by Austin Gergens
With less than a month until the expiration of a contract between the United Auto Workers and the “Big Three” Detroit automakers, UAW President Shawn Fain (pictured above) is encouraging union members to vote in favor of a strike, with a strike authorization vote expected this week, with results anticipated by Thursday.
Meanwhile, UAW Local 51 is seeking a “peaceful gathering” on Wednesday.
“UNITED WE BARGAIN, DIVIDED WE BEG,” a recent announcement UAW Local 51 said on social media, “This is NOT a strike or work stoppage, this is a solidarity rally.”
The Detroit based post reiterated that the exercise was not a strike.
“Practice pickets, rallies, and solidarity gatherings are for informational purposes only,” the UAW post said on social media, “We are NOT ceasing or impeding normal working conditions. This is simply a peaceful gathering on public property.”
Vote YES🗳️ this week at your local to authorize a strike at the Big Three!#UAW #solidarity #1u pic.twitter.com/Kci3i8icun
— UAW (@UAW) August 21, 2023
UAW represents more than 145,000 people working at Ford Motor Company, General Motors, and Stellantis. The union is seeking several increases to employee benefits including: a more than a 40% increase in pay over the next four years, cost of living increases, pensions for new hires, and an end to the current wage tier system.
“The big three made a combined $21 billion in profits in just the first 6 months of this year,” UAW President Shawn Fain said. “That’s on top of the $1/4 Trillion North American profits they made over the last decade, while Big Three Executives and Shareholders got rich, UAW members got left behind.”
The UAW President also encouraged unions to vote yes to authorize a strike mentioning what message the union group has for the three automakers.
“Our message to the Big Three is simple,” Fain said, “Record Profits mean record contracts.”
While Ford has been “working hard to reach a new deal,” internal documents and recordings have revealed that the company is also working on a fallback plan should the strike go through – including shifting salaried employees to manual jobs.
A Ford official told employees that roles would include, “stock keeper, order picker or shipping and receiving. Some of these roles would involve either walking or driving a power material handling vehicle or driving a forklift. Anyone who must travel outside of their home city will have all travel and living expenses provided and allowed to travel home on the weekends.”
The Dearborn-based company would potentially be sending workers to one of more than dozen options that employees were asked to rank such as: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and Wisconsin.
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Austin Gergens is a staff reporter at Michigan News Source.
Photo “Shawn Fain” by Shawn Fain. Background Photo “UAW Workers Protesting” by UAW.
