United Auto Workers union members voted to authorize a strike against the three biggest automakers in the country if negotiations with the companies do not result in a deal before September 14 when the current contract expires.
Some 97% of the 150,000 unionized workers voted in favor of authorizing a strike against General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis amid ongoing and contentious contract negotiations. UAW President Shawn Fain said in a statement following the vote that the firms have witnessed record earnings amid stagnant wages for workers.
“Our union's membership is clearly fed up with living paycheck-to-paycheck while the corporate elite and billionaire class continue to make out like bandits,” he said. “The Big Three have been breaking the bank while we have been breaking our backs."
Union bosses and representatives for the automakers have been in negotiations for months. Demands from the union include eliminating tiered wages and benefits, a 46% wage increase, re-establishing cost-of-living allowances, a thirty-two-hour work week, and more paid time off.
A UAW strike would mark the first such strike since 2019. The automakers said they will continue to negotiate in hopes of reaching a resolution before the September 14 deadline.
“Our members' expectations are high because Big Three profits are so high. The Big Three made a combined $21 billion in profits in just the first six months of this year,” Fain continued. “That’s on top of the quarter-trillion dollars in North American profits they made over the last decade. While Big Three executives and shareholders got rich, UAW members got left behind. Our message to the Big Three is simple: record profits mean record contracts."
Fain has not revealed whether the UAW plans to target a specific automaker with a potential strike or if it will pursue action against all three at once. While a strike is not guaranteed, Fain implied last week that negotiations are not going well and that union members should be prepared to strike in September. “These companies better come to the table,” he told a crowd of workers gathered outside a Stellantis factory. “The clock is ticking. Today I want you guys to have some fun practicing for what we’re going to have to do if these companies don’t give us our fair share.”
General Motors told the media that representatives for the firm will continue to “bargain in good faith,” while Stellantis said that the discussions have been “constructive.”
President Joe Biden weighed in on the vote, saying he was concerned about the potential for a strike and that he supported the UAW. “I’ve been talking to UAW, obviously I’m concerned,” he remarked. “I think that there should be a circumstance where the jobs that are being displaced and replaced with new jobs, first choice should be to the UAW members who had the jobs, and the salary should be commensurate.”
