The UAW (United Auto Workers) union is striking against the Big three automakers at once for the first time ever after failing to reach a contract agreement.
Some 13,000 autoworkers walked off the job at midnight Friday after their union leaders were unable to agree on a new contract with Ford, General Motors and Stellantis.
Tonight, for the first time in our history, we will strike all three of the Big Three at once,” UAW President Shawn Fain declared in a Facebook Live speech late on Thursday.
On Friday, employees left three factories—one from each of the Big Three automakers—in Missouri, Michigan, and Ohio. Union members brandishing signs cheered at the picketers.
The UAW referred to their intentional strike against three plants as a “Stand Up Strike,” which it described as a tactical “new approach” to leaving your work.
The chosen factories produce the automakers’ highly profitable and, for most part, still in high demand, automobiles. According to the union, a total of 12,700 workers at the three factories—5,800 at Stellantis, 3,600 at GM, and 3,300 at Ford—will be on strike. Within Ford, GM, and Stellantis, the UAW is the employer of about 146,000 workers.
The UAW’s ambitious demands for greater wages, benefits, and employment safeguards for its members were ridiculed by the automakers, which triggered the walkout. The union was trying to regain several perks that had been forfeited more than ten years earlier when the firms were cash-starved and on the verge of bankruptcy. With all three automakers reporting record or nearly record earnings, this was now possible.