Contracts expire tonight: Unifor’s contracts expire at 11:59 p.m. ET on Monday with all three of the traditional Big Three automakers – Ford, General Motors and Stellantis, which makes vehicles for the North American market under the Jeep, Ram, Dodge and Chrysler names.
Only Ford would face a strike: The union has chosen Ford as its “target,” concentrating on its negotiations with the company and granting contract extensions to the other two. Once Unifor reaches a deal with Ford, either with or without a strike, it will work to get the other two to accept the Ford deal as a pattern for those contracts.
A rarity: This is the first time since 2009 – when GM and Chrysler went through bankruptcy and bailouts and Ford was also nearly out of cash – that the Canadian and US auto unions have negotiated at the same time in a previously unscheduled round of bargaining. Normally contracts expired in different years, but when Unifor negotiated its previous contracts during the pandemic in 2020, a year after the UAW contracts were reached, it demanded a slightly shorter contract to be on the same schedule as the UAW.
Ford has traditionally had good labor relations on both sides of the US-Canada border. It has not had a US strike since 1978, nor a Canadian strike since 1990. But Payne said her members at Ford are prepared to strike Monday night if the company doesn’t step up to its demands.
Demands: Members are demanding significant improvements in both wages and pensions to deal with higher prices they’ve seen in Canada just as US autoworkers have. Canadian workers are demanding similar raises as the 40% American autoworkers want.
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Ford also faces strike at Canadian plants Monday night
The strike by the United Auto Workers union isn’t the only labor problem that automakers, and US car buyers, need to worry about. Unifor, the union that represents autoworkers in Canada, is preparing to go on strike against Ford on Monday night.
Ford isn’t speaking about how it sees the contract negotiations going but Unifor President Lana Payne told CNN on Saturday that the two sides are far apart, especially on financial issues, saying the union has rejected the first two offers from Ford.
“We’re not close at all. There’s a lot of work to get done to get an agreement by midnight Monday,” Payne said.
Unlike the UAW, which has spelled out its initial bargaining demands, including a 40% pay raises over the life of the contract, neither Unifor nor Ford are saying where they stand on wage increase offers, but the union is looking for substantial wage hikes, pension improvements, as well as job security guarantees as the auto industry invests billions in its plans to switch from traditional gasoline powered cars to EVs in the years ahead – all issues at the center of negotiations between the UAW and the automakers it is striking.
Ford has one assembly plant in Canada, which is located in the Toronto suburb of Oakville, Ontario. The 3,400 Unifor members at the plant produce the Ford Edge and the Lincoln Nautilus SUVs.
Ford also has two engine plants in Windsor, Ontario, just across the river from Detroit. The two plants have a total of 1,700 Unifor members.
The plants make V-8 engines used in Mustangs and the company’s best-selling F-150 pickup. While buyers will be able to get versions of those vehicles with a 6-cylinder engine if there’s a strike, the Windsor plants are the only ones that make the V-8 engines should a customer want those
UAW strike puts the four-day workweek back in focus
From CNN's Eva Rothenberg
When the United Auto Workers called a strike last week against General Motors, Ford and Stellantis, one of their demands focused on an idea circulating on the periphery of labor reform circles.
In addition to calling for a 36% pay raise and increased job security, union members want a 32-hour, four-day workweek with no pay cuts.
Proposals to shorten the workweek have gained traction in recent years, with the flexibility of pandemic-era remote work fueling many of these calls. The accelerating use of artificial intelligence in the workplace has also pushed some workers to question the necessity of a 40-hour week.
Several countries have conducted trials of four-day workweeks, with the largest held in the United Kingdom last year. The trial lasted six months and encompassed about 2,900 workers across 61 companies. Participants reported better sleep, more time spent with their children and lower levels of burnout.
“It would be an extraordinary thing to see people have more time to spend with their kids, with their families, to be able to do more cultural activities, get a better education,” said Sanders. “People in America are stressed out for a dozen different reasons, and that’s one of the reasons why life expectancy in our country is actually in decline.”
How an auto workers strike 87 years ago transformed America
From CNN's Nathaniel Meyersohn
During the final days of 1936, about 50 autoworkers at General Motors shut down their machines at Fisher Body Plant No. 2 in Flint, Michigan, and sat down.
The workers, members of the tiny United Automobile Workers union founded just a year prior, sought to improve brutal working conditions at mighty General Motors, the world’s largest manufacturer. They also demanded GM recognize the union as workers’ bargaining agent in negotiations.
