Summer may be winding down, but strike season is still sizzling.
The number of significant work stoppages — involving at least 100 people and lasting more than a week — was up 40% in the past 12 months compared the same period a year earlier, my colleague Chris Isidore reports.
Hollywood writers went on strike May 2, and were joined in July by more than 160,000 actors. And up until the last minute, it looked likely that some 300,000 UPS workers were going to walk off the job in a strike that would have hamstrung deliveries across the US.
Now, the United Auto Workers and the Big Three carmakers are locked in negotiations that appear miles away from a resolution.
Here's the deal: Contracts between the UAW and the three automakers — GM, Ford and Stellantis — expire at 11:59 pm next Thursday, September 14.
A lot can happen in a week, but right now, there's not a lot of optimism on either side for the kind of last-minute deal UPS and the Teamsters worked out.
Despite President Biden stating Monday that he's not worried about a UAW strike, neither the union nor the companies are signaling the same level of confidence.
"I appreciate President Biden's optimism," UAW President Shawn Fain told CNN on Monday. "I also hope that the Big Three get serious and start bargaining in good faith ... We have a long way to go and a short time to get there."
The automakers, meanwhile, are reiterating that they want to avoid a strike, and they dispute the allegation that they are negotiating in bad faith.
(The UAW filed a complaint against GM and Stellantis, saying that the companies wouldn't even bother responding to the union's demands. The union didn't file a complaint against Ford, however, because the company provided the union with a response to its demands. Still, the Ford offer "not only fails to meet our needs, it insults our very worth," Fain says.)
What auto workers want
The UAW has made a set of demands that even Fain described as "audacious." They include:
- At least 40% pay raises over four years
- A 32-hour workweek with 40 hours of pay
- The restoration of traditional pensions
- Limits on part-time workers and forced overtime
The union says it is prepared to strike any automaker that hasn't reached a deal come September 15, even if that means the first simultaneous strike against all three.
The companies, which are all expected to bring in billions in profit this year, have said that the union's demands would undermine their ability to compete against Tesla and foreign competitors at a time when they're investing in a massive shift toward electric vehicles.
Big picture
The UAW, like the Writers Guild and members of SAG-AFTRA, are amped.
Unions are flexing their muscle in a way not seen in decades, helped by the lowest unemployment rate in a half-century and more job openings than there are applicants. All of that puts power in the hands of workers to demand better wages and working conditions.
The UAW standoff won't be the end of it.
Soon after that deadline passes, unions representing 85,000 health care workers, including nurses and support staff, at Kaiser Permanente facilities in seven states will conclude their own strike authorization vote. A strike among those workers could begin as soon as October 1.
Comments
Post a Comment