The Status of the Autoworkers’ United Auto Workers’ Strikes in Missouri, Michigan and Ohio During the Fourth and Fifth Day of Autoworker Collective Action
As autoworkers enter a fifth day of strikes at plants in Missouri, Michigan and Ohio, United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain has set a new deadline in the contract talks.
He didn’t say how many people would be called upon to join the strike next, but said that if we don’t make serious progress by noon on Friday, September 22nd, more locals will be called on.
The auto makers had prepared for strikes at engine plants, transmission plants and other parts suppliers. Because a single engine plant can feed into many assembly plants, this kind of “bottleneck” strike could shut essentially the entire automotive supply chain with just a few plants officially striking.
“We have a long way to go, and if the company doesn’t respect the demands of our workers, then we will escalate action,” Fain told NPR earlier on Monday.
Labor historians see the deployment of this new strategy as a reflection of newfound militancy at the UAW under Fain’s leadership, but also some sharp and strategic thinking about how to put pressure on companies while maintaining flexibility and limiting fallout.
“It’s not the goal of the UAW to bring down Ford, GM and Chrysler,” says Erik Loomis, professor of history at the University of Rhode Island and author of A History of America in Ten Strikes. “That’s not the point. The goal is to get a fair deal for them.
The strategy could work, but companies have to guess which part of their supply chain could be next in line, if the strategy works.
There have been effects impacting non-striking workers. 600 Ford workers were put on temporary layoffs on Friday because they need to use materials that are on strike in the paint department.
The strike by the UAW has led to the temporary layoffs of nearly 2% of the workforce at the Fairfax assembly plant in Kansas.
The union may eventually send some workers back to their jobs while others are brought out, which is why it’s important to burn through the strike fund quickly.
Fain and the Fate of the Big Three: The Problem of Automakers and the Deal with the Industrial Low-Energy Problem
While there doesn’t appear to be a big breakthrough in the negotiations so far, Fain has emphasized that the talks have not broken down, as President Biden suggested last week.
Sharon Block is the executive director of the Center for Labor and a Just Economy at Harvard Law School.
But automakers have warned a strike threatens to make them uncompetitive against rivals, especially as the companies spend billions of dollars to transition to electric vehicles.
“If the Big Three decide to lay people off who aren’t on strike, that’s them trying to put the squeeze on our members to settle for less,” UAW President Shawn Fain said this past weekend, responding to GM’s announcement of the coming layoffs.
Engine plant strikes were expected to cause the company-wide disruptions that this method of shutting down assembly plants means will be smaller.
GM said it was forced to idle most of the Fairfax assembly plant because it relies on metal parts produced at the striking GM plant in Wentzville, Missouri. The Fairfax plant assembles the Cadillac XT4 and Chevrolet Malibu.
Ford has sent 600 workers home in Wayne, Mich., while Stellantis said 68 workers in Perrysburg, Ohio, are temporarily laid off so far, with 300 more likely to be temporarily laid off in Kokomo, Indiana, soon.