The New UAW Is Ready to Fight the Big 3 Automakers
This week, the UAW presented proposals to automakers in contract negotiations covering some 150,000 workers. Autoworkers want big raises, an end to tiers, and the right to strike over plant closures — and conditions appear favorable for them to win.
Stellantis workers attend a “members’ handshake” event with UAW president Shawn Fain to mark the beginning of contract negotiations, July 12, 2023, in Sterling Heights, Michigan. (Bill Pugliano / Getty Images)
In years past, the negotiations between the United Auto Workers (UAW) and the Big Three auto manufacturers — Ford, General Motors (GM), and Stellantis (formerly Chrysler) — began with the union’s president shaking hands with the auto executives across the bargaining table. Not so this year.
Newly elected UAW president Shawn Fain declined to participate in the ritual, choosing instead to shake hands with members at Stellantis’s Sterling Heights Assembly Plant, GM’s Factory Zero Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly Center, and Ford’s Michigan Assembly Plant in Wayne. The three plants represent some of the roughly 150,000 workers covered under the UAW’s master agreement with the Big Three, which expires on September 14.
The move was a symbolic message: this year’s negotiations will not be business as usual.
This article is for subscribers only. Please login or subscribe to access our full archives and beautiful print and digital magazine starting at just $3 a month.