Autoworkers strike expands significantly against GM and Stellantis

U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the contract negotiations between the United Auto Workers and auto companies in the Roosevelt Room at the White House on September 15, 2023 in Washington, DC.

Joe Biden announced late Friday that he will be visiting the United Auto Workers union’s picket lines to show support for striker. It will be a first for any president.

Gavin Strassel, the UAW Archivist at Wayne State University in Detroit, said he can’t recall any president ever visiting the picket lines for any UAW strike in the past.

“I’ve been through many photos, and I’ve seen pictures of Lyndon Johnson meeting with [former UAW President Walter] Reuther, or presidents attending Labor Day events with the union,” he said. “But I don’t know of any photos of presidents visiting a picket line. And I think I would know if there was one.”

Presidents generally don’t want to be seen as taking sides in labor disputes. But Biden has already gone further than most in voicing support for the UAW’s bargaining position. On the day the strike started he made brief remarks from the White House voicing echoing some of the union’s talking points.

“Auto companies have seen record profits, including the last few years, because of the extraordinary skill and sacrifices of the UAW workers. But those record profits have not been shared fairly, in my view, with those workers,” he said.

He said that the automakers “should go further” in their offers to the union.

“Record corporate profits — which they have — should be shared by record contracts for the UAW,” he said.

President Joe Biden said in a post on X, “Tuesday, I’ll go to Michigan to join the picket line and stand in solidarity with the men and women of UAW as they fight for a fair share of the value they helped create. It’s time for a win-win agreement that keeps American auto manufacturing thriving with well-paid UAW jobs.”

President Joe Biden will travel to Michigan on Tuesday to support UAW workers, a source familiar with the trip tells CNN.

The plan was first reported by the Washington Post.

A "UAW On Strike" sign held on a picket line outside the main entrance at the General Motors Co. Ypsilanti Processing Center in Ypsilanti, Michigan, today.

General Motors stock tumbled this week as the United Auto Workers continue to strike against Detroit’s Big Three Automakers.

The United Auto Workers union said Friday it is expanding its ongoing strike against General Motors and Stellantis, but not Ford due to progress on negotiations. Ford shares climbed 1.9%, Stellantis added 0.7% and General Motors fell 0.4%.

The announcement comes days after Ford reached a tentative deal with the Canadian union Unifor, averting a strike that would have shuttered three factories.

But Ford shares still dipped 0.2% for the week and General Motors declined 4%. Stellantis shares managed to eke out a gain, adding 0.4%

U.S. President Joe Biden smiles as he responds to a reporter's question about whether he will visit striking auto workers on the UAW picket line, as he walks back to the Oval Office after an event announcing the creation of a new White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington today.

President Joe Biden fired back with a joking retort when asked by Friday if he plans to visit United Autoworkers’ picket line, telling CNN, “Will you come with me?”

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre declined to say during Friday’s press briefing if Biden would visit strikers after UAW president Shawn Fain invited the president to join protesters earlier Friday.

But, asked twice by CNN in the Rose Garden, Biden joked “Will you come with me?” both times.

A "UAW On Strike" sign near a picket line outside the General Motors Co. Ypsilanti Processing Center in Ypsilanti, Michigan, on Friday, Sept. 22.

General Motors isn’t ruling out trying to operate the 18 parts and disrtibution centers that the United Auto Workers union expanded its strikes to on Friday.

Asked if the company planned to try to operate the facilities using nonunion employees, such as salaried staff, or perhaps even replacement workers, GM reponded, “We have contingency plans for various scenarios and are prepared to do what is best for our business and customers. We are evaluating if and when to enact those plans.”

The union did not have an immediate comment on GM’s statement.

Ford has been on record as saying that if its 23 parts and distribution centers were struck, it intended to operate them using nonunion staff. It referred to that as a “responsible contingency plan” in order to “keep Ford vehicles on the road – especially to keep first responders and other essential services running.” But the union did not strike Ford’s centers Friday, citing progress in negotiations with that automaker.

Stellantis, which had 20 of its parts and distribution centers struck on Friday, declined to comment on questions about its plans for operations of its parts and distribution centers during the strike.

