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United Auto Workers Clear Path to Strike If Contract Talks Fail By Sep 15

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United Auto Workers Clear Path to Strike If Contract Talks Fail

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...-clear-path-to-strike-us-carmakers-next-month

The United Auto Workers gave union leaders permission to call a strike against the biggest US carmakers if they fail to agree on a new contract before Sept. 15, a procedural formality that sets the stage for three weeks of tough negotiations.

An overwhelming majority of the rank and file at each company voted to authorize a potential strike, the UAW said Friday, a move intended to give union leaders more leverage at the bargaining table. Newly elected UAW President Shawn Fain has suggested that if Ford Motor Co., General Motors Co. and Stellantis NV don’t give up more ground, the union could break with tradition by striking at all three companies instead of just targeting one.

Shawn Fain walks with demonstrators during a UAW practice picket outside the Stellantis Mack Assembly Plant in Detroit on Aug. 23.Photographer: Jeff Kowalsky/Bloomberg
Fain, a reformer elected on promises of holding the auto companies to account after a corruption scandal sent two of his predecessors to prison, says automakers have posted record profits on the back of union sacrifices in the run-up to the financial crisis over a decade ago. The companies estimate that agreeing to all the union’s demands would cost each company more than $80 billion over the four-year contract.

Read More: What’s at Stake as US Autoworkers Threaten to Strike?

The standoff threatens to shut down a major section of the US economy for the second time in five years. The UAW in 2019 went on strike against GM for six weeks, costing the company about $3.6 billion in lost earnings before interest and taxes, according to RBC Capital Markets.


Striking all three automakers nationally could quickly drain the UAW’s strike fund, which has more than $825 million in it. Fain may opt to strike individual plants at each company, or strike one nationally and picket others at the local level, said Marick Masters, a business professor at Wayne State University in Detroit.
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