The clock is ticking on negotiations between the United Auto Workers and the Big Three Detroit carmakers.
The union stands ready to go on strike this Friday. And right now, you could park an F-150 in the gulf between workers and management.
The contracts with the three automakers — Ford, GM and Stellantis (the conglomerate that produces Chrysler, Dodge, Ram and Jeep in the US) — all run out at 11:59 pm Thursday.
UAW President Shawn Fain will be the first to say the union's goals are "ambitious," but he insists they're justified, given the automakers' strong profits in recent years. The automakers have balked at most of the union's demands, according to the UAW.
Here's where things stand:
💰 Easy money
What the union wants: An immediate 20% raise, and then four additional raises of 5% each. (All together, a 46% increase over the four-year life of the contract.)
What's on offer so far: GM and Ford proposed 10% increases over the next four years, the UAW said Friday. Stellantis is offering 14.5%. Fain called those offers "insulting."
- Context: The union has a lot of leverage here. Demand for cars and trucks has been (and remains) strong, pushing prices for new vehicles near record highs. That's goosed earnings for the companies. GM even notched a record profit last year.
💰 Pensions
What the union wants: A return of traditional pension payment plans and retiree health care for all UAW members. The union may have a harder time with this one...
Only workers hired before 2007 still have those benefits, which the union sacrificed during the financial crisis, when GM and Chrysler were hurtling toward bankruptcy and federal bailouts.
Context: Across the private sector, defined-benefit pensions — in which employers largely fund and manage retirement accounts for their workers — are on the way out. (For Millennials and younger, you're almost certainly never going to get one of those, so start maxing out your 401(k)s early and often!)
But hey, you never go into a negotiation asking for the bare minimum...
🗓 Four-day workweek
Now you're speaking my language, auto workers of America!
The union wants limits placed on the use of temporary workers and forced overtime, as well as more time off — specifically, a four-day workweek.
Why four days?
It's no longer as radical as it might have seemed. Recent high-profile pilots have shown four-day weeks to coincide with workers feeling happier, less stressed and more productive.
Fain laid it out in a Facebook Live speech, per NPR:
"Our members are working 60, 70, even 80 hours a week just to make ends meet.. We need to get back fighting for a vision of society in which everyone earns family-sustaining wages, and everyone has enough free time to enjoy their lives and see their kids grow up and their parents grow old."
🔌 A 'just' transition
Adding to the complexity of these negotiations, the auto industry is in the middle of its biggest makeover in a century.
The three automakers plan to spend tens of billions of dollars on transitioning to electric vehicles, and they have a long, long way to go. None of their EVs make up more than a sliver of their current sales.
EVs are also, according to some industry estimates, easier and cheaper to build than gas-powered cars. Fain and other union leaders say they're not opposed to EVs but that it must be a "just transition," in which traditional jobs may be transferred to EV production.
What's next?
The two sides will keep talking, because no one wants a strike. But labor experts aren't holding their breath for a quick resolution, my colleague Chris Isidore reports.
"I think there's a 99% chance of a strike," said Art Wheaton, director of labor studies at Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations.
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