The future of the Stellantis parts and distribution centers had become a point of contention during negotiations since the start of the strike. The union had complained that Stellantis was planning to close those operations. The company said it was only planning up upgrade and in some cases move the locations to make them more efficient, and that it had given the union assurances that no jobs would be lost as part of the changes it planned for the center.

“In a lot of cases, it didn’t make sense to make those investments in the location that they’re in,” said Mark Stewart, chief operating officer of Stellantis, in a briefing with reporters the day after the strike started.

But the union said that’s not enough to protect the total number of jobs, that it needs to protect the jobs of members at the centers’ current locations.

United Auto Workers members and supporters rally at the Stellantis North America headquarters on September 20 in Auburn Hills, Michigan. 

Stellantis said it made a very competitive offer to the United Auto Workers union on Thursday and that there was no reason for the union to expand the strike to its parts and distribution centers.

The company referred to leaked messages from the union’s communications director Jonah Furman that made reference to the union being prepared to strike for months in its statement questioning the union’s motives. Given the content of those messages, “we question whether the union’s leadership has ever had an interest in reaching an agreement in a timely manner,” said Stellantis’ statement. “They seem more concerned about pursuing their own political agendas than negotiating in the best interests of our employees and the sustainability of our US operations given the market’s fierce competition.”

The company claimed it has yet to get a response to its most recent offer from the union.

“We look forward to the UAW leadership’s productive engagement so that we can bargain in good faith to reach an agreement,” it said.

U.S. President Joe Biden delivered remarks on the contract negotiations between the United Auto Workers and the Big 3 auto companies, at the White House in Washington, D.C., on September 15.

The White House declined to say if president Joe Biden will visit United Autoworkers picket line after UAW president Shawn Fain invited the president to join protesters earlier Friday.

“I don’t have any updates to the president’s schedule at this time– just don’t have anything to share,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters. “But certainly the president appreciates Shawn Fain’s inviting him, including him, certainly with all the family and friends of the UAW.”

Last week as the UAW announced the strike, Biden announced he was dispatching senior adviser Gene Sperling and acting Labor Secretary Julie Su to assist with negotiations between the nation’s largest autoworker union and representatives from the big three automakers, before changing course earlier this week and keeping the officials in Washington.

“We are, of course, in touch with the parties– as you know, Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su and also Gene Sperling. have been in regular touch for the past several weeks with all parties,” Jean-Pierre said Friday. “Certainly, the parties continue to remain at the negotiation table, which is incredibly important, and so we’ve communicated to each of them the importance of continuing to work 24/7 to get to a win-win agreement, as you’ve heard us say many times.”

In a follow-up exchange, she said that the decision to keep the two officials in Washington “was a mutually agreed agreement,” but that they spoke today with all parties on the state of negotiations.

In comments from New York earlier this week, Biden signaled support for the autoworkers, but stopped short of explicitly backing the strike.

“Now let me be clear—whether it’s your autoworkers, or any other union worker, record corporation profits should mean record contracts for union workers,” he said Wednesday. 

Striking UAW workers picket outside a GM processing facility in Burton, Michigan, on September 22.

The UAW’s strike escalation has targeted America’s parts makers for GM and Stellantis. That means new parts won’t be sent to service centers, and dealerships will soon start running out, potentially forcing them to turn away repairs for cars, and heaps of potential revenue.

Customers could turn to independent garages, but they, too could run out of parts, causing a spike in prices.

United Auto Workers members and supporters picket outside a General Motors facility today in Langhorne, PA.

GM in a statement Friday said union leadership is putting its personal agenda ahead of the interests of its workers.

GM noted it has contingency plans in place to mitigate the effects of the strikes.

The company also said it has offered “historic” proposals to the union that would increase wages and job security.

“We will continue to bargain in good faith with the union to reach an agreement as quickly as possible,” GM said.

United Auto Workers union President Shawn Fain said that the union and Ford have reached some tentative agreements on some key issues, particularly related to protections for members from rising prices and possible plant closings.