The UAW’s sit-down strike across GM plants lasted 44 days. It is considered the most important work stoppage of the 20th century and a turning point in relations between companies and workers in America. It was a breakthrough for unions and led to a wave of labor organizing across the country.
Now, the UAW is on strike against Detroit’s Big Three — General Motors, Ford and Stellantis —for the first time. The strike comes at a critical moment for both a re-energized labor movement and an auto industry in transition as the electric vehicle era dawns.
The UAW, led by upstart president Shawn Fain, has updated its tactics. The UAW is calling its new strategy a “stand up strike,” a reference to the sit-down strike that started 87 years ago, and has launched targeted strikes at selected plants.
“Shawn Fain is drawing from the union’s long history and modernizing the UAW tradition,” said Thomas Sugrue, a historian at New York University. “The union is relying on understandings of the past, but a reinvention to respond to current conditions.”
With the United Auto Workers’ historic strike officially underway, experts say the US economy is already getting bruised – 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 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.
The United Auto Workers strike isn’t happening in a vacuum. It’s part of a growing movement of US workers walking off the job.
From Hollywood writers to nurses, factory workers, and Starbucks baristas, thousands of workers have gone on strike in recent months to demand higher pay and improved benefits and working conditions. The Teamsters union recently used the threat of a strike by 340,000 members at UPS to secure most of their demands, including pay raises and new air conditioned vans.
Labor has become more aggressive because of decades of stagnant wages for lower and middle-income workers, while the richest Americans expanded their wealth to unprecedented levels. Corporate profits have soared since the pandemic, and workers want a greater piece of the profits.
“There’s a generational change taking place in the labor movement and its thinking,” said Joseph McCartin, a labor historian at Georgetown University.
Despite a strike that shows no signs of letting up, the Big Three automakers' stocks have held relatively steady.
Wall Street had largely priced in a strike at GM, Ford and Stellantis. Although a prolonged strike could be damaging, the union's targeted strike approach has not yet shut down automaking.
Shares of Stellantis (STLA) were about 1% lower in premarket trading. GM (GM) was 0.1% higher and Ford (F) just 0.1% lower.
The United Auto Workers' strike against General Motors, Ford and Stellantis, which makes cars under the Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram brands, has entered its fourth day.
Now Unifor, the union that represents autoworkers in Canada, is preparing to go on strike against Ford on Monday night at midnight. Unifor President Lana Payne told CNN on Saturday that the two sides are far apart.
Economists say the US economy is already getting bruised – but the strike’s impact isn’t likely to push the nation into a recession.
Contracts expire tonight: Unifor’s contracts expire at 11:59 p.m. ET on Monday with all three of the traditional Big Three automakers – Ford, General Motors and Stellantis, which makes vehicles for the North American market under the Jeep, Ram, Dodge and Chrysler names.
Only Ford would face a strike: The union has chosen Ford as its “target,” concentrating on its negotiations with the company and granting contract extensions to the other two. Once Unifor reaches a deal with Ford, either with or without a strike, it will work to get the other two to accept the Ford deal as a pattern for those contracts.
A rarity: This is the first time since 2009 – when GM and Chrysler went through bankruptcy and bailouts and Ford was also nearly out of cash – that the Canadian and US auto unions have negotiated at the same time in a previously unscheduled round of bargaining. Normally contracts expired in different years, but when Unifor negotiated its previous contracts during the pandemic in 2020, a year after the UAW contracts were reached, it demanded a slightly shorter contract to be on the same schedule as the UAW.
Ford has traditionally had good labor relations on both sides of the US-Canada border. It has not had a US strike since 1978, nor a Canadian strike since 1990. But Payne said her members at Ford are prepared to strike Monday night if the company doesn’t step up to its demands.
Demands: Members are demanding significant improvements in both wages and pensions to deal with higher prices they’ve seen in Canada just as US autoworkers have. Canadian workers are demanding similar raises as the 40% American autoworkers want.
The strike by the United Auto Workers union isn’t the only labor problem that automakers, and US car buyers, need to worry about. Unifor, the union that represents autoworkers in Canada, is preparing to go on strike against Ford on Monday night.
Ford isn’t speaking about how it sees the contract negotiations going but Unifor President Lana Payne told CNN on Saturday that the two sides are far apart, especially on financial issues, saying the union has rejected the first two offers from Ford.
“We’re not close at all. There’s a lot of work to get done to get an agreement by midnight Monday,” Payne said.
