INDIANA – All of the Big Three or Detroit Three automakers – GM, Ford, and Stellantis – threaten to call a work halt for the first time in history if demands are not met.
United Auto Workers Union or UAW will carry through on a strike if demands aren’t met by September 14th.
Bloomberg reports the aggressive new UAW president, Shawn Fain, describes his own demands as “audacious,” but also states the union is at “war” with the three major car companies.
The UAW has a list of significant demands and expects the Big Three to pony up a 46 percent boost to pay while cutting the work week to 32 hours. Unionization of EV facilities is another demand, along with the restoration of pensions and health benefits that were cut during the “Great Recession” and never restored.
Fain notes that many workers across the economy received their salaries while working from home, while auto workers were expected to take on the pandemic’s dangers in the workplace. The UAW says automakers raked in record-breaking profits while giving workers a pair of 3 percent raises during the past four years, less than the inflation rate.
“There is a horrible history in this union of setting expectations low and settling lower,” added Fain. “Those days are over.”
Fain added the union will not budge on its demands or on the potential triple strike, saying “The deadline is the deadline.”
If the union succeeds experts say they will still lose because the car companies will go bankrupt after automakers incur $80 billion in extra costs if they meet UAW demands.
Johan de Nysschen said “The car companies cannot possibly agree to his demands” according to a Bloomberg report.
“Even if he succeeds, his members still lose because the car companies will go bankrupt,” de Nysschen continued. He also remarked that the UAW members are “easily impressed” and that new UAW president Shawn Fain is “promising the sun, the moon, the Earth and the stars.’
De Nysschen’s prediction that the UAW demands are impossible to meet without destroying the Detroit Three automakers outright is echoed by arguments from the car companies themselves. Labor costs would soar by $80 billion if UAW workers get the desired raise and benefits, GM and other OEMs assert.
GM said, “It’s important to protect U.S. manufacturing and jobs in an industry that is dominated by non-unionized competition.” The General has also launched a website to track the current status of UAW negotiations and present its side of the question.
If a large ten-day strike does happen, some analysts claim the economic impact could exceed $5 billion.
