By Angelina Tang
This article was written on Tuesday, 9/19, and does not reflect changes past this date. Updates will be coming soon in upcoming issues.
Since September 15, members of the union United Auto Workers (UAW) have been striking against the “Big Three” U.S. motor companies: Ford, General Motors (GM), and Stellantis. Workers at certain plants have been walking out and protesting in demand of increased wages among other stipulations. The current deadline for the companies to agree to the UAW’s negotiations is September 22nd. If they do not abide by this deadline, then the UAW will expand the strike to more plants.
The UAW has been around since the 1930s and has had a strong history of gaining wage increases for its workers. This time, the union is fighting for a 20% wage increase effective immediately, in addition to four additional annual 5% raises, totalling to a 46% wage increase over four years. This is an extremely ambitious wage increase; Ford and GM have proposed a 10% wage increase over four years, while Stellantis has proposed 14.5%. The president of the UAW, Shawn Fain, called these underwhelming offers “insulting,” hence the perpetuation of the strike.
If that weren’t hard enough for the companies to fulfill–as Ford’s CEO allegedly said that if a contract including a 46% wage increase had been in place since 2019 Ford would be bankrupt–the UAW is also demanding their traditional pension and retirement plans back, which stopped being offered following the 2008 recession to new workers who had not already received benefits. Traditional pension plans these days are very rare, and many people consider this point the least likely to be fulfilled of the UAW’s goals. They are also fighting for a four-day work week and a transition process to electric vehicles that will not result in lay-offs due to a lack of demand for certain gasoline-run cars’ parts.
UAW President Fain has stated that strikes will expand if the three companies do not make more reasonable offers to meet the UAW’s demands by Friday. The strike has currently only been occurring at three plants in Michigan, Ohio, and Missouri. An analysis by Anderson Economic Group has stated that if the strike continues and spreads to more plants for 10 days, there could be a loss of billions of dollars to the manufacturers.
How the strike will proceed will only become clear with time. However, it is clear that amid inflation and stagnating wages, the UAW strike, like the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, is an indicator that conditions must change for workers if companies want business to continue running “as usual.” From Hollywood to car factories, workers are beginning to stand up for their rights and pandemic-inspired freedoms, and until their demands are satisfactorily met, they won’t be giving up any time soon.
