United Auto Workers Union Extends Strike in the US

The United Auto Workers (UAW) union on Friday expanded its strike against the big three U.S. automakers to 38 General Motors Co. and Stellantis NV parts distribution centers across the U.S., bringing the total number of factories on strike to 41.

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Ford Motor Co. is spared from the strike extension, as they will continue their negotiations with the union. About 5,600 workers at those facilities, which span 20 states, walked off the job Friday, joining the 12,700 employees already on strike from the UAW, UAW President Shawn Fain said during a Facebook Live event Friday.

This expansion has taken the strike nationwide, Fain said, noting that "we'll be everywhere, from California to Massachusetts, from Oregon to Florida. And we'll keep going, we'll keep organizing, and we'll keep expanding the stand-down strike (an allusion to the UAW's historic sit-down strike in the 1930s) as needed."

The union's walkout originally targeted three plants, namely Ford's Wayne assembly plant in Michigan, another GM Wentzville plant in Missouri and Stellantis' Toledo Jeep plant in Ohio.

This is the first time in its 88-year history that the union has gone on strike against the big three U.S. automakers. Fain threatened days ago to expand the grievance to more plants on Friday if serious progress in negotiations was not made.

GM has shut down its Fairfax facility in Kansas, where 2,000 hourly employees work, as a result of the impact of the UAW strike at its Wentzville assembly plant. Stellantis laid off 68 workers at its machining plant Wednesday as a result of a strike at its Toledo plant. Ford laid off about 600 workers last week in Wayne.

According to local media, after nearly a week of dialogue, it appears that the union and the Big Three still are not reaching agreements on some key issues.

In an op-ed published on Wednesday, GM President Mark Reuss called the UAW's demands "unsustainable," and reiterated that GM's offer would bring 85 percent of employees to a base wage of about $82,000 a year. UAW Vice President Mike Booth, also head of the union's GM department, responded Thursday that the union was fighting for 100 percent pay raises for its members.