Autoworkers union may expand its strike again

By Chris Isidore and Vanessa Yurkevich, CNN

Detroit (CNN) — The United Auto Workers union is preparing to announce a possible expansion of its strike against General Motors, Stellantis and maybe Ford this Friday if there isn’t more progress in talks, a union source familiar with plans said Wednesday.

UAW President Shawn Fain is set to update members on the state of the negotiations at 10 am Friday. If the union decides there has not been enough progress in the talks, it will announce new targets for the strike at that time, and UAW members at those facilities would join the strike at noon on Friday, according to the union source.

The union went on strike against the three automakers on September 15, the first time it ever struck all three automakers at the same time. But it struck only one assembly plant for each company at that time, having 12,700 members go on strike rather than all 145,000 who work at the three companies. Those three struck plants are a Ford plant in Wayne, Michigan, a GM plant in Wentzville, Missouri and a Stellantis plant in Ohio.

The announcement comes the day after President Joe Biden became the first sitting president to ever visit a picket line in support of strikers. Biden told members of the picket line they and other strikers deserved much more than they are currently being paid.

A week ago, Fain announced that there had been progress at Ford toward a settlement, and that it would not expand the strike there. But he said the lack of progress at GM and Stellatis meant that the union would expand the strike to 38 parts distribution centers at those two companies. The parts shipped from those locations go to dealerships to allow them to make repairs on customers’ vehicles.

“We do want to recognize that Ford is serious about reaching a deal,” Fain said at that time. “Stellantis and GM in particular are going to need some serious pushing.”

But since Friday’s announcement, there have been signs of trouble in negotiations with Ford. Specifically, Ford announced that was pausing construction of a plant it has under construction near Marshall, Michigan, to build EV batteries.

The UAW has raised objections to some of the battery plants that the three automakers now have under construction because they are owned by joint ventures the automakers have with Asian battery companies, and it’s not clear if the plants would be unionized and paying similar wages as other Big Three plants.

But this Marshall, Michigan, plant would have been completely owned by Ford. The union saw the halt of work on this plant as “a shameful, barely veiled threat by Ford to cut jobs,” according to a tweet by Fain.

The union had said from the start of the strike that was retaining the option to expand its walkout as a way of increasing pressure on the companies.

If the strike does expand on Friday, where it expands will go a long way in determining how much economic pressure the union is putting on the company. The three assembly plants now on strike, and an additional GM plant in Kansas City, Kansas, that had to shut due to lack of casting available from the Wentzville plant, make models of cars, trucks and SUVs that are not the biggest sellers, or money makers, for the companies. Which vehicles have their operations shut down will determine the amount of pressure caused by the strike’s expansion.

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