UAW’s Shawn Fain slams Ford, sees ‘serious movement’ from GM, Stellantis
United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain said Friday the union has “seen serious movement from GM and Stellantis” while slamming remarks this week from Ford Motor Co. Executive Chairman Bill Ford.
“We costed the companies’ offers … and there is more to be won,” the union leader said during a Facebook Live update on the 36th day of a targeted plant strike against Ford, General Motors Co. and Stellantis NV.
His presentation came hours after GM passed another offer to the United Auto Workers that would give its hourly employees a 23% general wage increase for a 25% compounded boost over the life of the pact, the company said.
“This week, GM and Stellantis got the message and caught up to Ford,” Fain said, while saying key parts of the offers from both automakers are deficient.
“These extremely profitable companies have more to give,” he said.
He also singled out Ford for particular criticism, referencing Bill Ford’s appeal Monday at the automaker’s Rouge complex for an end to the strike, saying he “talked down to us” and expressing anger that the automaker followed by announcing a dividend for shareholders.
“What Ford is showing us is that the money is there,” Fain said. “They just don’t want us to have it.”
GM previously had a 20% not-compounded wage increase on the table.
The automaker’s previous offer brought workers to top wages after four years.
GM said it now has a “faster path to max wages” but didn’t specify the new timeline.
Under the new offer, a GM hourly employee represented by the UAW would make $40.39 per hour by the end of the agreement, up from $32.32 currently.
“It is time for us to finish this process, get our team members back to work and get on with the business of making GM the company that will win and provide great jobs in the U.S. for our people for decades to come,” the company said in a statement.
Details of the deal were made public before Fain’s Facebook Live event scheduled for 4 p.m. Friday – day 36 of a strike against the Detroit Three with 34,000 autoworkers out at picket lines at various plants. Fain is expected to update members on bargaining.
The union met with GM and Stellantis NV to discuss economic offers on Thursday. Negotiations between GM, Stellantis, Ford Motor Co. and the UAW are continuing Friday.
GM also said it has offered to reinstate cost-of-living allowances for seniority workers in the first year of the contract, up from the second year.
The company said it will convert all active full-time temporary employees with one year of employment to seniority level employment upon ratification of the deal.
Temp wages will be increased 26% to $21 per hour. Temporary employees with 1,000 hours worked will also receive profit sharing.
GM will provide workers a bonus upon ratification of the deal but didn’t specify how much the bonus will be.
On retirement, GM is increasing the basic benefit rate in the traditional team-member pension plan by 5% for future service.
Ford executives last week said they had “reached our limit” on improving their economic offer to the UAW.
Ford’s offer, according to information from the company and the union, includes a 23% wage increase over the length of the contract, a three-year progression to the top of the wage scale, restoration of the cost-of-living adjustment formula that was suspended in 2009, conversion within 90 days of temporary workers to permanent status, product commitments for all UAW-represented plants in the United States, ratification bonuses, wage increases for temporary workers, income protection for all permanent employees, and increased 401(k) contributions, among other provisions.
Stellantis has proposed 21.4% in raises (20% not compounded).
That breaks down to 10% in the first year, followed by 2.5% in each of the succeeding years.
The Ram truck and Jeep maker said it would reduce the progression to top wages to four years, down from eight. Stellantis, like Ford, has agreed to restore the suspended COLA formula from 2009.
At a labor rally in Detroit on Thursday, UAW Vice President Mike Booth, director of the GM department, told reporters the issues remaining at the table include “retirement security, retirement health care, whether you have a defined benefit or defined contribution (plan), we need a vessel that people can retire comfortably.”
The union started its targeted plant strike strategy on Sept. 15. Since then, it has called on members at plants across the country to walk out and picket.
Ford facilities on strike include its Super Duty Kentucky Truck Plant, its Michigan Assembly Plant, which makes the Bronco and Ranger, and the Chicago Assembly Plant that makes the Ford Explorer and Lincoln Aviator.
GM workers are on strike at the automaker’s Chevrolet Traverse and Buick Enclave Plant in Delta Township and its midsize truck plant in Wentzville, Missouri.
Stellantis’ Jeep plant in Toledo, Ohio, is on strike. And all of GM and Stellantis’ parts distribution centers are striking.
Meanwhile, Stellantis said Friday that it has canceled its planned displays and other presentations at the SEMA show in Las Vegas that runs Oct. 31-Nov. 3 and at the Los Angeles Auto Show in November.
It pointed to the costs of the strike and its contingency plan.
The automaker said earlier this week that it was skipping the CES technology expo in January in Las Vegas, another decision it attributed to the cost of the strike.