Fain told members that Ford has agreed to a return of the cost-of-living adjustments to wages that the union gave up in 2009 when GM and Stellantis predecessor Chrysler were going through bankruptcy. “That’s important because many people said this couldn’t be done,” Fain said.

He said Ford also agreed to two years of pay and benefits for workers affected by plant closings in this contract, as well as granting the union the right to go on strike to protest a plant closing. Contracts typically have a no-strike clause in effect during the life of a contract, which would prohibit the union from using that tool to protest factory closing plans. Fain said that right to strike clause is a first for the union.

“I don’t have to tell you that this is an important victory in our fight to save our jobs,” he said.

But Fain did not mention anything about where the two sides stand on wages. Ford is on record offering an immediate 10% raise and raises totaling 20% during the life of the contract. The UAW started negotiations demanding an immediate 20% raise and raises totaling 40%.

“Although we are making progress in some areas, we still have significant gaps to close on the key economic issues,” Ford said in statement in response to Fain’s message to members. “In the end, the issues are interconnected and must work within an overall agreement that supports our mutual success.”

US Sen. Tim Scott, a Republican presidential candidate, speaks in Fort Dodge, Iowa, on Monday.

Republican presidential candidate Sen. Tim Scott called the United Auto Workers union “one of the most corrupt and scandal-plagued unions in America” in response to a labor complaint filed against him by the president of the UAW after Scott suggested automobile manufacturers fire the striking workers. 

At a campaign event in Fort Dodge, Iowa on Monday, the South Carolina senator evoked a quote from former President Ronald Reagan to endorse the idea of firing workers for going on strike while discussing the ongoing auto workers strike. 

“Ronald Reagan gave us a great example when federal employees decided they were going to strike. ‘You strike, you’re fired,’” he told the audience. “Simple concept to me, to the extent that we could use that once again.” 

In response to Scott’s comments, UAW President Shawn Fain filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board arguing Scott’s comments unlawfully threatened members of his campaign staff they would be fired if they went on strike, according to a copy of the complaint posted online by The Intercept. 

In a statement released on Friday, Scott, who frequently denounces the influence of unions in several sectors, painted the labor complaint as an effort to silence his message and again criticized the UAW and President Joe Biden for their roles in the strike, notably framing auto workers as victims of wrongful actions taken by their union. 

“Joe Biden and Big Labor bosses are undermining the dignity of work and setting autoworkers up for failure. They’re playing politics with people’s lives,” Scott said in the statement. 

“The UAW is one of the most corrupt and scandal-plagued unions in America. They are showing their true colors once again and autoworkers and taxpayers will be left holding the bag together,” Scott continued. “They want to threaten me and shut me up. They don’t scare me. I will truly fight for American workers and jobs, promote the dignity of work, and end the Biden retreat from the values that make our nation exceptional.” 

Scott has staked out a seemingly unique position among his Republican rivals as sounding firmly anti-union even though polling shows most Americans support the striking workers. 

Whereas his Republican colleagues have leaned into President Biden’s championing of transitioning to green vehicles as a reason for the auto industry’s woes, Scott has castigated what he describes as a “disconnect from work” in America. 

In addition to praising Reagan’s firing of workers, at a roundtable in South Carolina earlier this month, Scott said, “We’re seeing the UAW fight for more benefits and less hours working. More pay and fewer days on the job. It’s a disconnect from work, and we have to find a way to encourage and inspire people to go back to work.” 

UAW members picket in front of Stellantis headquarters in Auburn Hills, Michigan, on Wednesday.

The strike expansion against GM and Stellantis means autoworkers are now on strike against 38 locations across 20 states.

UAW president Shawn Fain said Friday in a press conference that may just be the tip of the iceberg.

The rapid escalation excludes Ford, which the UAW said has made great strides to negotiate a more favorable contract.

Still, the UAW remains on strike against a Ford facility in Wayne, Michigan, one of the three facilities the union struck last week in its initial move.

Fain said he knows union members are prepared to expand the strike even further if necessary.

