UAW Strike Continues
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The United Auto Workers have shown zero signs of breaking in their strike that now has reached over a month. UAW president Shawn Fein sees the companies continuing to concede things that they don’t want to concede and he sees no reason to stop the strike until they cave entirely.
In a Facebook Live appearance, Fain didn’t announce any more factories to add to those that have been on strike for up to five weeks. But he warned that the UAW could announce such an expansion of its strikes at any time, depending on how much progress it makes in its negotiations with the automakers.
In the past 24 hours, Fain said, Stellantis and GM have made wage offers that matched Ford’s 23% over the life of a four year contract. But, speaking in his characteristic sharp tones, the union president insisted that the companies can go further.
“We’ve got cards left to play, and they’ve got money left to spend,” he said.
Arguing that Ford “pretends they can’t afford what we’re asking for,” Fain noted that the company has complained about the union’s walkout at the Kentucky Truck Plant in Louisville, which has had to shut down. That plant is the largest and most profitable Ford factory in the world.
Though Fain said the UAW will make an aggressive push to secure better contract offers, he contended that the companies are trying to divide union members.
“They just want to wait us out,” he said. “They want to divide. They want fear and they want uncertainty. What we have is solidarity.”
While the companies keep touting that they have made record offers to the UAW, Fain said they are insufficient to make up for how much ground workers have lost during the past two decades. Every time the automakers make an offer, Fain said, they insist it’s the best they can do, only to return days later with a better offer.
In the past, the UAW would have just taken the deal. But its members don’t want to take the deal. They want to win the whole thing and roll back the decades of wins the companies have extracted from them. We will see how far this goes. It won’t go on forever. But what the auto companies have to reckon with is a united union headed by directly elected militant leadership. That hasn’t happened before and it makes a huge difference.