Unlike the UAW, which has spelled out its initial bargaining demands, including a 40% pay raises over the life of the contract, neither Unifor nor Ford are saying where they stand on wage increase offers, but the union is looking for substantial wage hikes, pension improvements, as well as job security guarantees as the auto industry invests billions in its plans to switch from traditional gasoline powered cars to EVs in the years ahead – all issues at the center of negotiations between the UAW and the automakers it is striking.
Ford has one assembly plant in Canada, which is located in the Toronto suburb of Oakville, Ontario. The 3,400 Unifor members at the plant produce the Ford Edge and the Lincoln Nautilus SUVs.
Ford also has two engine plants in Windsor, Ontario, just across the river from Detroit. The two plants have a total of 1,700 Unifor members.
The plants make V-8 engines used in Mustangs and the company’s best-selling F-150 pickup. While buyers will be able to get versions of those vehicles with a 6-cylinder engine if there’s a strike, the Windsor plants are the only ones that make the V-8 engines should a customer want those
When the United Auto Workers called a strike last week against General Motors, Ford and Stellantis, one of their demands focused on an idea circulating on the periphery of labor reform circles.
In addition to calling for a 36% pay raise and increased job security, union members want a 32-hour, four-day workweek with no pay cuts.
Proposals to shorten the workweek have gained traction in recent years, with the flexibility of pandemic-era remote work fueling many of these calls. The accelerating use of artificial intelligence in the workplace has also pushed some workers to question the necessity of a 40-hour week.
Several countries have conducted trials of four-day workweeks, with the largest held in the United Kingdom last year. The trial lasted six months and encompassed about 2,900 workers across 61 companies. Participants reported better sleep, more time spent with their children and lower levels of burnout.
“It would be an extraordinary thing to see people have more time to spend with their kids, with their families, to be able to do more cultural activities, get a better education,” said Sanders. “People in America are stressed out for a dozen different reasons, and that’s one of the reasons why life expectancy in our country is actually in decline.”
During the final days of 1936, about 50 autoworkers at General Motors shut down their machines at Fisher Body Plant No. 2 in Flint, Michigan, and sat down.
The workers, members of the tiny United Automobile Workers union founded just a year prior, sought to improve brutal working conditions at mighty General Motors, the world’s largest manufacturer. They also demanded GM recognize the union as workers’ bargaining agent in negotiations.
The UAW’s sit-down strike across GM plants lasted 44 days. It is considered the most important work stoppage of the 20th century and a turning point in relations between companies and workers in America. It was a breakthrough for unions and led to a wave of labor organizing across the country.
Now, the UAW is on strike against Detroit’s Big Three — General Motors, Ford and Stellantis —for the first time. The strike comes at a critical moment for both a re-energized labor movement and an auto industry in transition as the electric vehicle era dawns.
The UAW, led by upstart president Shawn Fain, has updated its tactics. The UAW is calling its new strategy a “stand up strike,” a reference to the sit-down strike that started 87 years ago, and has launched targeted strikes at selected plants.
“Shawn Fain is drawing from the union’s long history and modernizing the UAW tradition,” said Thomas Sugrue, a historian at New York University. “The union is relying on understandings of the past, but a reinvention to respond to current conditions.”
With the United Auto Workers’ historic strike officially underway, experts say the US economy is already getting bruised – 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 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.
The United Auto Workers strike isn’t happening in a vacuum. It’s part of a growing movement of US workers walking off the job.
From Hollywood writers to nurses, factory workers, and Starbucks baristas, thousands of workers have gone on strike in recent months to demand higher pay and improved benefits and working conditions. The Teamsters union recently used the threat of a strike by 340,000 members at UPS to secure most of their demands, including pay raises and new air conditioned vans.
Labor has become more aggressive because of decades of stagnant wages for lower and middle-income workers, while the richest Americans expanded their wealth to unprecedented levels. Corporate profits have soared since the pandemic, and workers want a greater piece of the profits.
“There’s a generational change taking place in the labor movement and its thinking,” said Joseph McCartin, a labor historian at Georgetown University.
Despite a strike that shows no signs of letting up, the Big Three automakers' stocks have held relatively steady.
Wall Street had largely priced in a strike at GM, Ford and Stellantis. Although a prolonged strike could be damaging, the union's targeted strike approach has not yet shut down automaking.
Shares of Stellantis (STLA) were about 1% lower in premarket trading. GM (GM) was 0.1% higher and Ford (F) just 0.1% lower.