UAW president Shawn Fain has been critical at times of President Joe Biden, a pro-union president who has repeatedly voiced support for the union and its efforts. Typically, the UAW offers nearly unconditional and unwavering support Democratic politicians.

Fain has changed his tune on Biden a bit lately, thanking him for his support. Still, Fain would like Biden to join the picket lines as the union vastly expands its strike.

The White House declined to comment.

Some Democratic politicians are also urging Biden to do more. California Rep. Ro Khanna on Monday told CNN’s Vanessa Yurkevich that Biden and other Democrats should join the pickets.

“I’d love to see the president out here,” he added, arguing the Democratic Party needs to demonstrate it’s “the party of the working class.”

Former President Donald Trump announced a visit next week to Detroit as part of a plea to current and former union members. In his Detroit speech, Trump may sense a political opportunity from the autoworkers strike, attempting to gain support from working-class Americans who are increasingly disappointed in the direction of the US economy. 

But Fain denounced Trump earlier this week.

UAW President Shawn Fain speaks at a rally in Detroit on September 15.

UAW President Shawn Fain has become the X factor in the striking autoworkers’ pursuit of increased pay and benefits, injecting a level of chaos into negotiations that neither the automakers nor the White House predicted or quite know how to manage.

That confusion is purposeful.

The UAW vastly expanded its strike against GM and Stellantis Friday, although none of the plants is particularly crucial to the automakers’ operations, surprising industry insiders – even experts who predicted the UAW would implement a targeted strike.

Nevertheless, the strike marks the first time in history the UAW has struck at all three automakers simultaneously. Fain told union members last week that the union’s strike strategy “will keep the companies guessing” and give union negotiators “maximum leverage” when they return to the bargaining table.

In leaked messages obtained by CNN, United Auto Workers Union Communications Director Jonah Furman said the plan is to “keep them wounded for months.”

“They don’t know what to do… this is recurring reputations damage and operation chaos,” Furman said in one of the leaked messages.

In another, he writes “The beauty is we’ve laid it all out in public and they’re still helpless to stop it.”

Neither Jonah Furman, nor the UAW responded to requests for comment. Furman is not directly involved in negotiations with the Big Three.

Automakers lambasted the UAW chief and the leaked messages, calling the union’s demands unreasonable and the messages evidence that they don’t intend to make a serious attempt to negotiate.

Just as Fain’s hefty demands and unique strike method were designed to maximize leverage with the automakers, his lack of deference to the White House added pressure on pro-union President Joe Biden.

Fain said the union would withhold its endorsement of Biden. Although Fain has at times praised Biden, he has also criticized the president for failing to do enough to help the autoworkers in their cause. The UAW routinely supports Democratic presidential candidates, and the president – who is fighting low approval ratings ahead of the 2024 campaign season – could use all the support he can get.

The unpredictable and unknown commodity in Fain has created a “uniquely challenging” predicament for the Biden administration, according to three sources briefed regularly on the discussions, who requested anonymity to describe sensitive conversations during ongoing negotiations.

United Auto Workers members walk the picket line at the Ford Michigan Assembly Plant in Wayne, Michigan, on Monday, Sept. 18.

With the United Auto Workers’ historic strike underway for eight days now, experts say the US economy is already getting bruised.

Including $250 million in lost wages for striking and laid-off workers, the economic losses exceeded $1.6 billion in the first week of the strike, according to an estimate from Anderson Economic Group. Parts makers lost at least $400 million, and suppliers also took some hefty losses.

But the strike’s impact isn’t likely to push the nation into a recession.

“That’s because the unionized part of the industry, while still large, is not as big a piece of the national economy as it once was,” Gabriel Ehrlich, an economic forecaster at the University of Michigan, told CNN.

But the ultimate impact of the strike depends on things like how long the strike lasts, if companies lay off more workers at other plants, how many workers walk off their jobs and how long the unions and companies take to negotiate a deal.

UAW president Shawn Fain said “we’re not going to wreck the economy. The truth is we are going to wreck the billionaire economy.”

And while estimates of the economic impact of the strike don’t point at “wrecking the economy,” the damage could be significant.

