A strike by members of the United Auto Workers union or UAW is now under way at the GM Wentzville plant in Missouri, starting early on Friday, September 15th, despite GM’s recent attempt to meet union salary demands halfway.
The UAW also launched strikes at plants operated by the other two Big Three automakers, including the Michigan Assembly Plant in Wayne, Michigan operated by Ford and the Toledo Assembly Complex of Stellantis in Toledo, Ohio.
As tense negotiations between the UAW and its aggressive new president Shawn Fain on one hand and the Detroit Three automakers on the other approached the 11:59 p.m., September 14th deadline when the current UAW contract expired, GM made a counteroffer on Thursday that included a 20 percent pay raise.
Although the UAW had lowered its initial demand for a 46 percent overall pay raise to the mid-30s, it rejected GM’s offer and went on strike instead. Dubbed the “Stand Up Strike” by the UAW because of its members’ declared intention to “stand up” for themselves, their families, and their communities, the strike will be “our generation’s defining moment” according to the union, “not just at the Big Three, but across the entire working class.”
The name “Stand Up Strike” was chosen by the UAW to evoke the 1937 Sit-Down Strikes at the GM plant in Flint, Michigan. These historic strikes led The General to recognize the UAW in the first place and resulted in the American auto industry’s unionization.
The UAW says the Stand Up Strike will use a new strike model in which only select locals strike at one time. UAW workers at other plants will continue working, though without an active contract, meaning they no longer have the right to have the UAW arbitrate their disputes and lose management rights and union security.
If the UAW doesn’t get its demands, it will then extend the Stand Up Strike by having additional union locals go on strike and idle more capacity at other Big Three manufacturing plants. In this way, the UAW can hold a simultaneous strike across all three automakers while keeping more strikes in reserve to provide more negotiating leverage, by threatening to widen the strikes to more and more facilities.
The initial strike on Friday involved 12,000 workers belonging to the UAW across GM, Ford, and Stellantis. The GM Wentzville plant affected by the walkout produces two pickup truck models, the Chevy Colorado and the GMC Canyon, along with two commercial vans, the Chevy Express and the GMC Savana.
The strike directed against the Blue Oval at the Michigan Assembly Plant affects production of somewhat similarly positioned vehicles, including the Ford Ranger pickup truck and the Ford Bronco SUV. The Stellantis facility in Toledo builds another popular off-road SUV, the Jeep Wrangler.
Shawn Fain, who will appear at a rally on Friday afternoon and return to the negotiating table on Saturday, proclaimed that “this union is making history,” adding that “this is our time.”
Meanwhile, GM spokesman David Barnas issued a statement saying “we are disappointed by the UAW leadership’s actions” and said the automaker “will continue to bargain in good faith with the union to reach an agreement as quickly as possible.”
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Comments
Meanwhile TESLA and Elon are LOL’ing at this.
Tesla is the winner here.
All the non-UAW represented manufacturers are.
With gm market share around 14% Mary is going for single digits. Congrats Mary, gm management hasn’t learned a single thing from uncle Roger to today. Must be a great feeling knowing you’ll be part of bringing gm to its knees for a second time.
Do you want to be fair and give a little of the blame to the unions
not really. mary has alienated the customers with stupid prices. same as dodge.
I can’t argue with you on that one since prices are absolutely insane. Ford is also just as bad if not worse.
Prices are too high and union workers are demanding unprecedented raises.
Honestly right now I think I’m done buying anything the UAW is a part of. And I’m equally over GM and Ford (Chrysler has been dead to me for decades) They’re both sinking their own ship.
It’s sad when both GM and the UAW have alienated you from products & brands you love. That is where I am at this point as well!
I recall the days of uncle Roger Smith. Times were tough, and the union made concessions. Then Roger handed out big executive bonuses saying “but the money comes from a different fund”. It took a long time for labor relations to recover from that, I hope we don’t go there again.
StuartH, I would argue this has very little impact on Tesla – the vast majority of their conquests come from European and Japanese makes (BMW, Toyota, Honda). But this will definitely benefit non-UAW transplant ICE sales and market share, especially for Toyota. The UAW targeted plants that produce the bulk of the Big 3’s ‘midsize’ truck/SUV category (Colorado/Canyon, Ranger/Bronco, Gladiator/Wrangler). Only Toyota makes direct competitors to these vehicles. I assume the UAW will ramp up and target domestic full size truck production next, which again will benefit Toyota.
Problem is that much of the full size truck production is in Canada and Mexico, so might not have the same effect.
What happens when those plants run out of parts? Only certain trucks are being built in Canada and Mexico while a majority of the HD trucks are built in Flint and Fort Wayne. I think I heard that the 1500’s that are built in Canada are the trucks without the factory suspension lifts that are found on the AT4, ZR2, Trail Boss, etc. My Sierra Elevation was built in Fort Wayne but the engine was built in Mexico. If the strike is allowed to drag on, eventually, all of the plants will be shut down regardless of which country they are in.
Tesla is always winning.
Actually Toyota is.
Can we expect the 2024 Chevy Colorado/GMC Canyon models to deliver by 2025?
They weren’t delivering before the strike happened…
On another thread: retail orders for 2024 Colorado/Canyon models would be possible at the end of September with production set to be begin at the end of October (or early November for bigger GM trucks?). This is what I expect will be delayed, perhaps for quite some time.
Lock the rest of the Union workers out and get to real negotiations. If they are trying to cripple the manufacturers to force negotiations, send every one of them home until negotiations are met. It’ll expedite negotiations.
they have a fund that pays the striking workers $500.00 dollars a week to walk picket lines
UAW needs to only strike at plants that GM cares about – full size SUV plants. that is the only thing that GM is able to sell right now. And their profit margin bread and butter.
what does the mississippi plant make?
