UAW chief: Strike to grow Friday if no progress
About 13,000 workers at three plants — one each from General Motors, Ford Motor Co. and Stellantis — are currently on strike and would become eligible for strike pay from the union on the day of Fain’s next announcement.
After the strike began, Ford laid off about 600 additional workers in Michigan as a consequence of its reduced production capacity, and GM has said it will need to lay off about 2,000 workers in Kansas as early as this week.
Negotiations continued Monday, although Fain has called progress “slow.” A person with knowledge of the talks said the union has not received any new proposals from the automakers since the strike began.
Fain told NPR earlier Monday that “the ball’s in their court,” referring to the companies.
Bargaining at the subcommittee level continues at a near constant pace while the union has held main table discussions with each company since the strike began. It met with Ford on Saturday, GM on Sunday and Stellantis on Monday.
In a statement, Stellantis said “the discussion was constructive and focused on where we can find common ground to reach an agreement that provides a bridge to the future by enabling the Company to meet the challenges of electrification.” It said the two sides “have the opportunity to establish a framework in this contract that will allow the company to be competitive during this historic transformation and bring our workforce along on this journey. This includes identifying a solution for Belvidere, something we have been committed to from the beginning and a discussion we want to continue with the UAW.”
