The UAW is fighting hard for these 4 key demands
The UAW is Resolving a Trigger in the War Between Autoworkers: An Update on the May 13th Auto Workers’ Day of Strike
As autoworkers enter a fifth day of strike at plants in Missouri, Michigan and Ohio, the United Auto Workers President has set a new deadline for contract talks.
He announced in a video posted to Facebook Monday night that if there was no serious progress by noon on Friday, more locals would have to join the strike.
The UAW said that workers who are laid off in response to strikes will be paid the same as striking workers. For most auto workers on the production line, that represents well under half their weekly earnings.
If the company doesn’t respect the demands of our workers, we will escalate action,” he said on Monday.
Labor historians believe that the new strategy is a reflection of militancy at the UAW, but also some thought about how to put pressure on companies, while maintaining flexibility and limiting backlash.
From demands for wage increases of around 40% to cost of living protections, the UAW is drawing a hard bargain in its negotiations with General Motors, Ford and Stellantis — and many autoworkers strongly believe it’s what they deserve.
Although it’s too early to know if the strategy will work, there appears to be support for the union among companies, who have to guess which part of their supply chain might be hit next.
Already, there have been ripple effects impacting non-striking workers. On Friday, Ford put 600 workers on temporary layoff, because they need to use materials that need to be coated by the paint department, which is on strike.
GM has warned it will lay off 2,000 workers at a plant in Kansas early this week because it lacks components supplied by GM’s Wentzville, Mo., plant, which is on strike.
It is possible that the union will eventually send some striking workers back to their jobs while bringing others out, and so as not to burn through its $825 million strike fund too quickly.
The Electric Workers’ Strike: Predictions for the UAW’s Negotiations in the Light of the 2008 Inflationary Breakdown
While there doesn’t appear to be a big breakthrough in the negotiations so far, Fain has emphasized that the talks have not broken down, as President Biden suggested last week.
Sharon Block was the executive director of the Center for Labor and a Just Economy at Harvard Law School.
The strike that began last week at three auto plants is about to be expanded if the manufacturers don’t come up with better deals.
Looming over the UAW’s negotiations this year is the transition to electric vehicles — an industry-wide shift that, from the union’s perspective, underscores the need for strong protections for workers, including when existing plants are shut down to shift production to EVs.
The current demands represent a long-awaited remedy for concessions the UAW made during the 2008 recession, which is still felt by some workers today.
The companies have offered around a 20% pay raise, compared to their opening bid of 10%, but the union thinks it is too little.
It is also personal for autoworkers. The contract UAW negotiated in 2007 included a freeze in base wages for workers over the length of the four-year agreement.
As a result, the average hourly wage for workers manufacturing motor vehicles and parts has dropped by more than 20% in the past two decades when adjusted for inflation, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Why the UAW is Fighting So Hard for the Top Pays and Benefits of the Big Three CEOs in the Auto Workers’ Strike
General Motors CEO Mary Barra, the highest-paid chief executive among the Big Three, made nearly $29 million in 2022. Securities and Exchange Commission filings show that this is 362 times the median GM employee’s paycheck.
The old COLA formula guaranteed workers with 90 percent protection against inflation, according to Professor Harry’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations.
So, for example, had auto workers still had COLA in their contracts in the summer of 2022 when inflation hit 9%, they would have seen an increase close to that in their base pay based on COLA alone.
They’re asking for two things, the first being payback for the lost real income, and the other being protection of future inflation, as they don’t have a COLA clause over the last several years.
Some of the auto companies have put COLA proposals on the table. He said the companies’ offers don’t meaningfully protect against inflation.
A new hire can eventually be paid the same as their other colleagues, thanks to the company agreeing to an eight year progression scheme in 2019.
Now, the UAW is pushing for a 90-day progression to the top rate, which Michigan State University professor Peter Berg said would virtually eliminate the tiered wage system.
Healthcare and pensions are also wrapped into the UAW’s fight to eliminate tiers. Concessions right before the financial crisis placed new hires in a lower tier for healthcare and pensions, while existing workers kept their benefits, said Kate Bronfenbrenner of Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations.
“Companies are doing this despite research that shows two-tier is harmful for the company and workers,” Bronfenbrenner says, pointing to the effects of the tiers on worker morale.
The UAW has referenced the Teamsters union’s success in eliminating some tiers at UPS this year in arguing that the Big Three automakers can do the same.
Trade and Industrial Relations: Why EV’s Need a Closed Shop, Not a Threat to Unions? Comment on Berg’s “Comments on ‘Energy Decay'”
“It’s a demand that takes an adversarial approach to the future of the industry,” Berg, of Michigan State University, said, referring to the use of a strike as leverage.
However, the companies argue they need to have the flexibility to shut down or move operations. They’ve already pointed to the high cost of EV transition to explain painful cuts, like when Stellantis — the parent company of Chrysler — shut down a plant in Belvidere, Ill., citing the high cost of the EV transition.
She claimed that the threat of a closed shop can make it hard for unions to organize, and can have a chilling effect on union activity.
