The UAW union paralyzes plants of General Motors, Ford and Stellantis due to the lack of agreement on the collective agreement.
The union of three major US automakers launched an unprecedented simultaneous strike at three US plants to demand wage increases, a move that threatens the economy and was backed by President Joe Biden.
In front of the Ford plant in Wayne, in the Detroit region (Michigan), horns and applause greeted the arrival of the president of the powerful United Auto Workers (UAW) union, Shawn Fain, who shortly before had announced the three sites chosen to start the strike, one in each group involved: General Motors, Stellantis and Ford.

“For the first time in our history, we will strike the big three at once.” In an intervention through Facebook, Shawn Fain, the leader of the United Auto Workers (UAW), the automobile sector union, called for a selective strike against General Motors, Ford and Stellantis in the United States starting this Thursday night. Friday, due to the lack of agreement on the new collective agreement. Fain described the moment as “historic.” This Friday, the president of the United States, Joe Biden, made a statement at the White House in which he took the side of the workers. He has indicated that “no one wants a strike,” but that employees deserve a “fair share” of the record profits that companies are achieving.
Fain has designed a strategy of strikes in selected factories to try to hit the companies with the lowest possible cost for the workers and the union itself. At the moment, only one plant from each of the manufacturers is on strike this Friday. In all three pickets have been grouped during the night and the monitoring has been massive. The summoned plants will rotate. “This strategy will keep companies in suspense. It will give our national negotiators maximum influence and flexibility and, if we have to go all out, we will. “Everything is on the table,” Fain said in his brief speech.

The UAW represents about 146,000 employees across the three groups. It has a strike fund of $845 million with which to compensate employees who stop receiving their salaries. With all the employees on strike, this fund would barely last three months, since the union pays $500 a week to those on strike, in addition to assuming other costs.

The factories that have stopped are in the Midwest and have about 12,700 workers. This is a General Motors assembly plant in Wentzville, Missouri, which manufactures the GMC Canyon and the Colorado; a Ford factory in Wayne (Michigan), which assembles the Bronco model and the Ranger truck, and a Stellantis Jeep plant in Toledo (Ohio), where the Gladiator and Wrangler models are produced. On the first day, not even 10% of the unionized workers are called to strike, which affects some of the companies’ most profitable models.

Source : https://elpais.com/https://portafolio.com