General Motors announced on Friday it was increasing what it would offer striking workers with the United Auto Workers union, matching what Ford has offered, but falling short of the union’s demands.
UAW workers picket outside of the General Motors parts facility on September 22, 2023 in ... [+]
GM offered 23% general wage increases Friday, the same increase Ford has offered.
The automaker had previously offered the union 20% wage increases in addition to charging $0 health care premiums, reinstating cost-of-living increases and up to five weeks of paid vacation, but UAW has asked for a 40% wage increase.
This comes hours before UAW chief Scott Fain is scheduled to speak on the status of the strike.
On September 15, UAW called a simultaneous strike on GM, Ford and Stellanis, Detroit’s Big Three automakers, the first time the union has targeted all three companies at once. Initially, around 13,000 workers at three plants stopped working, but as the strike has gone on, more and more workers have joined the strike in a coordinated escalation as the automakers continue to refuse UAW’s full demands.
GM and Ford’s share prices rose about 1% each Friday morning and early afternoon to about $30 and $12 respectively amidst the news.
More than 34,000. That’s how many workers have gone on strike as of this week, Reuters reported. However, during Fain’s expected remarks Friday afternoon, he could call for more workers to begin striking, as he has done throughout the strike.
University of California Berkeley labor professor Harley Shaiken told Reuters Friday that this offer "suggests we may be in the endgame," adding, "in effect Ford has set the dimensions of the pattern, but GM is contributing to that. We've got a ways to go, but there's clearly movement."
Fain’s address Friday afternoon. In previous speeches he has called on more workers to strike. Last Friday, he told some 8,700 union members to walk off work at one of Ford’s most lucrative facilities, a truck plant in Louisville, Kentucky.
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