For instance, if all UAW workers at Ford, General Motors and Stellantis strike for 10 days, it would cost the US economy $5 billion, according to Anderson Economic Group’s estimates.

Another estimate by Ehrlich assumes there would be a much smaller immediate spillover effect. He estimated $440 million worth of income would be lost nationally if all the UAW members strike for two weeks. If the strike lasts eight weeks, he estimates a $9.1 billion hit to incomes nationwide.

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United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain speaks during a rally in Detroit on Friday, Sept. 15.

With glasses and a receding hair line, Fain, 54, doesn’t necessarily look like a rabble rouser. But he is not afraid of strong rhetoric, even by the standards of labor leaders, attacking the “billionaire class” and “corporate greed.”

These are not Fain’s first set of negotiations. He’s been on negotiating committees before. But it’s the first time he’s led the union.

At the end of last year, he was an underdog candidate from the UAW staff running against the long-entrenched but scandal-ridden caucus that had led the union for decades.

Fain comes from Kokomo, Indiana, a blue collar city in central Indiana that is surrounded by farm land. Multiple plants there produce much of the engines and transmissions that go into Stellantis cars and trucks. Three of his four grandparents worked at auto plants.

Fain was hired at what was then a Chrysler plant as an electrician in 1994. He served in a variety of union offices at the local level and became a national negotiator during the 2009 bankruptcy at Chrysler and again during contract negotiations in 2011. In 2012, he went on staff at the UAW.

His run for office last year was his first on the national level. Fain finished second in the first vote, with 38%, but only 600 votes behind Curry, or less than 1%. Since Curry had failed to get a majority, a runoff vote was held in the spring. This time Fain edged out Curry by less than 500 votes.

“There was a lot of shock when he won,” said Art Wheaton, director of labor studies at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations in Buffalo. Even with the close result in the initial round of voting, Fain caught the ruling caucus of the union “flat-footed,” said Wheaton.

“I don’t think they were as in tune with membership and how frustrated people were with both the companies and the union,” Wheaton said.

UAW members march through downtown Detroit on September 15.

In addition to the 12,700 autoworkers who were already on strike, another 5,600 more are being told to put their work down and join the picket line.

Approximately 3,475 GM workers, and 2,150 Stellantis workers will be added to the strike.

But even with those numbers, the UAW is potentially just getting started. That’s less than 13% of the 145,000 UAW workers employed at the Big Three automakers in the US.

Even still, the workers that have been asked to join the picket in the past week can potentially make a big impact. The UAW’s opening shot targeted assembly plants at all three of the companies, and more specifically, were aimed at high-profit models like the Ford Bronco. But by starting with only a few assembly lines first, the UAW has been able to limit the scope of the impact as the strike started.

But with 5,600 more from the parts distribution centers joining the strike, the UAW is now putting pressure on the car dealerships, specifically. Without parts coming from the distribution centers, the dealership service bays used to fix customer cars can soon start running out of what they need, strongly impacting dealership revenue.

UAW President Shawn Fain announced that the union would be adding 38 new GM and Stellantis facilities to its strike.

But the additional people walking off the job aren’t working on all aspects of car production. The new strikes are specifically aimed at hurting dealerships.

The Big Three car dealerships are not owned by the Big Three companies themselves. Instead, they’re individual franchisees that purchase cars from the manufacturers, and then sell them onto customers.

Simply selling cars isn’t how those dealerships make a lot of their money, however: The dealerships make a lot of their money from the mechanics in the service centers. Every time a car needs to be repaired, it likely needs a new part, and many drivers bring their cars right into the dealerships to be serviced, especially while still under warranty.

But the UAW’s expanded strike is now targeting the parts distribution centers for GM and Stellantis. Without new parts being sent to service centers, the dealerships will soon start running out, potentially forcing them to turn away repairs for cars, and heaps of potential revenue.

Without that additional revenue pouring in, the dealership owners themselves are likely to start ratcheting up the pressure on GM and Stellantis to start making concessions to their workers, much in the way Ford has.

Ford, which has made concessions on everything from eliminating wage tiers to job security, will see its dealership service centers likely operating as normal.