You apparently don’t know how fast the HD trucks are selling and how long some of the waiting lists for allocations at some dealers are. The dealer-built trucks sell before they hit the lots (good luck finding one to test drive) and some people have sixty orders ahead of theirs waiting for allocations.
As for the SUVs, yeah, the Yukon is a rare find indeed.
local dealers have plenty of HD trucks. 3x the amount of tahoes and 10x suburbans. you clearly dont know yourself..
Maybe your local dealer has “plenty” of HD trucks, but the dealership I work for, along with the others near us have none, and the ones we have due in are already sold before we get them.
And its not a plant in Mississippi, its in Missouri, they build the Colorado/Canyon pickups and Express/Savana vans/cut-away chassis.
What about the badly needed Express van built in Wentzville?
First GM wouldn’t build them, now the UAW won’t. Fleet customers like myself who’ve been begging for these vans for three years, are done with it. Congrats to both sides for killing their own product and driving away customers.
THE UAW is not striking everywhere because they have so much money they can pay the members until they run out of money. Nobody in any business gets the raise they are asking for. If they want that money then take away profit sharing. Also the cars should never leave the assembly line with anything not put in properly. UAW is a cancer now. Most of those working at non UAW shops make more and don’t have to pay for a union that is part of the corrupt democrats.
Lol corrupt Democrats…
Interesting that Trump has picked up double digit popularity with African Americans, even higher among Hispanics.
Exactly…they limit the number of striking employees that they pay out of the strike fund to preserve the balance. Then, when other plants get shut down because of a lack of parts, those employees end up laid off on unemployment/government handouts. I believe one of the plants just shut down the paint shop and one step in the assembly with striking employees which would cripple the plant and send the rest of the non-striking employees home to file unemployment cases.
Uaw workers are the lowest skilled and quality control shows it. Uaw is the most corrupt and the vehicles are the most expensive.
That’s why it’s such a slap in the face when automakers make the claim that they have to build plans in certain places for “skilled workforce”.
I wanted to understand the UAW demands. They are asking for a raise and a 4 day work week.
Is the 4 day work week 4 x 10 hr days or 4 x 8 hr days?
Is the raise to their hourly pay or their weekly pay?
If they are requesting 4 x 8 hr days, wouldn’t that mean that they are getting paid less also because they are paid by the hour?
4×8 hr (32 hr week) will not happen, it’s just a bargaining tool. What will happen is 5×9 (45 hr week) because the company was allowed to make them mandatory last contract and will most certainly be asking to do it again for another 4 years.
They want a 40 hours of pay (with a substantial raise) for 32 hours of work each week…which is also a raise in and of itself.
No, he’s trying to make a name for himself, not help the employees. He’s just getting rich off their backs. Narcissistic man who refuses to understand the companies or how people earn wages.
As far as the strike only hurting billionaires. I’m now out of a job because of the wentzville strike. I transport parts from the wherhouse to the plant at wentzville. I can assure you I’m no billionaire lol. I’m paycheck to paycheck. So this really hurts me and my family.
Sorry to hear that.
Sorry to hear that, and I guarantee you that the UAW could care less about you, and those of you affected by their strike, to them you are just “collateral damage”, its ashame that they are so greedy.
Do you know what doesn’t require a massive annual salary? Robots. Almost all of their positions could be replaced by AI. Robotic arms don’t call in sick, as for higher wages, etc. They best not get too greedy.
Unfortunately, there will be a day in my life time GM will not exist. Sad, I love GM products and driven them most of my life.
The average GM assembly line worker makes $60k a year, plus annual profit sharing checks ($12k last year).
That should be sufficient to live on. You won’t be rich, just like most of the rest of us, but it’s enough to make ends meet.
2.5 times my pay in Public Education!
A down vote really? Pretty sure I know what I make.
Stay current on living costs please. $60k/year is woefully insufficient to provide for a family and a decent standard of living. Government income -tax-withholding automatically takes 40% of any profit sharing checks reducing net to $7200.00 which doesn’t go far when you’re only bringing in $60K gross. Democrat lies claim Bidenflation is ” only ” 7 to 9 % since 2021 while the independent financial world correctly states it is closer to an actual 18 to 19.5%….all things considered and not limited to the “cherry-picking” the Government uses. When ridiculous Executive compensation, including, but not limited to stock options and bonuses, are the most ridiculous excess in the U.S. vs. the rest of the free World ( about 300% or more that the average employee ) it is way past time to somewhat make a dent in leveling the playing field and
So our nincompoop in the White House wants the automakers to offer record contracts,this from a millionaire democrat who is so far out of touch with the American people.As for the union asking for a rediculous 46% raise, I guess GM going bankrupt once is not enough for the UAW.20% is a good raise and improved working conditions and security from the AI robots is a must.But let’s try and be reasonable,and also get rid of Mary!!!
I think it’s time for the big 3 to say goodbye to the union. Greedy union workers in the UAW they want
To work 32 hours, get paid for 40 hours, 45% or more raise & more stuff LOL holy sh!t.
Thanks GM Authority and the author for being the first to clarify that the UAW has NOT agreed to work under the existing contract – those that are working are doing so WITHOUT a contract, “meaning they no longer have the right to have the UAW arbitrate their disputes and lose management rights and union security.” (Even GM’s messages have not specified. ) So does this mean the deadbeats and troublemakers can be fired without any recourse? Do it! Fight fire with fire.
Now we just need someone to address how these local strikes are legal. They can’t strike a single plant over National issues.