move comes just days after UAW union president Shawn Fain detailed the automakers’ current proposals, highlighting shortcomings he sees in Stellantis’ latest offer. Fain used a carrot and stick strategy to strike based on developments in negotiations.
“Despite having the highest revenue, the highest profit (in North America and worldwide), the highest profit margin and the largest cash reserve, Stellantis is behind Ford and General Motors when it comes to cases.” to their UAW workers. Currently, Stellantis has the worst proposal on the table regarding salary increases, temporary workers’ wages and conversion to full-time, cost of living adjustments (COLA), etc.,” the union argued. in a statement.
American law does not establish notice of strike, so the union is surprised by the companies if it wants. Initially, it gave at least two hours’ notice, but two weeks later it entered a round of surprise strikes that were announced as soon as they began. In addition, since the announcements are always made on Fridays, the union believes that the companies started to slow down the negotiations until before each deadline.
The first surprise strike was launched against Ford’s iconic and highly profitable Kentucky truck plant on October 11, when about 8,700 UAW members walked off the job at 6:30 pm and closed the Louisville plant ( Kentucky). The game is now repeated with the Stellantis plant.
The motorcycle strike began on September 15 with a one-plant shutdown at each company that involved about 14,000 of the nearly 150,000 UAW-unionized workers working in three groups. This is the General Motors plant in Wentzville (Missouri), which produces the GMC Canyon and Colorado; another from Ford in Wayne (Michigan), which assembles the Bronco model and the Ranger truck, and the third from Jeep, from Stellantis, in Toledo (Ohio), where the Gladiator and Wrangler models come from.
The following week, union leader Shawn Fain called out nearly 6,000 other workers from 28 Stellantis and GM distribution centers spread across 20 states, saving Ford from fire for showing up for a bigger strike. willingness to negotiate. However, on Friday, September 29, the union leader called for 7,000 more UAW workers to strike at two plants: the Ford plant in Chicago (Illinois), where the Explorer and Lincoln Aviator models are made, and GM’s Lansing Delta plant in Lansing (Michigan), which assembled the Buick Enclave and the Chevrolet Traverse, abandoned Stellantis at this time. With surprise strikes at Ford’s most profitable plant and now Stellantis’s largest, it’s not directly GM that seems to have survived for a while from this latest phase.
